Retro Review: Star Fox
March 2008 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Make Your Own (Easier) Miniatures
- Gaming in the Media: The Cutest Serving of Stereotypes: The NYT on Dating a Gamer
Interviews
- Industry Interview: Victoria Lamb
Articles
- Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: Analyzing a LARP
Author: Stephanie Pegg
- Sculpting Player Expectations
Author: Brendan Davis
- Women’s Gaming Group: First Impressions
Author: Robyn Fleming
Stephanie uses a LARP questionnaire to examine the questions "What do LARPers really want?" and "How different are men and women gamers, really?"
Brendan shares tips on how to use Power Point to get players excited and into the campaign they are about to embark on.
Robyn discusses her first impressions of her all-women gaming group.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
Odds 'n Ends
Star Fox, Nintendo EAD/Argonaut Systems, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 1993
The other day I was browsing through some of my old Nintendo 64 games in a big plastic box I keep beneath my TV. It’s probably my favorite way of avoiding homework; my, my, look how dusty these games are! Look, now they need to be organized. Genre? Title? Let’s do both and see which one works the best! I happened upon my old copy of Star Fox 64 and fired it up. I’m the only one in my family who actually enjoys this game – my siblings preferred Mario Kart or Goldeneye 007. I laughed at “Do a barrel roll!” long before the internet capitalized on it.
While playing, I got a call from a friend who, when he heard I was playing the 64 version of the game, suggested that I try the original. “Original? There was something before Star Fox 64?” Oh, how wrong I was. And how embarrassing, considering that the Super Nintendo is my favorite system of them all.
So, back to my overused computer I traveled, where all of my emulated games reside, and to check out the original Star Fox. This is a first for me in this little column: I’ll be playing this game for the very first time, so my perspective is going to be slightly different.
I think my favorite part about this game is the fact that it gives you an option to train before starting the game. And boy did I need it: playing on a keyboard is easy for things like World of Warcraft or Half-Life, but trying to coordinate my hands on a keyboard for flying proved disastrous. Poor Fox ran into everything when I controlled him in training mode: the ground, rings, his teammates, buildings, you name it. I died three times before eventually deeming myself ready for real combat.
I read a little bit about the background of this game, and found out that the super-advanced graphics were the result of a chip called the SuperFX, and that it’s one of four SNES games that used it. I can understand the hype now that I’ve played it – these graphics are amazing for 1993. Though lacking in the smoothness of a game like Out Of This World, the sheer 3-Dness of it is really fascinating, even if the rendering and movement is choppy.
I played the first few levels, and they’re surprisingly similar to most of the Star Fox 64 levels: Piloting your Arwing on an invisible rail, you travel through different parts of the Lylat System and shoot down as many enemies as possible. Once I was able to suppress my spectacular ability to fly directly into walls, I apparently lost my ability to aim and kept shooting my teammates. Once I found out that they talked to you, like in the 64 version, I did it more often. Listening to their voices is definitely the best part of this game. “Dabble dabble dabble dee,” Fox says when entering the asteroid field. “Bibbit bibbit bibbit,” Slippy replies. When I accidentally shoot poor Falco, he warbles, “Brable garble blargle in floo.” I think it’s mostly because I’m really immature, but I laughed so hard I flew into an asteroid and was promptly killed. It’s refreshing to hear their non-voices than hear Slippy’s nasal screams in the 64 version, tearing down my will to live bit by precious bit.
Controls are surprisingly responsive, given the choppy graphics. At the beginning, you can choose your own control scheme, which actually hurt me more than helped on the keyboard. I still don’t know what key I bound the “A” button to, so no nova bombs for me! Maybe that would have helped in my rescue of the Lylat System? You can also break and boost as in Star Fox 64, which ended up causing even more keyboard-related catastrophes, as whenever I wanted to brake I accidentally boosted, and whenever I wanted to boost I braked. This led to even more deaths for poor Fox, and most likely the destruction of the Lylat System, as I eventually quit playing. Perhaps some other day I will return and save the galaxy, so I can feel like a productive member of the gaming community once again.
Dabble, dabble, dibble dibble dabble, Fox out.
Article © March 2008 by Abby Wilson.
