Poll

How Many Games in the Series Have You Beat?

Star Fox
5 (12.2%)
Star Fox 64 / 3D
11 (26.8%)
Star Fox Adventures
4 (9.8%)
Star Fox: Assault
4 (9.8%)
Star Fox Command
6 (14.6%)
Star Fox Zero
5 (12.2%)
Star Fox Guard
2 (4.9%)
Star Fox 2
2 (4.9%)
I've Completed Every Game Fully (The Few and the Proud)
0 (0%)
I've Never Finished/Played a Game in the Series (The Few and the Not-So-Proud)
2 (4.9%)

Total Members Voted: 15

Author Topic: Run the Series 7: Star Fox  (Read 5253 times)

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Offline Khushrenada

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Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« on: September 17, 2018, 02:20:56 AM »
Hello NWR Forum users. Welcome to the 7th edition of Run the Series, the latest installment in that idea Khushrenada came up with that sort of has some potential but no one can figure out how to make it really work. Due to getting some encouragement to keep going with this idea from BeautifulShy, you can all blame her for this latest survey and reminiscence.


Run the Series Mission Statement

From past posts, I am sometimes surprised at what games users on these forums have played or missed in a franchise and it's made me curious about the gaming habits of all our various users here. It also made curious as to what my gaming experience looks like compared to others. I thought I'd see if I could find out more information on the matter by creating a series of threads designed to look at different franchises found on Nintendo systems to see what series the users here like. What franchises do people still find important to keep up with and what series have they let lapse or play infrequently? What are the franchises people haven't even touched or have fully completed? Which games are the most common shared experience in a series and which ones are the least?

For each entry, I've created a poll and the poll lists all the games considered as franchise entries.* Users can then select which games in the series they have beat. When I mean beat, I'm just referring to completing the main quest or storyline and seeing the credits and not if you've completed every other side quest or mission similar to how Backloggery would classify those terms. This poll is a chance to let all users see how they stack up again users from this forum.

In addition, if you want to provide more information about what your level of completion is on games, feel free to post about it. For that matter, feel free to give your thoughts on the series. Why you play it, why you don't, what's your favorite entry, least favorite entry, how you'd rank the entry in the series, what you'd like to see, what you don't want to see, etc. You know the drill. Whatever comments you want to make based on the series under discussion or specific games in the poll, this thread is open for you to do so.

*Or at least my take on what the series consists of. You are welcome to tell me how wrong I am with my selections.  :'(

Past Entries in the Series

1st Edition - 2D Mario Platformers
2nd Edition - Pokémon Main Series
3rd Edition - Donkey Kong (Country Style)
4th Edition - Wario Platformers
5th Edition - Mario Kart
6th Edition - 2D Zelda Games


If you are new to this forum series and/or you missed an entry and/or have recently played something in the series and now want to comment on it, feel free to check out the past entries and post as desired. Bumping Khushrenada threads is always a welcome practice on these forums.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2018, 02:58:39 AM »
The Series Up for Discussion

After a period of almost 10 years in which the only game released was a remake of the 64 edition, Star Fox is suddenly heating up again. A divisive Wii U entry which was kind of another remake of the 64 edition, a big selling point for the SNES Classic with Star Fox 2 and now being used as a selling point for Starlink: Battle for Atlas with the Nintendo crowd, Star Fox is seeing a bit of resurgence with Fox and friends actually getting included in games that are not Smash Bros. And even on that front, Wolf has been brought back in! Even NWR is getting into the Star Fox lovefest by handing over the reins of Director to a huge Star Fox fan. Might as well start trying to butter up the new boss by talking about Star Fox.  8)

While the series high point for many is often cited as Star Fox 64 which was released over 20 years ago, it's hard to argue against it as being the game that has most defined the series. It doesn't hurt that the game helped launch the rumble feature (which Nintendo is still using in their controllers to this day but now in HD!) and because of the voice acting with cheesy yet quotable lines which continue to live on with its fans. Yet, there's something about this series and property that Nintendo got right which has allowed it to continue on despite entries that haven't always appealed to those fans or other gamers in general. Rumors of its demise may not have been greatly exaggerated for awhile between September 2006 - March 2016 but thanks to the appeal of animal ace arwing pilots, the series continues to live on so let's just how popular this series has been with the rest of NWR crew!


Why Are These Games Part of the Series?

There have been 9 games released with the Star Fox moniker in their title although one of them is the 3DS remake of Star Fox 64 so it has been slotted with that game making for a list of 8 in the poll. The series was established as an on-rails shooter with the release of Star Fox SNES and Star Fox 64 to cement that ideal for fans of the series. While Adventures and Guard could be considered spin-offs due to their different styles of genre and gameplay, at this point, the series is small enough to just include all games under the Star Fox brand.


What Games Weren't Included

In this case and for the first time, none. All the titles for this series are being listed and used. But, if you want to get technical, I did find this Star Fox game tidbit on Wikipedia:

Quote
Shortly after the release of the first Star Fox title, in June 1993, Nintendo teamed up with Kellogg's and Nelsonic to develop and release a promotional LCD-based Star Fox Game Watch to those who bought a box of Corn Flakes and sent the order form to Kellogg's to receive the Star Fox game watch for free. In the game watch, there are four levels and the object is to fly towards the Attack Carrier and destroy it while dodging plasma balls and falling structures. The game watch also included a pair of earphones and a headphone jack for listening to the game without disturbing anyone nearby due to the game watch missing a volume control. Nelsonic later released it in stores in a different watch appearance.

Obviously, that's not getting included with this series. Likewise, despite making appearances in Smash Bros., Mario Maker, and Starlink: Battle for Atlas those games are all part of their own series/universe and have no bearing on the Star Fox series brand so no need to include them here. I don't think that really needs to be noted but I've already spent the time writing it out so might as well include it now.



So, with that quick little rundown, let's open it up to the rest of you forum users and let's see how well NWR has Run the Series!
« Last Edit: September 17, 2018, 03:03:51 AM by Khushrenada »
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2018, 03:07:59 AM »
How long until the forum software scrambles up the poll options so that they are no longer in order of North America Release? That's the real poll question here.  :P
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Offline BeautifulShy

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2018, 05:05:18 AM »
I really like this idea and I am glad you brought it back but I can honestly say Star Fox in general is one of my blind spots with Nintendo.   I have beaten no games in the series and really only played 2 of the games in the series.  Those being Star Fox and Star Fox Assault.  The latter at a demo kiosk and I think for the former over at a friends house.

I do look forward to hearing from everyone else though.
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Offline Order.RSS

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2018, 03:28:27 PM »
Can't believe you're leaving the Kellogg's LCD game out of here, it's a bowl-afide classic!  >:(

On topic: the first one I played was Star Fox Adventures, believe it or not. I knew the character from Smash Bros. 64 and Melee, where he was pretty good, and the games magazine I read at the time scored Adventures a 9/10. They praised the gorgeous graphics and Ocarina of Time-like gameplay, but with added dinosaurs and space shooter levels; I was sold.

I understand Adventures is a rather maligned entry now, but at the time I knew nothing of the whole Rare/Dinosaur Planet situation. The game was quite incredible for the first few hours. It really is one of the best-looking GameCube titles ever released, I would go so far as saying it even gives many Wii games a run for their money. The hub world is so lifelike (remember how people always went crazy over water effects?), the Snow world had a speederbike race, there was this giant lizard dinosaur which swallowed you up allowing you to attack his tongue or something? The chill  music was  incredible in this game by the way, and the voice acting was done well too, which made up for some of its icky moments.

The game has several infuriating segments though. The Lightfoot Village Test of Strength is just a freaking roadblock which you MUST succeed at in order to progress, for example. It's just stupid button mashing too, infuriating. Likewise, the Test of Fear shrine feels like total bullshit. I spend like an afternoon just trying that over and over again, miserable.
It doesn't help that Adventures is very frontloaded. Most of the good levels are early on; the Lava World in particular is just total garbage. Looks ugly compared to the gorgeous earlier worlds, and the bossfight there is a really weird railshooter segment. Then there's the final boss switcharoo which shows how the game was rushed to market. Wish Nintendo hadn't insisted on cramming Andross in there for series continuitiy.

Despite the obvious flaws, the overall impression Adventures left on me was generally positive. So I borrowed a friend's N64 and their copy of Star Fox 64. I understand this one is seen as the pinnacle of the series, but honestly I didn't absolutely love it. It had pretty frequent slowdown issues, and the graphics were rather horrible compared to the spectacular heights of Adventures. (At the time, those things determined quality to me haha.)
That said, I did finish it once and it was a good stress-reliever to shoot down a bunch of baddies. Gotta add that since I borrowed it, I never got to do multiple paths and such, which I understand are a major reason people like it. It's a good game, but I preferred Adventures at the time.

Let's speed ahead to 2016. After having dropped out of gaming for a solid generation and a half, basically missing the Wii/DS era entirely, I picked up a Wii U in January. Not sure where I saw the Xenoblade X trailer, but it blew me away. Soon after, Star Fox Guard & Zero released.
Star Fox Guard was the first one I played. I like tower defence, the graphics were impressive enough, and this game has really underrated multiplayer potential. Since you're juggling two screens, and the TV displays another 12 viewpoints at all times, it's super fun to sit around with friends for this one. People will be yelling "robot on camera 4!", "there's one near the core!", "two incoming at 10!" etc. Really fun couch experience. While I think my old review of it here is a bit generous, this is one I can still recommend.

Star Fox Zero, I would say the hate it received was a bit undeserved. Yeah it's not great design to have two slow stealth-esque zones, which can basically not be skipped on a playthrough, sandwiched in a game known for speedrunning. I understand the controls were very strange, and it took a long time for them to click with me too. However, I think the real culprint is the right joystick here, not so much the dual-screen division. Camera adjustments I would've liked to do with a control stick, rather than through gyro only. When you instinctively reach for the right stick, your Arwing will suddenly do somersaults and the like, which is annoying Í'll admit.
Overall though, the game is forgiving enough that you can coast by just holding fire. I only used the precision aiming on the tablet screen during a few of the boss battles, really. Most of those battles were fine, too. Not to the usual degree of PlatinumGames insanity, but they felt eventful and big enough. Andross can **** right off though, took me dozens of tries.
Frankly, it feels like this one was always meant to be co-op only, and somewhere down the line a single-player mode was decided upon. It's much easier cruising if one person flies the plane on the TV, while the other does precision aiming and firing.

Concluding: of the entries I played, really none outright sucked. None of them was perfect either, but the games at least attempt to create some personalities and distinctive zones within the Lylat System. As a fan of shoot-em-up games and rail-shooters, it's a little dissapointing Star Fox never really surpasses something like the tremendous Panzer Dragoon Orta, but since they're always experimenting with the gameplay and control methods, rather than perfecting the rail-shooter, that's not surprising.

In the future I still hope to play Assault, but I've never seen that at prices I like knowing its middling reception. I also wanna give the DS game a shot, its VC release is still on my Wii U wishlist actually. Wouldn't say I'm a big fan of Star Fox games, but they tend to be better than the stuff I play on average!

Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2018, 06:41:12 PM »
Wowee! 4 votes and half of them have either never played or finished a game in the series! This is clearly going to be a topic of interest.

I will start my musings on the series with the place where I was introduced to many Nintendo games: Nintendo Power. One of the best things at the library as a kid was that it had a subscription to Nintendo Power so I could check out the magazines. Didn't matter if they were new or old to me. Every issue had something neat to discover in it. Back in the SNES days, Nintendo Power would also have comics which was even better! That's how I learned about Star Fox. Trying to check out the issues of Nintendo Power to follow the comic story. But it also had coverage of the SNES game and its amazing use of the Super FX chip to get all this fancy 3D modeling on display. I never did get around to renting it as a kid though.

I think part of it is that for the most part, the screen shots just looked like various shapes. It didn't have the personality and look of the comic series that Nintendo Power was producing. Then when Donkey Kong Country came out, it just looked even more obsolete in 3D technology. I would eventually buy the game in my late teen years for pretty cheap off eBay. Dabbled in it a bit but have never really bothered to invest much time in it and really try to learn and play it. Compared to how the rest of the series has looked from 64 on, it just doesn't look or seem like Star Fox to me.

I do remember when Star Fox 64 came out and the big campaign it had because of the rumble feature. I think I may have even played a bit of it in a demo unit in a Wal-Mart or some such store but can't quite remember. I didn't get an N64 until late in its lifespan and then was starting to lose interest in gaming. My brother rented a played a lot more 64 games but I do recall renting and playing Star Fox 64. It took a little while but then we did get to Andross and finally defeat him. My impression from that was that it was a pretty short game for us to finish it in the three day rental period. Sure there were other planets to get to but wasn't that concerned about renting it again to get to those other planets. And since it was a rental, we never had the rumble pak for our controllers. In fact, to this day, I still don't own a rumble pak for any of my 64 controllers. Maybe that's why the GameCube and its rumble impressed me so much when it came out.

I have since bought Star Fox 64 as part of my N64 collection but despite saying to myself that I should try and get to those other planets and branching paths, I've still yet to do it. I've even bought Star Fox 64 3D which is how I'd recommend to play the game. I love the 3D effect and the updated graphics are also welcome. Yet, even here, I've played through the simple path to beat the game and have yet to work my way to the other planets in the Lylat system. Maybe one day I'll finally get to everything in it but I just wish it was all part of one path or that you could more easily select those planets. Having to play at certain levels over and over to make sure you accomplish the needed requirement to branch off to them and if you fail then you have to start your path over again just kills my enthusiasm for caring enough to reach them. Where's the restore point feature this game needs? You can use the old "git gud" claim about it but there is a point where repetition just kills the fun.

Since I hardly played Star Fox 64, I really didn't remember much of the lines of dialog so it took me awhile to catch up with things like "Do a Barrel Roll!" or "Can't let you do that, Star Fox" when talking about the games since I didn't play it enough to sear those lines into memory. Even now, I'll have some friends over who do like Star Fox and see I have various Star Fox games and start quoting some lines of dialogue from it and I don't get it until they mention its in the game. A recent example a couple years ago was "It's quiet. Too quiet!". I thought maybe my friend was referencing a movie or TV show and then he explained it was in Star Fox 64. Later, I played Star Fox 64 3D and saw/heard that line and now have it firmly in my head but, for the most part, I really don't know most of the dialogue that well. Even some of the character names that people will reference in the Star Fox universe don't register with me because of their small roles in the game.

Next up, Adventures and Assault when I'm ready to type some more.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2020, 09:47:01 PM by Khushrenada »
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2018, 07:39:18 PM »
I think part of it is that for the most part, the screen shots just looked like various shapes. It didn't have the personality and look of the comic series that Nintendo Power was producing. Then when Donkey Kong Country came out, it just looked even more obsolete in 3D technology.

I was much the same way as a kid.  I didn't really grasp the tech of it so I thought polygons were more of a stylistic choice that I wasn't really into.  "3D" games like F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, DOOM, etc. didn't use polygons so I didn't realize how essential they are for doing proper 3D.  It was later around 2001 or so when I first had regular income and started buying old SNES games I didn't have as a kid that I realized what Star Fox was really trying to do with those shapes and it impressed the hell out of me.  It's funny that when it was a major technological achievement I wasn't impressed but later when it was really old-looking tech compared to contemporary games I was.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2018, 11:46:36 AM by Ian Sane »

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2018, 08:55:47 PM »
The only ones I've beaten are 64 and Command, though I've played substantial amounts of Zero, Assault, and Adventures. I never owned a SNES and have no interest in the SNES Mini, so I haven't had the opportunity to play the first two.

Star Fox is honestly one of my favorite Nintendo franchises, to the point that I'd probably rank it ahead of something like Zelda. Star Fox 64 is one of my all time favorite games, and I liked Star Fox Zero a lot more than most people seemed to.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2018, 09:14:44 PM »
Now, see, this is why I've started this series in the first place. I, honestly, don't think I've ever known that about Insanolord. At least, it hasn't come across to me from his time on these forums of being a big Star Fox fan. Sports, especially soccer, sure. Newsradio, heck yeah! But Star Fox.... no. Even when Star Fox Zero came out, I don't recall you saying much on the subject so this is quite the surprise.

I want to hear more now. I'm not sure if you read my thoughts about Star Fox 64 yet but what is it that makes it such an all time favorite for you? What about Star Fox hits the sweet spot for you?
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2018, 09:29:25 PM »
I'm a big fan of space combat games in general, from things like Rogue Squadron to a Switch game that didn't seem to get much attention called Manticore. Star Fox 64 has pretty simple mechanics, but it just absolutely nails them. The level design is really strong, with Macbeth being one of my favorite levels in any game, and it provides a stiff but fair challenge. I also love the campiness of the storytelling and voice acting that's bad in all the right ways.

I think the problem with all the games that followed 64 was that it didn't really leave them anywhere to go. Star Fox is a fairly simple concept, and 64 executed it so brilliantly, that developers had to choose between messing with the formula, which they haven't been great at, or just making Star Fox 64 again, which people don't seem to like. Star Fox Zero leaned more toward the latter, which I didn't mind, and made substantial use of the Wii U GamePad, which very few games did. I'd love to see a Switch remaster of that game that streamlines the controls a bit.
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Offline Luigi Dude

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #10 on: September 17, 2018, 11:04:09 PM »
I've only played 64 and Zero.  I did buy a SNES Classic in part because I've always wanted to play the original and Star Fox 2.  I also got Star Fox Command as a Club Nintendo reward years ago so I'll play it someday as well.

So I technically own most of the series in some way but haven't gotten around to playing them most of them.  Of the two I've played I like 64 the best but still feel Zero is an OK game as well.  My main problem with Zero is when trying to 100% the game the controls just became too much to deal with.  During normal play I found the experience fun and doable but when going for Gold medals some levels just became too much of a pain trying to pay attention to everything on both screens to get the highest score which kind of killed it's replay value for me.
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2018, 11:58:20 AM »
I think the problem with all the games that followed 64 was that it didn't really leave them anywhere to go. Star Fox is a fairly simple concept, and 64 executed it so brilliantly, that developers had to choose between messing with the formula, which they haven't been great at, or just making Star Fox 64 again, which people don't seem to like.

I think this applies to a lot of games series.  A gameplay style usually has a logic endpoint in terms of expanding concepts and polishing them and a lot of series that get stale end up passing that point and then continue on because the brand name sells.  Nintendo is actually probably the most successful company at being able to redefine a franchise's gameplay template into something new that is still successful.  Both Zelda and Mario have done it.

I would say that the Star Fox gameplay was pretty close to reaching it's end point with Star Fox 64 but there is one element of it that still hasn't been harnessed - the squadron element.  From the beginning, a key part of the series is your wingmen.  So today we have the tech for online co-op to allow players to go through the full game with each wingman represented by a human player.  It could literally be Star Fox 64 gameplay with brand new levels, better graphics and four-player online co-op and that would be a logical progression to the formula.

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #12 on: September 18, 2018, 12:50:18 PM »
For the longest time, I was never interested in this series, and a large part of that had to do with the lack of any meaningful multiplayer. I've never liked the idea of having any sort of AI teammates when they could just as easily be controlled by another / other player(s). As Ian Sane points out, co-op seems like a logical conclusion to the series and yet it still hasn't happened. Until it does, I don't think I'll consider any of the games to be something great.

I've actually owned the original Star Fox and Star Fox 64 cartridges for countless years, as well as accumulating every other Star Fox game along the way for some reason, but I never bothered to play them until recently. A couple of years ago I started with Assault, which looked like the most interesting game to me. While I don't consider it anything special, I did enjoy my time with it, even the foot sections. I can see why fans wouldn't like the shipless stuff as it certainly has a different feel to it than the space combat, but I didn't mind it. My biggest issue with this game is that it feels woefully short.

From there, I moved on to the original game played on my SNES. I didn't expect much out of it as I've played the other 3D games like Stunt Race and Dirt Trax, and they're extremely rough. It actually holds up better than I thought, for the most part. I completed the first and second routes and had some fun doing so, but the third route is a mess. I feel like Nintendo made some smart design decisions with this game; it's like they knew to not be too ambitious with this early 3D and making the game on-rails so you only have to worry about dodging and shooting was a good idea. It helps make the game more playable than other primitive 3D games... except the third route. They got too crazy with that and the framerate slows way too much for it to be tolerable. Overall, I think they did a good job with this game and I can appreciate it for its time, but it isn't something I'd want to play today.

Next, I decided to become a filthy pirate and tried out Star Fox 2 on an emulator. I never thought this would ever be officially released and it sounded like a really interesting concept. I ended up liking this one more than the original game, though it certainly has a different feel to it so I can see why someone would prefer Star Fox 1. The management aspects made me think about how I approached things and it also has a bit of an exploration feel to it. The whole concept of this game was probably too ambitious for the SNES but that in turn is actually one reason I enjoyed it. It's rather interesting to see what they attempted to pull off, even if it's rough. This game used a better SuperFX chip so the graphics have a little more detail to them, and I actually kinda like the chunky polygon visuals. It has a sort of abstract quality. Since I pirated this game then that was one of the reasons I felt I should buy an SNES Classic, to pay for the official release of the game. Plus only the beta had been released as a ROM, the Classic version was the full one, though it didn't have as many differences as I thought it might.

Sometime after that, I played Star Fox Guard. This looked like the better game out of the package over Zero (sorry...) as well as being an interesting concept in general. I liked this game a lot. It's a good mix of strategy and action without being too complex. If multi-tasking counts as strategy, anyway, but yeah, it's a fun concept I enjoyed, trying to manage watching all the screens whilst blasting robots. I also feel it's one of the few games which made good use of the GamePad, as having a map on the controller screen and tapping which gun to take its control is much more seamless than button controls could be. As such, this is unironically one of my fave Wii U games.

I eventually did try out Star Fox Zero. I probably don't need to say much about this game since it's relative recent and people have probably already heard it. I don't think it's a bad game, but it made some poor decisions that bring it down. I'm actually fine with the gyro aiming, except that it needs to be recalibrated too often. Splatoon didn't have this issue so I'm not sure what causes it. It's the two-screen thing that adds nothing to the game and is unnecessary. I think if the game had gyro control on a single screen, it would play fine and had been received better. I had some other design issues with the game, but they're not as important. I still got some enjoyment out of it despite it all, but this game really should have been better.

That's all the games I've gotten to so far. As mentioned earlier, I own the rest, including the 3D version of 64 along with the cartridge, so I'll get to them eventually. My rank of what I played would be thusly:

1. Star Fox Assault
2. Star Fox 2
3. Star Fox Zero
4. Star Fox

I'm not putting Guard there since it's a different beast.

Offline Order.RSS

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2018, 01:27:17 PM »
I'm a big fan of space combat games in general, from things like Rogue Squadron to a Switch game that didn't seem to get much attention called Manticore.

Out of curiosity, what are some other favourites in this genre/style of yours? I'm partial to Panzer Dragoon Orta, Sin & Punishment 2, and Rogue Squadron II, but beyond those I'm not well versed in aerial/space combat games.
Stuff like Skycrawlers, Futuridium, Ace Combat, and Colony Wars I've never tried for example. Any obvious recommendations?

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2018, 05:01:33 PM »
I'm a big fan of space combat games in general, from things like Rogue Squadron to a Switch game that didn't seem to get much attention called Manticore.

Out of curiosity, what are some other favourites in this genre/style of yours? I'm partial to Panzer Dragoon Orta, Sin & Punishment 2, and Rogue Squadron II, but beyond those I'm not well versed in aerial/space combat games.
Stuff like Skycrawlers, Futuridium, Ace Combat, and Colony Wars I've never tried for example. Any obvious recommendations?

Probably my favorite is Freespace 2, which is a PC game. There's an open source project that's made sure it works on modern hardware and made some improvements to it. Also on PC are the classics X-Wing and TIE Fighter, which, along with Freespace 2, are available on GoG. There aren't a ton of great examples on consoles that I can think of beyond the ones I mentioned, though I spent a lot of time playing a game called Starlancer on Dreamcast back in the day. That was the first game I ever got really hooked on online play in.
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #15 on: September 20, 2018, 05:56:55 PM »
Star Fox is honestly one of my favorite Nintendo franchises, to the point that I'd probably rank it ahead of something like Zelda.
I find this interesting as you don't seem to have completed many of the games.

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #16 on: September 20, 2018, 06:01:29 PM »
Star Fox is honestly one of my favorite Nintendo franchises, to the point that I'd probably rank it ahead of something like Zelda.
I find this interesting as you don't seem to have completed many of the games.

That's fair, but I don't tend to complete many games in general. I have so many games and jump between them so frequently that I finish almost nothing. Of the dozens and dozens of games I own for Switch, the only ones I've beaten are Super Mario Odyssey and Celeste, and I still have a lot of postgame content in both of them I haven't gotten to.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #17 on: October 20, 2018, 09:56:59 PM »
I always meant to get back tot his topic but left it on the back burner for various reasons.

With Star Fox Adventures, I remember just coming into a Blockbuster one day and seeing it. I don't know if I was fully aware of its existence prior to that. I mean, I think there was an image of it on the back of the GameCube's box highlighting all the games available or coming to the newly launched system but, back then, unless I'd found a Nintendo Power to flip through, I generally didn't learn about games until showing up a video store and seeing it there. Sometimes I'd see a few commercials when games launched as well but that's about it.

Yet, for some reason or somehow, I had formulated this idea that Star Fox Adventures was a spin-off to the Star Fox series. Like there would still be the Star Fox titles of dogfighting and space flying action and then there would be Star Fox Adventures where Fox would land on a different planet in each game and have some adventure on it. I don't know if there was an official plan about this or I just made it up in my head at the time but somehow that is how I understood the game and series at that time.

This was also with the internet growing and as I continued getting more exposure to it and getting into gaming after waning interest in the later 64 years, I soon learned about the Rare/Nintendo split and just what Rare had been doing for Nintendo's systems. For me, a game on a Nintendo system was by Nintendo and I was just starting to learn about second and third parties more. As a big fan of DK64, I was disappointed to learn they had been bought by Microsoft and now there would be no Donkey Kong Racing. I also saw some reviews of Star Fox Adventures and people seemed disappointed by it. Everyone talked about the great graphics and I was impressed by the screenshots, however, I didn't know what was meant by it being Zelda like as I still had yet to play anything in that series or know much about it. Plus, as mentioned earlier, Star Fox 64 wasn't a game that made a big impression on me when I did play it so I never got around to this game. There were a couple times I was close to renting it but ended up deciding on something else. Maybe it was Pikmin or Sonic Adventure 2 or Mario Party 4. I can't remember at this point for sure but it just never happened.

Eventually, I would end up buying this game during the end of the GameCube era and the Wii era when GC games were selling pretty cheap in the used market. By then, I had exposure to the Zelda series and was much more interested in experiencing the game for myself but it still hasn't happened. About 5, maybe even 6 years ago, I popped it in my GC one day to finally play this and got through to having Fox land on the Dinosaur Planet and then didn't get back to it. Other stuff got in the way. It is the Star Fox game I most want to play at this point and I made a short list of games I've wanted to get through and play when it comes to determining what I should play next. It's been on the list for over a year but I still haven't got to it while getting through some others like Kirby Mass Attack or Luigi's Mansion 1. And there are times that I've jumped to other games not on the list like Triforce Heroes, Federation Force or Breath of the Wild as examples. I haven't forgotten about this game and still keep it in mind because of my list so I'll get to it yet but, right now, this is my white whale of the series.
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Offline Rancid Planet

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #18 on: December 09, 2018, 05:53:28 PM »
Adventures is totally worth a run through. I think I've played it all the way through 4 or 5 times. The "puzzle solving" elements are tediously simple though. That's the main problem with the game.

The play control is tight, the graphics and sound were top notch at the time and still hold up well, the game play wasn't bad, though the combat system could have used some sprucing up, the game areas are nice and varied so you never feel bored with where you are in the game, it's just a fun little game...except for those puzzles.

They basic.

And that was what really disappointed gamers at the time and what held SFA from being anything more than a beautiful to look at and fun yet average game.

Offline Order.RSS

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #19 on: December 10, 2018, 01:37:13 PM »
Yeah they're barely puzzles really. Drag block to block-shaped indentation on floor, repeat.
Khush if you ever start Adventures let us know, I impulse-bought Legend of Kay Anniversary for a few bucks ages ago, so maybe I'll play that alongside you. I'm fairly sure that game is basically Star Fox Adventures, but without the dinosaurs. We can compare & contrast notes!

Offline Lemonade

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #20 on: December 13, 2018, 03:09:45 AM »
The only one I have played all the way through is Zero. I didn't like it very much. I wish I hadn't bought it at launch for full price.

Offline Rancid Planet

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Re: Run the Series 7: Star Fox
« Reply #21 on: December 16, 2018, 05:28:09 AM »
64 is still the gold standard.

If you play that one and find you don't care for it, then the very essence of Star Fox, i.e. corridor shooting, just isn't for you.

64 accomplished everything that Star Fox 1 and 2 set out to accomplish.

After that they had no idea what to do with the franchise and it has spun it's tires in the mud ever since.