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« on: June 24, 2026, 02:48:55 AM »
Reflecting on Star Fox, let's go back to the SNES. I knew the game existed. I remember the box art cover for it. And on occasions when the public library had some Nintendo Power magazines in stock that I could borrow, I was able to catch some comic installments it had for the game. However, the actual pictures shown of the game just didn't look that interesting to me as a kid. It just seemed to be a bunch of geometric shapes on pretty simple backgrounds and I never bothered to ever rent it or consider trying it.
Despite having a Super Nintendo pretty early in its lifespan, it wasn't until just a bit after DK64 released in 1999 that I owned an N64. It wasn't because of DK. It was just the timing in which my brother and I finally had the money to pool and get the console. And while we were excited to dive into Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64 (and I did like being able to rent and play DK64 at that time), I think the long time to adopt to the next generation had an effect on my interest in gaming as I had started being more interested in classic films and catching up on the wide amount of stuff I'd see referenced and talked about but had never watched. As an example, I never saw Star Wars (A New Hope) until 2001 and renting it from good ol' Blockbuster. I remember being aware of all this hype and deluge of marketing showing up for Episode 1 but, having never seen any of those first movies, it just didn't mean much to me or pique my curiosity at the time. Probably atypical of most people's experience since most seem to have seen these movies as kids growing up. But I digress. The conversation was about Star Fox so let's go back to that.
Even without an N64, I recall the hype for Star Fox 64 because introducing a new element that was supposedly going to make gaming more immersive. The rumble pak. And considering rumble has been a part of gaming controllers since then, it lived up to the hype. In some ways, that may still be Star Fox's biggest contribution to gaming. I remember a kiosk in Walmart with the game set-up for people to try and the controller shaking / buzzing and it seemed pretty neat. Yet, after getting an N64, we never bought rumble paks for the controller just like we never bought memory paks for them either. In fact, to this day, even though I've still got the N64 and plenty of games and four controllers for it, I still do not own a single rumble pak for the system or controllers. It was the GameCube and the rumble installed in it that really gave me my real true taste of the feature and it would amaze me for quite awhile during that period. At some point, we did rent the game but Blockbuster did not include rumble paks for rental with the game so when playing Star Fox 64, I have never really experienced it with rumble. No rumble paks for the N64 to this point in time and the 3DS doesn't rumble so nothing when playing that version.
I know from renting that game that we did eventually beat it, at least on its basic path. Looking at the galaxy and being able to spin it around was always pretty cool. I wasn't a big fan of the on-rails aspect of the game. It's sort of like the auto-scrolling Mario levels. Not a big fan of those as I'd want to be able to move around at my own pace. Likewise, the feeling of being forced forward and not always quite ready to do so created a gaming friction in me that made it hard for me to warm up to the game. I think my brother was the one who did beat Andross. My hazy memory of that time just feels I was more along for the ride as he was playing way more of the N64 and other games than I was at this point and more adept at handling the N64 controller. Honestly, I couldn't even beat the final Bowser battle as I struggled to swing and aim with the control stick. It was the GameCube controller that somehow made using an analog stick just click into place in my mind and I finally got much better at operating in 3D spaces. I went back to Super Mario 64 and I could finally handle Bowser just fine. Something finally snapped into place.
I can't recall if my brother ever rented Star Fox 64 and played it more than that first 3 day rental I can still remember. It was sort of disappointing to always have to restart from Corneria and replay levels again and again to advance. It was also confusing to see all these planets in the galaxy and not seem to visit them. I seem to recall my brother being able to figure out or do something that changed a planet along that path but overall it wasn't something we felt compelled to try and work at. Frankly, being able to beat the game within that weekend time span just made it feel sort of short and unimpressive. Even though the instruction manual mentions the Landmaster, I just don't recall us ever playing a level with it. I was surprised again to recently see there was a level with a submarine in it. I know I had learned about it years back but I always just think there are a couple Landmaster levels in this game and that's it besides the Arwing and I'd completely forgotten about that Aquas level since I've never experienced that planet to this date. Nintendo recognized the game could be beat pretty quickly and tried to offset that by encouraging players to seek out the other planets to find some new content that way and to go for high scores in levels to get medals. Playing for high scores just didn't interest me though and, considering all roads lead to Venom, it just seemed like having beaten the game and finished the story was enough. It was surprising to see some comments by people playing a demo of the new game and checking how the points/scoring worked compared to the 64 version as points aren't something I even think about when I think of this game. Likewise, people would often quote dialogue from the game that would just go over my head. Do A Barrel Roll wasn't something that stuck in my mind from playing the game but it eventually did become something I associated with it thanks to others all using and referencing that line amongst others.
So, my first actual foray into the Star Fox franchise didn't make the biggest impression at the time. And I'll pause the reminiscing there. That's a big enough wall of text for now.
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