Star Fox 64 3D was playable for 3DS at Nintendo's booth at E3. It makes use of the new 3D technology, and the effect of it is great, though the slightly improved Nintendo 64 graphics are underwhelming.

The game plays just like you remember, though the controls feel a bit different, too different in some cases. You use the slide pad to move, and it might just be that I'm used to playing this game with a Nintendo 64 analog stick, but it didn't feel super smooth. It was difficult to navigate your Arwing at times. Lasers, bombs, boost, and brakes are all controlled by the face buttons, and the D-pad can invert the camera at the press of a button, or perform a u-turn or loop. Naturally, you can "do a barrel roll" by double-tapping L or R.

In the demo, the touch screen featured a layout of the controls (shown below), but it was hinted at during the Nintendo Developer Roundtable that the bottom screen could be used for communication, possibly from other in-game characters.

The section I played was something familiar to anyone who played the original; it was the first level of the game. It was fun and nostalgic, and the 3D effects did add a cool visual filter to the game. Still, after seeing what the system can do in other games, the Star Fox 64 graphics from 1997 disappoint.