Star Fox 64 3D

Following the release of the original Star Fox on the SNES, with Star Fox 2 having been shelved despite being fully completed, the series was rebooted for the then-recent Nintendo 64 system in 1997, aptly named Star Fox 64. In 2011, as part of a series of 3DS remakes of older Nintendo titles, Star Fox 64 received one as Star Fox 64 3D, which aimed to be faithful to the original release while adding new content. I had become curious about playing Star Fox 64 after playing Star Fox Adventures, which was made as a sequel to it, to get a better hang on the story, but didn’t actively attempt to do so until the Nintendo 3DS eShop was shutting down, at which point I went for a physical copy of Star Fox 64 3D both for convenience and to get the best experience possible. After finally getting around to playing it, I can see why it’s considered a classic game in terms of gameplay and story.

After years of imprisonment on the planet Venom following a defeat by Star Fox, the evil Andross has escaped and has begun an attack on the Lylat system. In response, General Pepper calls on Star Fox, with a team consisting of Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare, to stop Andross once again.

 

Star Fox is called upon to stop Andross.
(From left: Falco, Fox, Peppy, Slippy)

The story is fairly simple, but it manages to work in the game’s favor in getting the plot going. Beyond this, there is a surprising amount of depth within a short span of time, mainly in the backstory involving Fox’s father James.

The game offers multiple control scheme options, with the ability to swap between the 3DS controls or the original N64 controls, as well as whether you want to invert the x-axis. The 3DS controls also allow you to use gyro controls for steering, though you have the option to toggle this before starting a gameplay session (I opted to keep turning it off since I found them a little awkward to use). One feature I appreciate, and wish more games had even now, is that when choosing gameplay options, you are able to preview the controls in real time while selecting them to make sure you are comfortable with them. Additionally, there are three difficulty modes: 3DS, an easier mode that accounts for gyro controls; Nintendo 64, which recreates the original N64 experience; and Expert, which replicates the original N64 release’s Expert difficulty.

The story consists of seven Missions, with many of them providing different paths to get from Corneria to Venom. The gameplay loop for these Missions consists of piloting the Arwing or Landmaster, which control very similarly and depend on the situation, and shooting down enemies. Each of these Missions also consists of either flying through an on-rails or open environment, usually with a boss at the end of it. During each Mission, various upgrades can be found along your path that provide various benefits, with rings being one of the most common; silver rings replenish your health, while collecting three gold rings doubles your shield for that stage and excess multiples of three grant extra lives. Additionally, while you have unlimited ammo and have to press the fire button for each shot, holding it down creates a charge shot to deal further damage, and while bombs are your most powerful weapon, you have a limited supply and have to pick up new ammo. Occasionally, you may also have to tap the touchscreen so ROB 64 can send a supply drop, which you then have to shoot open to obtain.

 

Missions usually have a boss at the end.

Another occurrence in most Missions is your teammates being tailed by enemies, leaving you to have to help them out by shooting the enemies, and failure to do so in time results in your teammates’ health being depleted. Should their health be fully depleted, they are sent back to the docking bay for repairs and you must wait an entire Mission for repairs to be completed.

 

You may occasionally have to help out your teammates.

The execution of these elements gives the game a more arcade-style feel that some may find addicting, with the multiple story paths providing a good amount of replay value. The additional Score Attack mode leans further into this, as it lets you play through campaign Missions just to see how high of a score you can get (my second-hand copy had them all already unlocked, so I don’t know if you have to play through the Missions first to access them in Score Attack). I will also mention that the final boss fight against Andross can be challenging if you don’t know what to do, however I already had some idea of what to expect since the fight was pretty much recycled wholesale in Star Fox Adventures.

In addition to Score Attack is the multiplayer-focused Battle Mode, which has three different variants: Survival, in which you have to be the last one standing before time runs out and having 2 or more survivors goes into overtime; Point Battle, in which you compete to reach a set number of points; and Time Battle, in which you compete for the most points before time runs out. While you can play against other players, there is also the option to play against CPU opponents, which was how I was able to experience these modes. While I personally was not very good at any of them, these modes can definitely add to the replay value if played amongst the right friend group.

The game’s visuals, especially the character models, lean a lot closer to the original Star Fox 64, but updated for then-modern hardware. Given the graphical limitations of the 3DS compared with the Wii, which was Nintendo’s current home console at the time, this approach makes sense from a technical standpoint in addition to preserving the original N64 experience as much as possible, and hold up a lot better as a result. There is also some clever usage of the 3DS’ screens, with character dialogue and vehicle damage statuses being relegated to the bottom screen, with the caveat that it can be possible to miss some dialogue during more hectic gameplay.

 

The game takes advantage of the 3DS for a clean interface.

Like some other installments in the franchise, this game has some excellent music and sound design, with said music being rescored from the original release to have a much fuller sound. The boss music in particular stood out to me, if only because at least one or two boss tracks had a sound that reminded me of the distinct stylings of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. To complete the experience, many of the game’s original voice actors reprise their roles with newer performances, including Fox himself, with some characters recast with different actors that try to capture the originals’ performances. Though a minor detail, the “Good luck” sound bite can also provide a small confidence boost before each Mission.

With its various updates compared with the N64 original, Star Fox 64 3D is the most ideal way to play one of the more iconic entries in the Star Fox series, especially thanks to gameplay options that emulate the original if so desired. Although the 3DS eShop has since been discontinued, physical copies fortunately exist for those who want to play it, with pretty decent aftermarket prices as of this writing.