As I mentioned earlier, before I went away and between bouts of 3D platformers, I popped in the classic Star Fox installment on the 64, known for legal reasons in the PAL territories by the (admittedly more imaginative, less lazy) title, Lylat Wars. I also mentioned something about Mega Man lore, but that didn’t pan out in retrospect. So don’t expect that. Expect this!

Lately I’ve noticed that my tastes tend strongly towards platformers, so I feel good when I play something decidedly different. The Star Fox series has been many things, but only two installments (plus the 90%-done-but-cancelled Star Fox 2—there’s a ROM online) are autoscrolling rail shooters. And yet, because they’re the original and popular ones, everything else is derided as not really Star Fox. Anyway this one’s a “real” one so we don’t have to worry about that until I get around to Command later.

This is one of those games I played so many times in childhood, during that impressionable time, that I can practically play stages by muscle memory—especially on the more fun tracks. You see, each run through takes you on a varying track through the system, visiting certain planets and skipping others. However, I was finally defeated by the unlocked Expert mode, where Fox dons sunnies to resemble his dead/black hole’d father, oh and his wings break off in the slightest breeze, removing your laser upgrades. It’s extremely frustrating.

I found that I was only around 5 Expert medals short of 100%ing it, thereby unlocking the on-foot mode in multiplayer. We never played it much, it wasn’t much fun, and said mode turned out to be pretty lame. But y'know, it’s the principle of the thing. Accomplishing that goal was surprisingly intense and exciting! It, again, as I’ve said before, tested my memories and my new skills, sometimes to the brink of nasty angry feelings about stupid dumb games. But damn if I didn’t blitz Sector Z on my first try! Great feeling.

So why do I love this game? It wasn’t just that I had to try to love the few games we had, because we had some real duds (Superman 64, that SNES cricket game, I’m looking at you guys). I think in a lot of cases the superb, tight play control has to do with long-lasting enjoyment. Of course, the content has to be there too and the fact that multiple runs can vary so much is a big plus there. There’s also little spots of charm that can add so much: the little waggling portraits, the campy voice acting, the impressive boss designs.

The essence of the game is score attacks and trying to better your runs. But the levels are so dynamic and interesting that you just love to replay them. The frustrating bits just make victory sweeter, although I can’t say that I didn’t dread some levels much more than others—certain ones are definitely more fun. But they did stitch it together with some cool plot, stated and implied.

Anyway I think the game’s aged well, which I guess is good news for the remake. Although I heard the extra detail made the (retained) short draw distances jarring. Plus, then they lose the polygonal models which they made seem intentional, and ended up being quite iconic. Either way, it’s a true classic of the 64, and I finally beat it down. Now you all know it’s coming, say it with me: “Press Z or R twice!” Ah, so quotable. Ok, real ones: “Yippeee! You did it!” “My Emperor! I’ve failed you!” So good. Ok, Mission Accomplished. It’s time for us to go now.