May 14, 2020
[Review] Star Fox 2 (SNES)

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It’s way past time I finally got around to playing this on my SNES mini. It’s an interesting kind of sequel that’s very different to the first but still fits right in, and has a lot of ambitious ideas to it.

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(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: star fox star fox 2 Argonaut Software review snes 
March 13, 2016
[Review] X (GB)

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X is a Japan-only game notable for two things. One is its impressive tech, rendering 3D vector-like graphics on the underpowered Game Boy. While there is still frequent slowdown, showing that it’s pushing the hardware almost past its limit, I still found it surprising… for the Game Boy. The primitive visuals do look very dated now, but that’s no reason to turn your nose up at the game.

Anyway the second thing is that this is Dylan Cuthbert and Argonaut’s first collaboration with Nintendo, which would evolve into the seminal Star Fox series. I was watching out for points of contact within the game, but beyond a few minor details, there’s not much in common. I’ll just headcanon it into the Metroid series somehow. (Adam Malkovich’s ship in Other M has the same name as the player’s tank in this game… there’s something there.)

X is like nothing I’ve played before. I think maybe that it takes many cues from Battlezone, the 1980 arcade game that pioneered 3D vector graphics with an open-world tank battling style. However much they were inspired by it, X evolves the concept with many fun gameplay innovations and level concepts. There’s different loadable weapons for different situations, the ability to launch your tank and become a low-altitude aerial fighter, warp tunnels with a flying minigame (the closest thing to Star Fox here), and many different enemy types.

In the space tank VIXIV, a big floating head briefs you before each mission. Being only in Japanese, a separate walkthrough helped, but the neat animations give you the gist. Your tank is then dumped in a huge world. The playing area is the same for each mission but they get a lot of mileage out of it by varying the objectives. You generally have to roam around, getting hints by docking with radar stations, trying to locate whatever it is you need to blow up or rescue. Your display has a number of dials and navigational tools to keep track of; fuel, ammo, and health, as well as a radar and minimap. The game is about keeping track of all these, managing your resources and time, and not getting distracted too much.

There’s a lot to take in, but once I got the hang of it I found it quite compelling. Escorting the truck convoy, or hunting alien cocoons before they hatch into evil butterflies, the final climactic showdown with the mothership. It’s amazing what they managed to wring out of the concept, although it helped to have savestates and a turbo button for the searching around phase. I did buy a copy of this in Japan, and was playing it that way until I nudged the cartridge during play and lost my progress. That is a fine way to play though; there’s a pretty fair continue system that rewards you for doing better in missions and there’s no Super Game Boy palettes.

It’s a shame they never localised this game, and there are no translation patches either, but it’s pretty playable anyway if you use a resource like this to help (the hardest part is fulfilling the specific requirements during the tutorial). It’s got that recognisable Nintendo touch from a time when that really meant something. Thumps up from me. Space tanks.

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Filed under: x Argonaut Software gb review 
January 7, 2015
[Review] Star Fox (SNES)

AKA Star Wing.

For my first review of 2015, I’ve played a game that was the precursor to one that defined my childhood. Lylat Wars (AKA Star Fox 64) was a masterpiece and one I know inside out. Unfortunately Star Fox itself doesn’t hold up too well.

The main issue with this beginning of the Star Fox saga is that it’s been superseded in so many ways by its sequel. Apart from a few settings and concepts that would end up being used in later games, its music, and the novelty of early 3D vector graphics, it’s been made obsolete. Lylat Wars not only takes many concepts of this game and improves on them, it outright replaces its plot as well—Star Fox isn’t even canon anymore! It’s a little rude if you think about it.

Coming as I am at this afterwards, I can only see the ways it falls short. There’s tons of slowdown when stuff starts happening on screen. The SNES’s limited 3D capabilities (augmented valiantly by the SuperFX chip) make spatial awareness difficult and obstacles and shots will hit you when you think you’re safe. There’s also less character without bosses talking to you, and much less team chatter.

Still, for the time and considering the hardware, Star Fox remains a very ambitious game, that was let down by those limitations it was pushing up against. Lylat Wars surpasses it in almost every way, but it’s got a few tricks that make it worthwhile. Flying into enemy ships and bases to fight their cores, locales such as Path 2’s Venom structure or inside Macbeth’s caverns, the “ship graveyard” black hole and the surreal Out of this Dimension are highlights, as well as the moody atmosphere that some levels set with their theme and colour schemes. It also retains the sci-fi pastiche feel, borrowing imagery from Star Wars and the like.

So it’s not all bad on reflection, but the stiff controls and dodgy hit detection made it a struggle to get through. It was perhaps reaching a little too far for the SNES, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Star Fox 2 improves the engine if at all. Did you know that Star Fox 2 was more than 90% complete when they cancelled it so they could sell more N64s? And then the N64 was delayed, making the cancellation a dumb decision in hindsight? And that modders have made it fully playable? So that’s my next (and final) target. There’s more peripheral games to the Star Fox saga, such as Stunt Race FX, Game Boy title X, X-Returns for DSiWare, and Steel Diver Sub Wars; but I won’t be covering them. Sorry. Play them yourself and tell me if they’re any good. Cheers. Oh, and do a barrel roll or whatever.

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Filed under: star fox star wing argonaut software snes review 
September 15, 2013
Lylat Wars (N64)

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.

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Filed under: review nintendo n64 star fox argonaut software lylat wars 
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