Star Fox: The First One

That yummy low polygon goodness.

The Star Fox series of games to me has been a tale of relevance based on the time you talk about the series. Feels very on and off to me personally. There will be moments where it feels like no one is talking about the games rather other times it’s the main thing everyone is talking about in the gaming world. As I write this, this is a time where Star Fox has become a trendy topic again after the game’s protagonist Fox McCloud making a surprise appearance in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Honestly I’m all for it as Star Fox is a really cool game series and no doubt has a highly dedicated fan base that’s made some really cool content that’s based on the Nintendo made space shooter.

As Star Fox has become more note worthy in recent months, I wanted to check out the original game for the Super Nintendo as not only it’s the first of a great series, but in itself is a graphical achievement and honestly a miracle that the game even runs on the Super Nintendo without any major hardware upgrade to an extent and with some sacrifices.

So what exactly is Star Fox? Star Fox is a “space rail shooter/fight” game made by Nintendo. The game might also be known as “Starwing” or “Lylat Wars” in other parts of the world. The game was made by Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Shigeru’s biggest name to fame is being the creator of other big Nintendo hits such as Mario and Zelda, so it’s safe to say he’s got a good track record at this point. As most space shooters on home systems in this era were mostly 2D in the likes of say R-Type, Star Fox is a 3D game, on the Super Nintendo… That alone in itself is quite the achievement. But how is this even possible on a system like the Super Nintendo!? Sure the Super Nintendo was not exactly a weak system by no means for its era but other systems at the time like the Genesis needed extra hardware in order to pull the 3D graphics like Star Fox, such as the 32X or something being a CD based system and even then 3D graphics was not exactly easy at this time. That doesn’t mean Star Fox did not have a little hardware help of its own.

Each copy of Star Fox under the hood has the “Super FX” chip, an extra coprocessor chip built into the cartridge, this supercharged the Super Nintendo have extra polygon rendering power. The FX chip was made by Argonaut Games, who also co-developed Star Fox. With the tech of the Super FX and the gaming design mastermind of Shigeru Miyamoto piloting the ship, this would show what the Super Nintendo could really do and get a step up on the competition of SEGA with their Genesis cutting a good piece of the video game pie, and the hopes that the 3D tech of Star Fox would give Nintendo the edge.

In order to understand what’s going on with Star Fox, you have to keep in mind that pulling a 3D game like this AT ALL is quite the achievement here. With that being said let me say that the best way I can describe Star Fox is 3D but very simple. This is another case where today it’s hard to understand how amazing that a game like Star Fox can even be possible without any extra major hardware accessories is honestly stunning. So just know yes it’s 3D and that’s about it, but hey that’s enough for it to stand out for this era of gaming. The graphic details are very limited and very simple polygons. Its a case of it works and does what it needs to do and that’s about it. But the game play of Star Fox is more than just being good enough.

Star Fox is a rail/space shooter/flight sim. You play as Fox McCloud, an anthropomorphic Fox who’s the leader of the team known as Star Fox, a team of space pilot fighters. The very best this side of the galaxy. With you are your flight wingmans in Falco, an expert pilot that’s all serous and can be a little rough to deal with. Peppy, a rabbit who’s the oldest of the crew but has the most experience, and Slippy, a frog who’s no doubt the youngest and most inexperience of the crew. There will be times where one of your teammates will be in a jam and you have to get them out. Other times they will ask you to follow them or they can show you some hidden areas or ways to get some cool power ups for your ship. To be fair, as they are there, they won’t do too much in the game past this and the game expect you to do the majority of the work. They become more helpful in the next game in Star Fox 64* (next game of release, I’ll explain that later).

The story is the evil Andross has invited the Lylat solar system and has declared war. The first level starts on Corneria, the home base for the resistance and our heroes who are being invaded and is the last stand for the galaxy. For Fox, this is personal as his father was also a great pilot who fell because of Andross. So there’s no doubt a drive for Fox here to avenge his fallen father. Andross at the end of the game will even taunt Fox about it. Great villain work here.

As for controls, you can use the boost button to go faster but more times than not this will lead to you going too fast and getting too wreckless. Star Fox is a game you just got to let things come to you rather than going to it, it is by definition a rail shooter. You can use the break button to dodge things coming close to you or help you time hazards. You of course have your main blaster, you can earn upgrades such as double blasters and extra armor for your space ship by doing little tasks like flying under arches or doing flying maneuvers correctly that drop power ups, and you’ll need all the power ups you can get first try at this game. This can also lead to finding bonus stages too. You can also fly sideways with the two shoulder buttons and can even do a roll to dodge oncoming attacks if timed right. This becomes necessity in the harder levels of the game. You also have bombs that can help you out of a jam or do some major damage to a boss, but you only have a few so use them sparsely.

Thanks to the rendering power of the Super FX chip, low poly 3D games like Star Fox are now possible on the Super Nintendo

Speaking of hidden paths, Star Fox’s progression is kind of different than just point A to point B and doing everything by the book. The game is not super long, maybe an hour or two tops but there, however the game has three courses you can pick from at the start, ranging from easiest to hardest. Of course first time players will want to do the easy course first, then work their way up. The hardest course will test your space pilot skins but all to get the game’s true final boss and ending. Star Fox is not a game you beat once then put away, the three paths add more game play where repeatability is not only recommended, it’s encouraged.

Three courses to pick from each with their own level of difficulty

Now for the game play, you will likely notice right out of the gate that it’s very choppy and low frame rate. Remember Star Fox pulls of 3D just enough to say it can be done and that’s about it. It’s still a super fun space shooter with great a cast full of personalities, bosses, enemy encounters, not to mention a fun and very tense final boss with Andross, who hides behind a giant polygon face that attacks you. Sometimes the funnest thing is to get into an aircraft and just shoot things down like you’re in Star Wars. The game is simple in both graphics and game play but the game works and reaches its goal on what it tries to do. It’s a fun time if you can get over the low frame rate and understand the limitations of the Super Nintendo being hard at work here. I will also say the game is not exactly easy and will likely lead to some very frustrating moments.

Fox will need all his pilot skills to defeat Andross.

Another thing worth noting is the game’s soundtrack. The game’s first stage in Corneria is one of the most iconic tracks in gaming and if this is not to get your blood pumping and hyped up, then I don’t know what will. The main theme is also amazing and gives a space epic feel. Honestly might be one of the most underrated soundtracks in Nintendo game history. Not a single miss here.

In the end, Star Fox is a graphical accomplishment thanks to the extra process power of the Super FX, making a 3D low polygon game like this possible. Yes, the game play is simple and the graphics minus being 3D are also quite simple, and the frame rate is a bit jarring at times, but if you can get past all that and look at Star Fox for what it is, a 3D space rail shooter, I think you’ll have a good time. However, if all that is a bit much to get over, that’s also 100% understandable. It plays, but as far as playing well… uhh… The best example I can give Star Fox is what I said about VectorMan in my review of that game where it’s no masterpiece as far as game play goes by any means but it’s quite impressive to look at and see what a gaming system can do with what it has to work with. It’s pretty easy to get your hands on Star Fox now a days rather it be a digital release, on the Super Nintendo Classics, or just getting a SNES cart itself and playing it on original hardware the old fashion way.

There was going to be a Star Fox 2 late in the Super Nintendo’s lifespan. The game was complete but ended up being shelved to focus on a retelling of Star Fox in Star Fox 64 for the new up-coming system at the time, the Nintendo 64. It was not until many decades later Nintendo would release Star Fox 2 officially as part of the Super Nintendo Classic system. Now that’s one way to hook someone into buying a system. That’s one I need to try out at some point and see how that game holds up. Might be time to hook up the SNES classic here soon.

As for now it’s nice to see Star Fox get more media attention now especially with the Mario Galaxy Movie. as I do love the series despite it’s ups and downs, if you know you know. Maybe this might get Nintendo to give Fox another shot in the stars with a new game. There have been attempts of this such as with Star Fox Zero on the Wii U, but that was met with mixed reviews. I just want Star Fox to get a fair shake again and it would be a killer app for the Switch 2… Just saying….

Star Fox gets a 3 out of 5 Stars