Star Fox (Super NES, 1993)

 

Major Super NES classic here and the first game I think of when I think of their 1993 lineup. (The system would absolutely explode in 1994, the year I got it, with a litany of incredible games that defined the whole gaming generation).

Star Fox is mostly a showcase for the Super FX Chip, which let the SNES make use of three-dimensional polygon graphics for the first time ever. ...and this particular tech didn't really stick around, so it's a bit of an artifact now. While the 3D effect is quite rudimentary, and the system was in most regards better off sticking to 2D (which it largely did after this), there's still a place for this game in the SNES lexicon. Nothing else was like it at the time.

As for my own experience with it, this was one of the many SNES games I rented circa 1995 or so. Had a great time with it as a kid. However, I was only able to beat the first of the three level paths. That first path is the one the vast majority of players did, so only beating the game on easy mode (ostensibly) is nothing to be ashamed of. However, I've been wanting to revisit it and finish the other two paths ever since. Now I finally have an excuse to.

Playing this on Nintendo Switch Online. It's cool how things like this and Capcom Arcade Stadium are making emulation less necessary to revisit retro games, as well as letting me revisit them on a TV.

Iconic intro, showing a large ship chasing smaller ships towards an unsuspecting planet. The Star Wars influence is palpable.

The aforementioned three level paths. The center path is the easiest (and denoted by "level 1" to kinda give you that impression). The upper path is medium, and the lower path is hard. I remember my 1995 run at this game like it was yesterday:

-I beat the easy path.

-I got to the boss of Sector Y on the medium path (so about 75% of the way through the game).

-I game-overed on Fortuna numerous times on the hard path and gave up. This path has one more level than the others and longer levels in general, so we'll say I got to about the 35% mark.

Corneria is the first level on all 3 paths. You get a way tougher version of it on path 2 and 3, though.

Semi-iconic first scene where the Arwings take off from the base in lots of wire-framey 3D goodness. As a kid, I always thought they were "Airwings" but no, Arwings.

This first level is also a bit iconic, because it's the one everyone played back in the day. While you play as silent badass Fox McCloud (MacLOOOOD), get used to hearing the rest of the team yappin' a lot. There's...

Fox McCloud - The captain, and the son of the greatest pilot ever James McCloud (who disappeared on a mission, but his son carries on his job of protecting Corneria).

Falco Lombardi - The hotshot ace pilot who definitely sees himself as the actual captain. Probably the best actual pilot in the group besides the player. May or may not be Italian (?)

Peppy Hare - An old veteran, noteworthy because he was part of James McCloud's original squad. The last of the four who's still around, and an all-around good pilot.

Slippy Toad - Our useless but lovable mascot, pretty much just gets into trouble constantly, not sure why he's even here. Maybe he's an ace mechanic and none of the others know how to change the oil. I don't know.

Slippy constantly needs rescuing. CONSTANTLY. That's alright though, look at that face!

TOP 3 BEST 90'S VIDEO GAME FROGS

3. Jean (Breath of Fire 2) - A swashbuckling musketeer.

2. Slippy (Star Fox) - A lovable goof who tries.

1. Frog (Chrono Trigger) - A hero who just needed to believe in himself a little bit.

First boss is memorable, a flying attack-ship with multiple weak points. Also, the boss theme is really good:

Super-underrated track that needs to be on a lot more "best SNES music" lists.

Next level is the Asteroid Belt. For some reason, Corneria is surrounded by asteroids. That seems detrimental to a world developing space travel. This is a fun level to play in first-person mode, especially for precise shooting, like taking out the center of asteroid bars.

Take out a few of those centers, then blast this malevolent asteroid with a face, and we're off to...

...this secret level. It's where James McCloud went missing. Don't expect to find him, though. He went out for smokes permanently.

Good shot of the Twin Plasma weapon here. This is a good time to mention the weapon upgrades. Like many games from this era, you can power up your attacks a few times over by collecting weapon powerups (only to have it reset back down if you die, so don't die).

You start with a single laser beam, and it's pretty weak. Get a weapon powerup and you get the Twin Laser, which is two lasers at once (i.e. double the attack power). Get another weapon powerup without dying (they're a little bit uncommon) and it becomes Twin Plasma, the energy balls seen here. These absolutely rip through the game, so once you have 'em, not dying is paramount.

As for the Black Hole, the level itself is a pretty odd one, without much to it. It does, however, contain warp rings that send you to various other levels throughout the game. It's a quick way to skip through half (or more) of the medium and hard routes, on replays where one might want to conserve resources. As a kid I had to make use of this level for that reason, but now I think I can just play the routes normally.

Back to the Asteroid Belt, the boss here is this rock-crushing ship. I don't know, we should probably just let it do its job. These asteroids are a menace.

Deadliest thing here is that when you do enough damage to the various weak points, it launches most of itself at the screen which is pretty much an OHKO if one doesn't get out of the way fast enough. After that, all that's left is the core, which can be blasted away at.

Third level is the Space Armada, and I always liked this one as a kid because it's got various Star Destroyer esque ships flying through that you can take down (or just kinda cruise past)

End of the level has this enemy base, complete with a veritable firestorm of lasers zipping towards the screen. They're easy to avoid and don't do much damage, so this just looks really cool.

The actual boss is found inside, this power station core. The game nearly shifts to full 3D here (but not quite) as you can move around the room a bit while it rotates.

Meteor, not to be confused with the Asteroid Belt, is basically just another planet that orbits Venom. Dammit, Slippy, get outta the way!

Dancing Insector is probably the game's coolest boss, and dances around for the entire fight. DAMMIT SLIPPY! AH SAID GIT!

After that we've got Andross' planet, Venom, which consists of two levels on every route. First is the skies above Venom. Not much to see here, except this Phantron boss that splits into 3 (and is easily the toughest thing in the Easy route). It has very little HP, so identify the right Phantron and blast away. Letting the fight drag on is deadly.

Finally, Venom's surface. It looks like it has a runaway greenhouse effect, like Venus.

Phantron returns here, only now it has a second form, this walker. Blasting it knocks it backwards.

The level isn't over yet, though. Get beyond that and Andross himself is here to taunt the player. I remember how creepy this was as a kid, finally seeing the guy show up and knowing I'd be at a disadvantage (having just gone through a difficult level and a boss fight already).

The infamous final boss. This thing is pretty much directly lifted from a fairly obscure 80's horror anthology called Nightmares:

Specifically, one of the horror shorts in the movie is about the Bishop of Battle, an evil computer-face that rules all he surveys.

The Bishop even does the "suck up everything in the area" manuever that Andross' face does, so there's no mistaking that this short film is where they got the idea.

See also: The final boss of Mega Man X2

In any case, the giant, creepy face is just the outer shell for Andross. Blast the eyes enough while avoiding his myriad attacks, and...

...the face shatters to reveal Andross, in the form of some sort of three-dimensional cube. One of the weirdest final bosses ever. As a kid I saw a commercial for this game once, and one of the gameplay shots in the commercial was this exact moment of the face shattering apart and Andross flying out.

For whatever reason, it's the shot that sold me on the game.

From there, it's a simple matter to blast Andross' cube until the fight's over. However, take too long to damage him and he'll re-constitute the face, meaning you have to fight it again (though it has less and less health each time). As a kid I sometimes had to fight the face 2 or 3 times. This time around, it's an easy one-shot. Bringing Twin Plasma shots and a few Nova Bombs pretty much shreds this guy in seconds, but if you only have the single laser, it could take some work.

That's it for the easy path, and the game is beaten. However, now I've got the task of beating the other two paths that I never managed to finish before.

The first level is a bit different on the Medium path, with a lot of these mechs walking around carrying construction materials. Not sure if they're repair bots trying to fix damage caused by Andross' attack, or if they're Andross minions trying to set up siege equipment.

Second level: Sector X. It's in space, no big whoop. They're reusing the bosses from the first path, so far.

Titania is the "resource world" for Corneria, and it's interesting because you end up in an endless loop unless you fly through the right archways early in the world. No other level has anything like this.

Following the right path shuts off the weather, leading to...

One of the weirder bosses, this flying billboard that broadcasts messages while scores of flying fish launch at you. The fight also takes place under some kind of highway. Easy fight, and thusfar all of Path 2 has been easy.

Sector Y. This was the graveyard of my previous attempts to finish anything beyond the first path.

Specifically, this part. These stingrays turn red, charge you, and do HUGE damage. They're basically unavoidable once they charge. However, if you're quick and blast them once AFTER they turn red, they'll stop charging and fly off. Blast them more than once and they attack again. So you have to be precise here and don't miss.

I definitely got to the boss a few times back in the day, actually, because I remember this. It's a spinning beast that sweeps its arms across the screen, doing huge near-unavoidable damage. I'd bet I didn't have much health left when I got to this part either.

Things actually get a lot easier after Sector Y, which is weirdly enough the high point of the difficulty on this mode (so if I'd gotten past this boss as a kid, I probably would have won Path 2).

The skies over Venom are a quick, easy level this time, though the boss (this giant crushing ship) can be a problem. Strategic slamming on the brakes is the only way to survive the deadly crush attack.

Venom 2 is a really weird stage this time. I think it's supposed to be a highway, and one side of the highway has...space under it? Plus tons of obstructions in the road. Who built this?

The boss here is this car that looks like Boba Fett's helmet and tries to run you off the road. It's actually easier than the Venom 2 boss on the easy path. Very weird how this path tapers off in difficulty so much.

The Andross Cube now has orange points on it, and takes probably 2x as much damage as the first time around. Other than that, the Bishop of Battle fight is the same.

Here's the spinning bastard that defeated me so much as a kid.

Hard mode Corneria has a red sky and is MUCH tougher of a level than the first two runs.

Falco zips ahead to deal with the Attack Carrier (the usual level 1 boss), and presumably succeeds, because...

The new boss is this 3-turreted mega-tank. Fun fight here, need to take out the flying components of it since they'll "heal" the turrets.

Level 2 is the Asteroid Belt, just a harder version of it, with a lot of these meteor-faces (they do not, alas, send you to the Black Hole)

Memorable boss here, has a massive spinning blade and a bunch of weak spots to fire at.

Path 3 has a lot of new bosses compared to Path 2, and I get the impression they saved a lot of development energy for this path (likely thinking it'd be the one most people spent the most time on / replayed the most).

Fortuna is a neat planet with funky music. Going to go ahead and say that Path 3 is definitely the most consistent and interesting of the three paths, and I missed out by not Gitting Gud at this one as a kid.

Boss here is the King Dodora, a huge hydra. I don't think I ever even saw this fight as a kid, so again, new content for me. Pretty rad to revisit one of my favorite games and actually see the third or so of it that I never got to see before.

Sector Z is another interesting level, a massive debris field / space construction site. Very tricky to get through this one with all the giant girders flying around. The level reuses the station core boss from Path 1.

Macbeth is probably the level I was most curious about, the red planet.

Lots of fire and volcanoes here, and the terrain is more of an obstacle than it has been at any point so far.

Interesting boss here that fires massive bolts of fire that do tremendous damage. It also spins. Bosses in this game are like romance movies, they're full of spinning.

Actually got handed several losses by this thing. The hard path has been a real ball-buster compared to the other two.

Skies above Venom is a bland space level, like in the other two paths. However, it's noteworthy because of the boss: Great Commander. This is Andross' personal flagship, and the fight has a big surprise:

The fight actually TURNS YOU AROUND to take the form of a jousting match. I didn't expect this out of the game at all, and wonder why they didn't employ this for more fights. It's nearly a full legit 3D fight here. Not free-range though. You just turn 180 every time you need to.

It also proceeds to kill me over and over again. Same thing happens every time, I destroy most of the turrets on the ship, then find myself completely unable to hit the final turret. Not sure what the deal is, but it's a horrendous fight.

NOTE: Apparently you have to use Nova Bombs to take out the last turret or two, but since the turrets are only vulnerable like 25% of the time and bombs are super-limited...good luck.

After a bunch of tries, where I try to save my Nova Bombs until he's low on health and then drop them at close-range when the turrets are open...

...I finally land that killing blow that was so elusive.

Damn. Toughest fight in the entire game. I didn't even know Star Fox had anything like this. I very nearly gave up at this point and Youtubed the rest, but I didn't come all this way to not play the very last stage of Star Fox.

Always liked how the Venom stages begin with you soaring down towards the surface in a spiraling motion.

This is it, the REAL final stage.

It's a short, tough stage with lots of collapsing objects trying to murder Fox.

Great Commander is back, and now he's got a land-based form that looks like Rob the Robot.

This might be the actual toughest fight in the game because he relentlessly launches these damn iron balls that fly all over the place and are hard to avoid. Most of all, they NEVER STOP, so you're dodging like a maniac with no chance to breathe. At least his weak points aren't almost impossible to hit, like the previous fight.

After that is another short, difficult section with lots of obstacles to dodge. This part is key, because losing a wing here means not having double lasers for the final fight (this hallway does have a double laser toward the end, but if you're missing a wing, it'll just repair you rather than upgrade the weapon).

Andross lays down the challenge. This is it, just one more Bishop of Battle and...

...whoa, alright, now the giant face is Literal Satan, and launches relentless barrages of projectiles. I'll say this, the Hard Path in this game is absolutely brutal.

The Andross Cube has a little more health, but Nova Bombs still take him out fast if there are any left. Gotta say, the devil face was a surprise. Andross might be the most malevolent Nintendo villain.

Game done. Whew. Toughest part was the two Great Commanders, especially the second and his IRON BALLS. I'm glad I took on the challenge of the Hard Path after all these years. It's been about 30 years (Jesus) since I first beat this game, and now I feel like I really, legitimately beat the game.

Nintendo Power coverage. They did something interesting with the maps here and made drawn isometric maps.

Not sure how Falco is such an ace pilot when his eyes are on either side of his head. Does he turn his head to the side and look sideways with one eye while flying?

Something funny from back in the day: This coverage permanently reminds me of Kelloggs Corn Flakes. They did some sort of cross-promotion with Nintendo where they had Star Fox maps in boxes of cereal, or something like that. So I remember looking at maps like this (of levels not covered in this issue) while eating Corn Flakes.

I like how they gave so much space to the bosses, which are the main challenges of this game. The stages themselves are a challenge, but mostly exist to sap your resources before the bosses. Winning the fights is a matter of preparation as much as anything else, getting through the stage without losing a wing and while getting blaster powerups and Nova Bombs.

Corneria is the only world to get full maps. For the rest, you'll need to buy specially-marked boxes of Kelloggs(tm) Corn Flakes!

This coverage makes it look like Andross is only at the end of the third path. As a result, I remember being surprised to fight him at the end of Path 1 when I was a kid.

Good game, definitely one of the killer apps for the early years of the Super NES, and maybe even a system-seller for a short period of time.

Next up: Star Fox 2, the ill-fated sequel