During the console wars of the 80s and 90s, people chose their sides and stuck with it (other than Mike Roth who lived down the street – that rich jerk had BOTH a Nintendo 64 and a Playstation).
Anyway, the problem with choosing sides is you miss out on some great games – unless, of course, you have a friend that has the opposite system and you get a chance to mess around with those exclusive titles.
In my case, I had the Playstation and my friend Elyse had the Nintendo 64.
Out of all the exclusive games that the Nintendo had, the one that I will always be jealous of, believe it or not, is Star Fox 64.
Star Fox is a 3-dimentional shooter game developed for the Super Ninetendo Entertainment System and released in 1993. The game itself was Nintendo’s attempt at a 3D game – and the first one to use polygonal graphics.
As a child I remember this as a groundbreaking technology that really brought games to a level similar to what we see today.
Released in 1997, Star Fox 64 is a 3D shooter where you are pilot Fox McCloud; flying a spaceship and battling the evil Andross and his minions. Usually playing on a fixed path (you have the ability to move and change speeds slightly, but you cannot free roam the universe), the game was adventure-filled fun for all ages.
Originally intended to be Star Fox 2, Star Fox 64 was held back from release on the SNES because series creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, wanted the title to move from the more limited system to the new Nintendo 64.
Miyamoto was noted to be a huge fan of the old puppet dramas so the look and drama is very similar to shows like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterions. Once completed, the cartridge was jam-packed with a whopping 4 megabytes of speech data which is a testament to the above.
Fortunately, the game was received VERY well. It was one of the most successful games of 1997 – not just in sales but critically; it is listed as the 45th greatest game of all time by The Guinness Book of World Records (Gamer’s Edition) and it received multiple high marks throughout all of the videogame rating titles at the time. What it really amounted to was a fantastic kid’s game that was incredibly addictive, colorful, and fun to play.
Personally, I remember fondly long overnight stays at Elyse’s house with all the friends battling for better scores and playing multi-player modes to beat each other’s scores.
It’s one of those games that I can’t help but smile when I think about it.
If you get a chance or have a Nintendo 3DS, I would pick up a copy and give it another shot – you won’t be disappointed.
Until next time…
