All aircraft report! Let's Play Star Fox!

The only problem with Katina is that to get the best dialogue and cut scene at the end of the stage, you need to complete it without a single Cornerian pilot dying. This would be fine, except it's sometimes completely out of your control whether one dies or not.

Yeah, the worst part of it is that it's difficult at times to pick out the tiny, grey ships from the tiny, black ones in a huge crowd, so you can end up shooting down an ally by mistake and not even know it until Bill yells at you for it. At that point, I just start shooting indiscriminately into the scrum, because why bother?

Yo.

I also have a flight jacket. It's too small for me to wear, though. Or I totally would.

Well, now you've done it. You guys have made me plug in my N64 and its controller with the too-short cord so I can experience sweet Star Fox 64 again. I hope you're happy.

I should probably get this game on Virtual Console just so I can use my Wavebird. My place is just not situated right for N64 play...

Hey, my Rumble Pak's batteries even still work! How about that. I haven't touched 'em in years.

This thread just reminded me for some reason: I have an unworn Star Fox t-shirt ordered out of Nintendo Power from when this game first came out. I foolishly got a "large" which at the time meant "video game large" which meant "Gabe Newell large". This is only part of the reason I've never worn it; the other part is that the thing would make even Charles Atlas get beaten up for his lunch money if he wore it.

It has a terrifying silkscreen of Andross' Death Cube on the back of it. I'd place it in the top five most inappropriate shirts I own.

I still have the T-shirt from the national competition whose cartridge is treasured so highly.

I can still wear it, though the aging of the print means I usually don't unless I'm trying to earn geek points.

DIP DIBBIT DIP DIBBIT, WHOPWOB WING DAMAGE

I played this part once. I remember saying, "Whoa, it's Tetris Hell!"

I'm not sure if it's because of technical limitations brought about by the polygonal engine or what, but I felt this was the award-winner of Most Depressingly Generic End Boss conceived in the history of videogames. That they simply improved the formula in two sequels with a more detailed face and hands, and then brought back this ugly thing as a cameo in Smash Brothers shows they don't feel the need to repent being so, so cheesy.

I mean, in this iteration it doesn't even LOOK like the guy that just chatted with you on your way in!

I always liked it, but I think that was just because it reminds me of Tron for some reason.

It's a huge animate face made out of shaded polygons. How was that not enough for you in 1993?

I like big block-face. The demonic version on the hard path is a lot cooler looking, though.

You have to remember to keep the face in context, mind. Sure, nowadays it looks pretty crummy, but playing this way back in '93, '94 it was pretty great. Hell, it was scary even, to a certain extent (though maybe it was because I was five years old at the time...).



Last time we left off, we had just finished saving the people of Corneria, and are now en-route to the nearby area of Sector X.



The base here, I assume, will be serving two functions for Andross. First off, it'll be cutting off the Corneria fleet from the resource-rich areas of the planet Titania and Sector Y, key points which odds are Andross doesn't want to lose. Secondly, it'll be acting as a remote base for Andross's fleet, giving him a place for his fighters to congregate and fuel up when not raiding Corneria's cities.

However, it's still under construction at the moment, making it a very easy target to take aim at...



Note that we'll be fighting for the entirety of the stage in 1st-person, most likely to improve our aim for the battle.



Star Fox fans, take note: Falco was a bit of a prick well before his appearance in Star Fox 64, smart-assedly responding to our assistance by telling us to stay out of it. Jerkass.

By the way, bonus points to those who managed to figure out what the hell "bogey on my six" meant when they played it back in the day - it took me well over a decade before I clued in on what he was saying there.

Here's the hallmark of the sector stages by the way: lots and lots of stationary and rotating bars of steel in our way that we'll have to dodge if we want to make it out in one piece.



Depending on who you ask, this is also its most annoying feature.



Also: power-ups galore! The shield's not as worth it since it vanishes after a measly two or three hits, but the plasma blaster should come in handy.

Only two more obstacles - namely, blaster-repelling ships and steel bars flying right the fuck out of nowhere - before we find the boss...



Asteroid Destroyer
ROCK CRUSHER

He's back, he's bad, and he's better than ever, with shorter periods between openings and more blasters to use when it finally comes off.



Too bad it still isn't good enough.

Ugh, 89%. It's probably the lowest score on this entire run, and I'd redo it if I could. But then, that would mean redoing the rest of the stages, which...

Anyway, what's interesting to note is that the planet they're flying off to is visible throughout the entire stage - if you fly waaay to the right at any time, it'll slip onto view. I figure I should mention it here, since I forgot to grab a screenshot of it during the actual stage, so... yeah.

Next time: The resource planet, Titania, and the best damn bossfight in the entire game.

I was a day one purchase. It was lame. Part of it is because you stopped moving forward and stopped battling ships and battled a, uh, thing. And the other half is because the animation of the large fortress appearing and the camera angle changing as the ship flies up into the air and U-turns and boosts down the core of the fortress was awesome. That and the doors sliding open with virtually no challenge as you get jabbered by the final boss set up a huge expectation that ol' ChromeFace really couldn't deliver.

It's somewhat understandable for a first try. I just never thought it was something worth getting nostalgic over in later games.

They sooooort of did this in part of 64, but I kind of thought that Andross would be a big-ass Mech boss that you would have to blow apart limb by limb. The face was cool back in the day (the whole thing was kind of creepy, I thought), but I want something epic with monkey-boy.

I always liked the chrome Andross, just for the fact that in a game filled with talking foxes and toads, the final villain is a robotic humanoid face, piloted by a super-intelligent monkey.

In other words, I like to think that this game took place thousands of years after The Secret of NIMH.

Anyway -- nice LP, Papillon! You're doing a great job!

Oh man, Starfox (16) is one of my all time favourites. Although I like 64 I think the music took a hit and I don't like the charge shot. I love how the graphics manage to have a lot of character even with such a dearth of polygons.

I like Andross - his animation's pretty freaky. I don't find him incongruous in a space based shoot-em up which sees fit to attack you with large fish and kamikaze tetris blocks.

First-person view in Starfox is so much better than cockpit view in Starfox64.

I like how no one ever uses just a single exclamation mark in this game!! There's just so excited for you to hear what they have to say!!

Shadowgate does the same thing!!

Welcome back. Last we left off, we had just finished dismantling Andross's incomplete base in Sector X and stiffled any attempt at cutting Corneria off from the resource-rich parts of the Lylat System.



Though Titania's not the most hospitable of planets, the mineral rich planet has large deports of raw materials which Andross plans to use to his own ends in his onslaught. Cutting him off from here means separating him from one of the most important parts of the Lylat system.



What can I say? I love Titania. It's fun to play and is consistantly interesting throughout - the stage's difficulty hits a nice sweet-spot to offer enough challenge to keep you on your toes without being cheap about it. There's also just something about the atmosphere and the casual, laid-back music that just hits all the right notes for me. I just love this stage.



There's lots of dodging here, but keep low and keep moving and you should make it through unscathed.



This looks like a crash, but just keep shooting and it'll flip over and let you through.

The mechas here are really fun to shoot down. The body itself is immune to damage, so you'll have to aim for its legs to immobilize it - shoot fast enough, and you just might be able to knock off all four, stranding it in one place. I wonder what it must be like for the guy piloting the thing, suddenly stalling in the snow when the Arwings pilot through and trip it up.



The major goal of the stage is to trip the weather control circuit at this point in the stage, but if you want you can forgo it and opt for the Twin Blasters at the other side if you lost them in the last stage. Until you trip that switch, the stage is perfectly circular - you can power up as much as you want before you move onto the boss's lair.



When you do though, the atmosphere changes drastically - the fog disappears, the snow stops falling (and even melts?) and things become much easier to navigate.



As fun as this stage was, it's time we moved onto the boss...

Master Computer
-PROFESSOR HANGER-

Note that he's saying "BYE-BYE!!" here, and that's not even the strangest part of the battle...



Professor Hanger's a wonderfully surreal end to the stage with driving, eclectic music to match. His main method of attack consists of him shooting fish at you while you pound away at him. He's strange, he's easy, and he's so much damn fun that I love him so. <3



Farewell, Professor Hanger! It was nice meeting you, however brief it was.



Were you expecting anything less from my favourite stage?

Next time: You want peaceful and serene moments of beauty? Wait 'til you see Sector Y.

Titania is also my favorite stage, for it makes such creative use of its obstacles, it gives a great sense of speed, and the walkers are very appealing enemies (not to mention the fun music.) The best part is, of course, the boss battle --it's like flying under a huge bridge that spans a whole ocean, and since the flight path is narrowed down to a tiny corridor, the camera doesn't follow you around as quickly, so it looks as though the Arwing maneuvers unbelievably fast (I always strafe side to side while rolling, which gives the illusion of a high-speed chase.)

I don't remember the optimal location for it, but you can destroy the main body of the four-legged walkers after knocking them into the ground. But since you have to destroy the legs first, then concentrate on the body, you can only do it if it appears far in the distance and you bring it down almost as soon as you can hit it. Since the accuracy % depends on how many enemies you damage vs. those you successfully destroy, it's usually best not to try.

The main thing that sticks out to me about Titania is the part in the Nintendo Power comic where the team all go there to get frozen yogurt.

Man, I forgot how cool that boss battle was. The simple addition of flying under a bridge adds so much to the perspective, it really makes if feel like you are flying too fast in a tight space. Awesome.

I have no idea how I completely forgot about this stage, because I think I might love it even more than I love Meteor. I have especially fond memories of the boss battle because back in the Distant Past that shit was just absolutely mind-blowing and it's still one of the best-looking parts of the game.

Falco looks incredibly Ostrich-like when he gets out of the Arwing. That's a bit scary.

Also, it seems as though I'm the lone detractor here, but I don't like Titania. The music doesn't fit the stage, there's rampant pop-up (even by Star Fox standards), and there's no interesting enemies to fight. I don't care for it at all. The boss is cool, though.

Just don't call him chicken.