All aircraft report! Let's Play Star Fox!

That comic is pretty awful. Two pages later, General Pepper is shaving while listening to Hound Dog. *facepalm goes here*

Are you kidding? The comic is totally worth it, even if it's just for watching Fox totally flip his shit in every chapter.

Check out the rage on this page alone!

http://www.sfx64.com/Comics/act11_4.html

And the final chapter, where it's revealed that Andross cloned himself into his Really Evil Side and his Not-Quite-So-Evil-But-Still-Pretty-Evil Side.

And Fox tears apart his entire armada with force of will alone, apparently.

REZ?!

OMG IT IS REZ!!!

Go fight the boss of Venom 1 in Star Fox 64. It's Area 4!

Welcome back. Last we left off, we had just finished overrunning Andross’s forces on Titania and destroyed the malfunctioning Professor Hanger, freeing the resource world and winning it back for Corneria.



Next on our stop is Sector Y, the nebulaic sibling of Sector X and Z. Though largely an uninhabited sector, the area is largely plasma-rich, making it a helpful harvesting point for Andross's forces. It's also home to some of the few space-dwelling animal species in the Lylat system that make their home in the nebulae.



The spacescape of Sector Y is very peaceful and serene, with very few enemies to speak of and schools of space-dwelling fish swimming about in the background. It acts as a nice counterpoint to the game's premise - despite the entire system being embroiled in a war between Venom's and Corneria's inhabitants, there's this nice quiet pocket where everything's going on as it used to be.



Of course, not everything is as it seems. Aside from the usual Venom fighters, some of the animals here are aggressive and will charge your ship as you fly through. They're easy to pick out mostly - if it's red, it's angry. You don't have to kill them, thankfully, as one shot is enough to drive them off.



The big threat in Sector Y (and most likely the reason why Andross hasn't set up a base here) are the large clusters of amoeba dwelling in the region. If we connect with them, they'll stick to our hull and eat right through our shields, so try to avoid them if you can. If you can't... *sigh* do a barrell roll.

Lastly, beware the big stingrays that fly through here. They're docile and will avoid you for the most part, however if you shoot at them, they'll charge you and rip into your ship. So... yeah. Beware them.



If you turn away the aggressive animals and avoid angering the big stingray, this guy here will pop up and drop a ton of powerups for you to use, including two Nova Bombs, a Twin Blaster and even a Shield! Papillon's advice for the day: It pays to be nice to animals.



But not everything's fun and games in the sector...

Hydrogen Harvestor
-PLASMA HYDRA-

One of the few enemy fighters in the region, the Plasma Hydra is here to collect the hydrogen in the Sector Y nebulae, presumably to power the large ships in the armada. Shooting this guy down should put a stop to Andross's production, albeit temporarily, but giving Pepper any advantage he can get should help if we fail on our course.

That is, if we fail.



The big strategy here is to shoot down the tubes connecting to the harvester, feeding it energy and damaging its systems. However, you have to time it right - while we're fighting, plasma balls of its own will be shooting out of them and if our bullets connect with them they'll blow the arm off for a small period of time.



Once you shoot off the arms, it'll sprout a third tube that transforms into a ball and chain, but at this point the main body becomes vulnerable to fire and the Hydra goes down without too much effort.



The ship gives one last suicidal rush before exploding in front of us. Though to be honest, I was hoping it'd be bigger - I mean, isn't it filled with the hydrogen it harvested?

Anyway, the battle wraps up with yet another 100% rank, though I'm not sure if it's quite enough to offset the horrible, horrible grade we got in Sector X. Still, it's a good score! ...Right?

Anyway, next time, it's off to Venom Airspace as we go toe-to-toe with the Metal Smasher. Stay tuned!

Plasma Hydra is my least favorite boss if only because I never "get" how to damage it. I know I'm supposed to pump my own shots down its arms, via the open claws, but it spends its initial assault with its arms spread waaaaay open, making it nigh-impossible to actually hit the claws. The spinning around doesn't help.

I like the Space Whale, though, and its cry when it shows up. But I never knew that its appearance depended on not hurting the stingrays --I don't shoot them because they hurt like hell if they ram you.

For the longest time I couldnt beat the Metal Smasher in the next stage. I know I needed to use the brakes, but somehow i still managed to collide into him.

Another update for today, to make up for the drought over the past few weeks. Last we left off we had taken a detour through the serene Sector Y, helped save an ecosystem from itself and stopped Andross's hydrogen-harvesting in its tracks.



Now we make our way to Venom proper, and - just like before - we'll be raiding its airspace and taking out the forces there before moving down to the surface and taking out the big bad himself.



Venom's airspace, all told, isn't very interesting. Sure, there are cloaked enemies and fighters coming out of the wazoo, but what else? I mean, really.



There's a fighter ship somewhere down the line that I failed to screenshot that drops a shield when he dies, and a couple of the enemies split up into large clusters when shot, but that's it really. The Venom airspace stages are boring, boring and hella boring.

Well, except for...

Super Gravity Powered
-METAL SMASHER-

This boss here is quite different from the others we've fought before in several unique, distinct ways.



The first way being its main method of attack. Instead of the tried-and-true lasers/missiles/plasma ball trinity, the Metal Smasher instead drags you in with its super gravity powered body and then closes in on you, crushing the Arwing and dealing significant damage to the hull. In order to evade it, you'll have to brake as soon as the arwing is being pulled. Any sooner and you wasted part of the brake, and too much later you won't have time to brake again.

Also note that he also produces several small, metal pods that he flings at you when you get close, but by now you probably know that you have to destroy them.



Occasionally, he'll fire some ring lasers at you too, but that's nothing to really worry about.



The second unique part of the battle is that you don't have to finish him off to win the battle. Destroying one side of the pod is all you really need to do to win the battle, as once its destroyed the gravity smash won't work anymore. Knowing this, the self-destruct sequence activates on the ship and the pilot hightails it to the surface to regroup.

Two points away is... pretty good, honestly. Normally I do worse on this route due to the splitter enemies in the stage, but it seems I was on a roll this time. Nice.

Next time, we start our raid by taking a turn onto the Venom Highway. Bikers and road rage abounds!

Welcome back. Last we left off, we had just obliterated Andross's airforce (again) and defeated route 2's guardian, the Metal Smasher.



With his airforce anihilated, it's only natural that we take the fight to Andross's ground forces next, only this time we'll be riding into his base on the Venom Highway. Screw the speed limit - the only way we're going is full speed ahead.



Of course, every highway has its own sets of dangers, and the Venom Highway is no exception, having some of the most mean-spirited, ignorant drivers this side of the Lylat System. And you thought the drivers in [insert city here] were bad...



The biggest dicks are the freighters here, which will dump stuff onto the road ahead of you if you don't shoot them down quickly enough. I mean, really - you'd think the people in Venom would know basic highway safety.



Good thing they go up in flames pretty easily.

Central Guard Machines
-GALACTIC RIDER-

Hey, wasn't this one of the pilots of the Metal Smasher? In any case, things start out innocently enough - the Galactic Rider speeds ahead and changes lanes ahead of us, showing a disturbing amount of control compared to the bozos from before.



It's at this point that he shows his secret weapon - there are other riders in there, Galactic Bikers, that drop out of the ship and try and ram into us. Like with every other ship we've fought before, the opened door is a weak spot we can exploit, but he's sturdy enough that he manages to hold on for another round.



When the Galactic Bikers are delt with, the Rider will start to change lanes into the one ahead of us and deccelerate suddenly in an attempt to force us to crash into them. Granted, the odds are they would have to pay the insurance premium, but something tells me that's not what they're afraid of.



In any case, a few bombings too many brings an end to the Galactic Rider's forces. Its engines damaged, the ship careens off the edge and explodes.



And now the moment you've all been waiting for...

Here we go!

You know, for an evil genious hell-bent on revenge and conquest, Andross is a fairly polite monkey-man, complimenting us on our successes in our journey to Venom.



But like before, he's confident that we won't win.



We'll just have to show him, won't we?

Virtual Nightmare
-ANDROSS-

The battle here is pretty much the same as before - Andross will shoot large discs from his eyes and try to suck you in, and his weakspot is in the eyes just like before.



Shooting the eyes will release the core, however...



The big difference this time around is that the core is much more resiliant this time around, meaning that a Nova Bomb followed by laser fire won't normally do him in by the first turn. The battle really emphasizes pattern-recognition and skill over luck this time around, as you really have to be prepared to dodge his attacks instead of trying to get a lucky run in.

But otherwise? Still the same monkey-man.



And with that, we're done route 2!



Huh. Aside from the horrible, horrible score on Sector X, this run was almost perfect - 100% in every other stage except Sector Y. I could probably get a better score in a do-over, but otherwise I'm quite happy with the score.

Anyway, let's watch the ending, team!

And with that...



Thanks for reading!

Next time: Just one more route to go.

that way into Venom is one of my favorite parts in any Starfox game. I love that narrow highway. Until this moment I forgot where that stage was. I honestly had it in my head that it was in 64 (my memory apparently has better graphics than the SNES ...).

So far, we've managed to liberate routes 1 and 2 on our quest to liberate the Lylat System, not only destroying Andross's armada in the process but also freeing up the line of supply for Corneria. All that's left now is to push through route 3, taking out Macbeth (and, thusly, Andross's major supply depot) and finishing him off once and for all.



Like every other time so far, we'll be starting from scratch and protecting the home base, Corneria, from Andross's initial assault, before counter his with our own and taking out his defenses on the route. So let's hop to it, shall we?



An interesting touch to the stage this time is that we'll be taking off at sundown (or is that sunrise?) I'm not sure what the reasons are for doing so, but it was a nice touch to spruce up an already thoroughly-explored stage.



Things are a little bit trickier this time around, with the initial Twin Blaster hidden behind a door alternating between open and close. Send power to the Retroes to slow yourself down and avoid a crash.

There are a lot more traps this time around, as you may have noticed - lots of falling columns and ships to shoot down. Your allies will also come under fire more, so make sure to help them out quickly if you don't want to risk them getting shot down.



Oh! Right, be sure to pick up Nova Bombs on the way through the route - there are several bosses on this path that are much easier with them around, as you'll see later on.



Another interesting touch with this stage is that Falco will rush ahead and take out the Attack Carrier, our foe from routes 1 and 2, for us and leave it in pieces. There's a lot of creativity on display in this stage, without a doubt.

As you can see, Falco's left the wreckage for the Cornerian machines to pick up, possibly for Pepper to scavenge and reverse-engineer. Don't worry, we've got our own enemy to fight.



This part here's a little insidious, since you have to quickly alternate between dodging the falling columns and avoiding the obstacles in the way. Quick reflexes will usually save the day, but expect to take a few hits here if you're not so lucky.



It's over quickly enough, thankfully. Look, no damage!



And there's the Attack Carrier, being hauled away. And look, here comes the next boss...

Ground Supremacy Vehicle
-DESTRUCTOR-

The Destructor is the true boss of Corneria, and he's a tough fighter capable of regenerating his parts and shooting deadly Plasma Balls at our Arwings. Worse yet is that they can become invulnerable for small periods of time, the upper halves only being damaged when facing you and the lower halves can't be touched while firing. So... how do we take this guy on?



The trick, really, is to fire off a Nova Bomb as soon as the upper halves take off, obliterating the cores inside right from the outset. With them taken care of, you can take the upper halves out at your leisure without having to deal with their pesky fire.



As such, the Destructor goes down without a hitch, freeing Corneria from Andross's forces and giving us an opening to take off and begin our attack on Venom.



100%, a great way to begin the route. I'm honestly shocked at how well I'm doing on the Corneria stages, since they're the ones I futz up the most while working out the kinks, but hey! No complaints here.

Next time, we push through the Asteroid Belt and take out one of Andross's bases. Stay tuned!

The highway level is awesome.

This thread makes me think Nintendo should just remake the first game and then end the franchise forever.

I'm hoping for a WiiWare version with a higher resolution and frame rate but the same level designs and music. Maybe that's why they're holding out on Super FX games. Please, Nintendo?

Welcome back, everyone. Last we left off, we had fought off Venom invasion again, defeating Andross's ground forces and saving Corneria for the time being.



Next on our path is, again, the Asteroid Belt. It seems that Andross is intent on leaving the field intact, since it acts as a decent barricade in addition to his other defenses on this route. We'll have to pass through here anyway, but playing it safe and avoiding any meteoroids is of a higher priority here.



First thing we see coming in is more Venom fighters for us to shoot down. No problem, nothing we can't handle.



The bigger threat is, of course, the meteoroids themselves, since they can total our Arwings with an ill-timed crash. This one here was a very near miss.



Here there are more meteroid formations to fly through, this one giving us a Twin Blaster and a Nova Bomb, though I missed grabbing the latter.



The route through the Asteroid Belt is pretty hazardous, and is one of the hardest parts of the game as a result. Having to navigate various debris while enemies are firing Plasma Balls in all directions gets very, very hard quickly, and often results in deaths for all but those whom have memorized the place.



Having to deal with the inept trio all the while just makes it worse.



The difficulty reaches a peak near the end, when enemy fighters start gripping onto meteroids and fire at you while others actively home onto your position. Make sure to keep moving and barrel rolling, and take out the ships as soon as they clip before they get the chance to fire at you.



Space Station
-BLADE BARRIER-

Nothing really sinister about this boss - it's just a space station Andross built in the sector equipped with a spinning blade to deflect debris. When the blade stops we'll have to take out the six cores circling its sides to take it out.



The big thing to watch out for is the Blade Barrier's tractor beam, which will pull you into the blades and chop you to pieces. The best way to dodge is to hang to one side of the screen, wait for the tractor to appear, then quickly barrel roll to the other side of the screen - if you move fast, you should be able to dodge it.



The Blade Barrier, all told, is a pretty easy boss, and goes down with little effort on my part. Compared to what we had to deal with earlier, I'd almost say it was a bit of a cakewalk.



Ugh. Blech. Just plain terrible, compared to the other scores I've gotten. This stage is one of the most annoying in the game, since the amount of dodging you have to do makes actually targeting enemies a bit of a pain.

Next time: It's off to Fortuna, the Dinosaur Planet! [Out Of This Dimension comes later.]