Press Z or R Twice! (Star Fox 64)

Star Fox 64 is a fantastic game; it's space combat is a wondrous combination of graceful dodging and sheer adrenaline. Star Fox 64's most notable contribution to the game world was the introduction of the Rumble Pak, but the game is still damn fun on it's own. Star Fox 64 was one of those games that built upon it's predecessors and came together in a shining moment of brilliance.

Sure, it might look a bit dated now and the music might sound a bit weird, but I think it's telling that Nintendo has yet to create another game with the Star Fox handle that has come close to equaling this masterpiece.

But enough text; this ain't your grandma's LP. Star Fox 64 is a game that needs to be seen in action, and that's just what you're going to get. It's taken a while to get the video and audio recording working properly, but thanks primarily to fellow TT member Gredlen's efforts, I've figured out how to get it to work.

I don't want to replay any missions, so for each mission I'll only be taking one path. For example, in my runthrough of Corneria, I took the harder route. My current plan is to first take the "Easy" route of Meteo/Fortuna/Sector X/Titania/Bolse/Venom 1. Thanks to the magic of save states, I'll be able to reload my save in the middle of Meteo and make a video of me taking the warp there, and then I'll show off the "Medium" route of Katina/Solar/Macbeth. Then I'll reload my post-Corneria save state and continue on the "Hard" route of Sector Y/Aquas/Zoness/Sector Z/Area 6/Venom 2.

This seems like the most logical course of action to me. After all, Venom 2 wouldn't make any sense if you haven't played Fortuna or Bolse first (something that always irked me about Star Fox 64). If you guys really, really want I'll show off the warp in Sector X...but I don't see a point since I'm planning on showing the Meteo warp and they're not that different. And if you guys really, really want I'll show off all of the branching paths in Venom 1...but I think that would be a bit silly. I also won't be showing the "bad" credits since they're exactly the same as the "good" credits. But other than that, you guys will be getting it all.

I'll make a new post each time I make an update just to bump the thread up, but I'll also update the second post with links to each video to make navigation easier.

Part 1- Star Fox 64 rocks. Let's Play it. A brief introduction to the game, why I'll be playing it, and what you can expect in the future.

Part 2 - Corneria is under attack! Can my sub-par flying skills save the day? The commentary is a bit dry on this one, but there's a lot of basic stuff that needs to be said so future installments will make sense.

Part 3 - For reasons that aren't readily apparent, the Star Fox squadron decides to liberate the (tactically unimportant) asteroid field Meteo. Does Fox have what it takes to blow up stationary rocks?

Part 4 - The clock is ticking! Fortuna has been overrun by Andross' forces and it's up to Star Fox to retake the planet by any means necessary! But it won't be easy; not with Star Wolf breathing down their necks! How can a level that sounds this bad ass be so utterly boring? Find out now!

Part 5 - Andross has established a base in Sector X, but all signs of activity have ceased recently. Our heroes choose to investigate, but all is not as it seems! Two of our heroes won't live to see the end of this mission...can anything be done to save the Star Fox crew?!

Part 6 - Slippy's in trouble! While Peppy sits in Great Fox's lounge drinking Space Mai Tais, Falco and Fox go in search of their missing friend. Will Fox and Falco be able to find Slippy amongst the shifting sands of Titania? Will anyone even notice that Peppy is gone?

Part 7 - It's time for the final push! All that stands between the Star Fox squadron and Venom is the battle station Bolse! It won't be a cake walk, though. No, wait...actually it will be a total cakewalk!

Part 8 - Fox and company have loosened Andross' grip on the Lylat System and opened up a route to Andross' base on Venom. Andross isn't going down without a fight, though. Do androids dream of electric sheep? Or do they gobble starfighters?

Supplemental Part 1 - We skipped the regular boss on Corneria for a reason...but due to popular demand, here it is anyway. Enjoy the positively "thrilling" fight with Corneria's normal boss.

Supplemental Part 2 - Now that the Easy route is done, it's time we jumped to the Medium route. Remember that save state we made back in Meteo? Time to load that bad boy up and go on a Fantastic Voyage (slide slide slippity-slide, when you're livin' in the city it's do or die).

Part 9 - While Fox and the rest of the team battle Andross' forces on Katina, Alex battles some demons of his own. Brought to you by Nintendo's Wii Music.

Part 10 - The Star Fox Squadron decides to check out the dangerous bioweapon Andross has created on Solar. Alex finds an excuse to use first person mode, and learns that even bad levels can be fun if played properly. Brought to you by The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion 2.

Part 11 - Fox sets his sights on the supply depot on Macbeth, while Macbeth sets his eyes on the throne of Scotland. Could the witches' prophecies be true?

Part 12 - In order to evacuate Side Seven, Amuro Ray and the Gundam duel Char Aznable and his custom Zaku out in space. I mean, in order to stop Andross, Fox must duel Monkey Zaku out near Sector Y.

Part 13 - Rather than safely bombard the planet from orbit, Fox decides to take the essentially pointless Blue Marine out for a spin. Alex learns the hard way that encoding your video LP is serious business.

Part 14 - The Star Fox team travels to the once beautiful planet of Zoness to destroy Andross' waste disposal facilities. Meanwhile, Alex wonders how a bird and cat could have sex with each other.

Part 15 - En route to Venom, Great Fox flies directly into a space ambush. With Fox's lasers in a state of disrepair, and the rest of the Star Fox team being as smart as a pudding cup, things aren't looking good for the team. But don't worry; Slippy's here!

Part 16 - The constant onslaught of Andross' forces and the demands of his wingmates take their toll on Fox's sanity. Having lost the will the live, Fox decides to fly straight into Andross' forces and see who will emerge victorious in one last roll of the dice.

Part 17 - Against Fox's suicidal wishes, Star Fox makes it to Venom in one piece. It's time to take down Andross! But not if the vaguely-motivated-arch-rival-soon-to-be-anti-heroic Star Wolf squadron has anything to do with it!

Part 18 - After braving the horrors of the longest hallway ever created and a boss we already beat, Fox faces his greatest foe yet: Spaghetti Brain Monster!

Part 19 - The battle is finally over. Andross is dead (until the sequel, anyway) and the Lylat System is at peace. Let's watch the ending of Star Wars and then ride off into the sunset.

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Star Fox is sort of a B franchise but this game is still excellent. It's one of the only games I played so much that I can come back to it years later and just run through it on instinct.

Only a B franchise due to later iterations. First two games are perfect.

EDIT: Although I really wish they'd skipped the voiceovers, and kept the Simlish from the original game.

At least they brought it back in Command? Command was definitely a step in the right direction. I don't want to say too much since I plan on addressing this in a video at some point.

I'm glad to see someone doing a video LP that isn't Brickroad playing every NES game ever made at 1000x HYPERSPEED.

I always kinda liked the lame, stupid, other boss in Corneria. =(
I mean, I like this one, too, but the other boss is in ALL RANGE MODE. Plus the area leading up to the other one isn't barren and dry. For some reason, that always bothered me.

It was a good video but I think it could use a little refining. It was a little too chatty I think. I know you said "this is going too fast!", and the game probably is for all you want to tell us. Personally I dont mind if had have to slow down your talk or even leave a little dead air in there. Let the game talk every once in a while.
Your video quality looks great though, seems like you fixed those problems you had earlier.

Everytime I play this game I always end up on the Easy Path. The last few levels always give me a problem (especially the damn train level) and I dont get the special mission conditions done. ;_;

Well, since this LP owes a lot to your technical expertise, I guess I can make a quick video of him later. I'll do it at the end of the Easy run.

Hmm. I'd been thinking about this too. I'll try and lighten up in the future.

I have to leave for work now, but Meteo is already in the can. I just need to encode/upload it, so it'll be up later tonight. Fortuna is already recorded and I'm going to record Sector X tonight.

Alright, Part 3 is up. This one is a little dark, but if I crank up the brightness even one notch more, it starts to make space look grey. It's fine once you start encountering enemies/obstacles, but in areas where there's just space and nothing else it looks a bit odd. Hopefully I can discover a way to remedy this without making the vastness of space look like oatmeal.

Parts 4 and 5 are up. I finally get my shit together and learn to shut up/put some production values in the audio track in Part 5, so look forward to that.

This is pretty cool! You know, I never thought too much about having an anthropomorphic fox named Fox, but for some reason when you talk about it in the context of his father - named "Ace" - it occured to me that it is pretty fucking weird to be a fox and name your son "Fox".

I forgot how easy Star Wolf team was on Fortuna. I always remembered that mission being pretty short, but I didn't remember it being that boring. I kind of wish they made you go inside the building to get the bomb. I mean, it's really small, but they could have just made it an entrance to an underground base or something. I think that would've been cooler than "shoot down some crappy ships for a while before Star Wolf team shows up drunk".

Also, did your bomb home in on that guy in Sector X (at around the 2:00 mark)? That just blew my mind.

Also also, were you using Audacity's auto-ducking feature for that video or were you manually editing the audio?

Yeah, you can do that.

I never found much use in that, myself, since I usually use my Bombs against bosses, and you can't lock on to them.

Fortuna was so awesome back in the day because All Range Mode was new, cool, and different than the On Rail levels.

Alex I like it better when you are goofy and talking about Scooby Doo than when you just throw around the word fuck for the fucking hell of it. The audio editing was a nice touch, but i see what you mean about space levels being a bit dark.

His name is James. He's an ace pilot. But honestly I think that having a legit name like James and naming your kid after his species is even weirder. Can you imagine someone naming their kid Human Smith?

I...don't know what that is. I took the game's audio, made a new track and put my commentary in there, and then made a third track. I would copy sections from the game audio and paste it in the louder third track and eliminate all sound in my track and the game's audio track. Just add some fade in and outs and make sure the timing is right and there you go.

You're Doing It Wrong.™ Bombs real usefulness is taking down groups of enemies, and being able to lock on makes that easier. It's also useful for taking down strong enemies like the red Zaku in Sector Y. One or two locked on bombs and he's done for, and you can continue to blast the other enemies in the area while the bombs are taking care of him. It's not useful all of the time, but there are situations where it really helps.

I think Jimm nailed it. Fucking nailed it, I should say. I'll try and cut back a bit. I didn't think I was doing it THAT much...

That said, Titania is already in the can. I just need to record my commentary (which I have planned) and put it all together. But first I need to go get some Left 4 Dead demo out of my system. It'll be up later tonight though. I have tomorrow off so Bolse and Venom 1 will possibly be finished tomorrow, but I can't promise anything.

Yes. But it would be weird.

... I'm suddenly very tempted.

Whoops, sorry. Looks like auto ducking is a feature in the latest beta version of Audacity. It lowers the audio of one track when the audio of another track reaches a certain threshold. Basically what you were doing, except automatically.

As promised, here's Part 6.

It's true; if you like Radiant Silvergun, you like poop. It's A Fact!�

...

Is it three times as fast as a normal Zaku?

Does anyone refer to it as the Red Comet?

Sector Y is basically a huge, extended Gundam parody. So they stop just short of that.

Dinobug!

Oh and that train level is craaaaap! Ok, its kinda cool but i can never hit all the switches.

I'm watchin' it!

So far my favorite part is right at the beginning when you're talking about how SF64 is "the man" and "got everything right" just as the camera zooms in on Slippy Toad.

I watched the first part, and I'm going to watch the rest together when you're done. I like what I've seen though.

"Where is the creator?"

That Hal thing creeps me the hell out, dude.

Awesome, I loved Star Fox 64, especially the free rumble pack that came with it.

Dude, you're right. I didn't even notice that. I'm accidentally a genius.

FYI: I should have Bolse and possibly Venom up tomorrow, but I can't promise anything. If not tomorrow, then Saturday definitely.

Edit: You know what I should never say? That I'll have something done "definitely". In the past two days, I've had a lot of crazy work-related stuff go down, so I haven't had any time to work on this. I could work on it right now...except I have to be back at work in less than eight hours, and I'd like to get some sleep at some point. I do get off early tomorrow though and I'm off on Monday, so I should have something soon. For reals this time.

I know nobody's setting their watch by this LP or anything, but I feel bad for saying one thing and then doing another. Sorry everyone. But it's coming! Seriously!

Part 7 is up already, and I'm working on Part 8 (plus some surprises) right now. I would have done this/uploaded it earlier in the day, but man I am addicted to Fallout 3 right now. It will, hopefully, all be up before the night is through.