An overview of Starfox.

A look back at a game years ahead of its time.
On
July 16, 2007
Remember the childhood days of the early 90's, or perhaps you were a bit older, it doesnt matter eather way. But it was the time of grand and glorius 16-bit gaming.





Weather you were a genesis or an SNES owner it doesnt really matter there both great consoles in my opinion. I myself happened to be an SNES fanboy. The first game we had for the system was the pack in title Super Mario World, I at first wasnt to into it, but over time I grew attached. other titles were soon to follow such as Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Kart, f-Zero, and the Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past.

But im getting ahead of myself. What im really trying to talk about is one particular SNES game not mentioned above, but was a game that blew me away in my youth, and up to this day still a pleasure to pop back in and give a whirl. Im referring to the classic title known as.

Starfox


Now maybe some of you have heard of starfox and maybe some of you havent, or maybe youve played the recent titles but never knew about the original. But this is the one that started it all,

and just in case you dont already know hears a quick description of the storyline.
You play as Fox McCloud the leader of the mercenary group known as starfox, and your mission is to defeat the forces of the ape emperor Andross and liberate the Lylat system, and your team mates include Falco Lombardi, Slippy the Toad, and Peppy the Hair,But enough about that.

Now lets talk about what made starfox so great and unique for its time.Lets start with the facted that it was one of the first games to yous the super FX chip, and your probably wondering what was so great about this chip.

Well think back to a time when there was no such thing as 3D games or 3D gaming, what this chip did was it made the game appear to be 3D. Though it may not look as good compared to todays 3D game standards for its time it was as close to 3D as you could get, and since this was an era of mostly 2D platformers and shooters this made it years ahead of its time.



But being 3D in a time of 2D games was not the only thing that made Starfox a great game there was also the gameplay itself. The controls were smoth and flawless,it was the basics to any outer space shooter one button let you fire while the other lanched missiles.But these missiles were ones that blew up everywhere destroying anything that wasnt your starfighter. It also took great advantage of the left and right buttons on the controller which allowed you to spin your ship,you could even slow down and speed up.
So now lets talk about the levels, they to had a nice 3D polish for its time, through it was just traveling from point A to point B it was more than an exiting ride. Why there were buildings to dodge, gates that oppened and closed randomly, towers that would fall down on you, and a ton of unique enemies to fight off. Pretty much everything that could shoot fly or jump was out to get you, and thats what made it exciting.The levels themselfs were also very unique, Sometimes you were on a planet, or in outer space, or on a space station, depending on which path you took but ill get into that later,and each level had its own unique theme and sets of enemys. So now lets get into bosses.



Like everything else bosses in Starfox also took great advantage of the super FX chip and looked great. Some were quite easy and some were often challenging and required a bit of strategy to defeat, and like the worlds in Starfox they were also different and unique. Though some of them might be used more then once, but not a whole lot.

Then theres sound effects and music, both of which are just awesome and fit the games space like atmosphere, from the intro to the gameover screen it just seams to works.

Did I leave anything out so far, oh thats right, lets talk about the paths I mentioned earlier.When you start the game there are 3 paths you can take from your home planet Corneria to the final planet Venom where you have to face and defeat Andross to beat the game. The paths are divided into difficulty levels as well. The middle path being the easiest, the top path being medium, and the lower path being hard.This also added a great level of challenge to the game, since if you were just starting out you could work your way to the end and still win, and when you got more experianced with the game you could try one of the other routes and still be challenged. Even up to this day I still find the bottem path to be quite a challenge.



So did anything I just mentioned above make Starfox a sucess?
Yes it did, despite what some people may think Starfox was an all out great game for its time and also grew to be one of nintendos best selling franchises. In fact it was so great it led to a sequal,and before you ask im not talking about Starfox 64.



But sadly the sequal to the great and glorious SNES title would never see a release, but the real sad part was that the game was finished to, as for why they didnt release it well I dont know entirely but it had somthing to do with the fact that the N64 was coming out and they were already working starfox on the N64, or it was somthing to do with the fact that the N64 was also to be released at the same time as this game and they didnt want money to go away from there new console becasue people were gonna start buying this game on there last console. Keep in mind that I dont know entirely but you can do some more research into it if you want.But one thing im sure of is that if starfox 2 was released im sure it would have been a welcome addition to the series.

In my finale statement id like to say that I think starfox is just an all in all great game, and also one of my top SNES titles for sure. There was just a magical feeling about it when you were playing it back when you were young. Like it was somthing really advanced really high tech and inivative for its time.
Id say the original game that began the series is hands down the best, and even though Starfox 64 inproved over it and is an excellant game as well, it just doesnt have that feeling the first game had. Youd have to have been there and played it when it first came out to know what I mean.

Well thats just about everything I have to say thanks for reading, and I might just do an article on Starfox 64.
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