4/5 ★ – exxwhyzed's review of Star Fox 64.

Star Fox 64 is one of three videogames I've played for the Nintendo 64, and of those three (including the likes of Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Mario Kart 64) I consider it my personal favorite. This game was my childhood. I remember playing this game in the basement as a child, and always being stopped the first time I encountered Star Wolf. I found myself revisiting this game several times thorough my life, and each time I managed to inch slightly closer to the final level of the game. I think that this is the game that I've played the longest, as it has lasted me from my childhood, all the way to the present day, as I've cleared it as late as one month ago. The gameplay is two-fold: on rails pilot shooter and open arena dogfighting. You're locked into the inverted control scheme, and at times the game has too much going on on-screen for the hardware to handle, so you get the occasional slowdown of frames. Despite these issues, the game plays well enough, especially considering its age. The difficulty of the game is comparable to classic arcade games, but the game doesn't only rely on this to extend the playtime. There are three full paths to the end goal, and each level has two objectives that determine which path you follow. Learning the secrets and taking each path pulls the replay value beyond beating an established high score. The game has iconic sounds that live in my head to this day and dialogue that has seen their fair share of the limelight in pop culture. Each of the main four characters have their own personalities and role in the squad, and I really enjoy the cross talk between them. Fox is the nonchalant cool leader, Peppy is the wise old man, Falco is the cocky arrogant rival to Fox, and Slippi is the naïve new kid. They blend and mesh together to create a solid squad, end each of them even has their own mechanical function in the game. While Falco typically discovers secrets and alternate routes for you to take to get to the alternate objectives that lead to the higher track missions, Peppy offers general gameplay advice, tutorials, and points out boss weaknesses and strategy. Slippi's benefit, perhaps the most important of all, is the ability to see the health of the boss during the fight. Without this ability, the health bar is not displayed, and you must defeat the enemy without knowing your immediate progress. These in-game roles incentivize you to protect your squamates as they will every so often appear on your screen taking enemy fire while requesting assistance. Should one of them take too much damage, they will retreat back to the main ship, and you will lose their benefit for the remainder of that mission, and the entirety of the next one. I enjoyed my replay of this game. Even though it has its moments of frame-choppiness (even on original hardware), the actual game shines through as a classic gem.