Star Fox64
System: Nintendo 64
Publisher & Developer: Nintendo
Released: 1997
Capabilities: Controller Pak Compatible, Rumble Pak Compatible, 1-4 players

The Game

The sequel to the hit, Star Fox for the Super Nintendo, where you are Fox McCloud, and you team up with all your old buddies, Falco, Slippy, and Peppy, plus Bill is around to give advice to kill all the bad guys and save the galaxy from destruction.

Graphics

All the ships and land vehicles look great! The got a great level of detail on the ships, and look absolutely amazing to the point where you can see the door panels and logos! The backgrounds look excellent too, and give a great sci-fi feel to the game. All the character drawings in the text boxes at the bottom of the screen look pretty good too.

There isn't nothing major to point out about the graphics, but even though they look great, the ships still look pretty simple, and the ship models can easily be pulled off on the PSX or Saturn, and sometimes during 3 or 4 player battle mode, the background are hard to make out because there’s a lot of fog and it's sort of hard to see your opponent's ship, but digital cross hairs surround opponents ships to make sure you know where they are.

Sound

The sound is absolutely something to marvel over in this game! The background music fits the game so well, you'll feel like you're watching Star Trek all over again! But the greatest part about the sound is the amount of digitized voice used! Remember, in the original Star Fox game, you'll always be looking at the bottom of the screen at the text boxes to see what the text box would say, and you'll always lose your spot in the heat of the action, well the text boxes are still there for people who are deaf or for people who just blast there stereo during the game, but the use of the voice is so spectacular because now you'll pay attention to what they're saying and never get lost again!

Game play

Besides using your basic fighter plane, you can also use the brand new tank, and bulldozer(those aren't the vehicles real name, but gives you a good idea to what they look like, I can't remember the names, sorry!) The levels you go through in your campaigns are very challenging, especially the last boss, and you gotta make it out of the building before it collapses, it makes the game even more challenging! The campaign has a great storyline and an impressive ending when you beat the game on hard. Your vehicles have new moves like spins to deflect enemy shots, and circular 360's to fool your foes.

The multi player mode makes the game a whole heck of a lot more fun to play, you can mix between the fighter jets and the tanks(you only get the tanks if you beat the game on the highest difficulty level), or have the same of each, and duke it out with up to 4 players playing simultaneously. There are power ups on the course for smart bombs and double laser to make it more fun to beat up your friends. This game goes up there to be one of the best n64 multi player games along with Goldeneye 007, WCW/NWO Revenge, WWF WM 2000, Jeopardy!, and Quake 2.

There are a couple of bad points about the game, take the campaign missions, it doesn't even take all that long to beat, in my first time through the game on hard mode, it only took me about 45 minutes-1 hour to beat, plus there's only 2 levels to play in for multi player mode! That’s not a big variety, I was expecting somewhere around 4 to 8 levels like other Nintendo hits, Goldeneye 007 and Mario Kart 64.

Replay Value

The single player campaign mode is very impressive with a great plot, but you can easily beat it within an hour, maybe 2 hours on your first try, but the real fun here is the multi player mode which will be an all-out party with your friends, this part of the game will keep you playing for hours on end with your friends, but I do wish there could’ve been more levels to choose from to battle in. There’s also Time Attack courses to do in the game and the game saves your high scores to the game pak. Also when the game originally came out, it was bundled with the N64 Rumble Pak, an accessory that made you “feel” the game, for example, your controller would shake if you get hit, this was a pretty cool extra that Nintendo included.

In Brief

+: Unbelievable use of sound, great multi player mode, free Rumble Pak!(if you bought the first release, not the Player’s Choice edition)

-: The Campaign is too short, not enough multi player stages, Rumble Pak eats up batteries fast!

The Final Ratings Rundown

Graphics: 8.5
Sound: 9.8
Game Play: 8.4
Replay Value: 7.7

Overall: 8.6

Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 9

Final Analysis

Way better than the original, and you'll go absolutely crazy over the multi player mode, so if you're a fan of the original, or looking for some great multi player fun, pick up this title, it's also a million seller player choice title, which means you can buy it brand new for just $40, but of course there's no Rumble Pak with it.