Star Fox Is A New Beginning That Undermines Itself - Campaign Review

[00:00] There's a reason Nintendo keeps remaking

[00:02] Star Fox 64. The N64 iteration of the

[00:05] rail shooter, at the time the second

[00:07] Star Fox release, remains the apex of

[00:10] the franchise, a genuinely fantastic

[00:12] game that still holds up and stands the

[00:15] test of time. Subsequent sequels that

[00:18] have attempted to recapture the magic

[00:19] have floundered by comparison. This

[00:21] latest iteration, simply titled Star Fox

[00:24] for what I can only assume is meant to

[00:26] be a soft reboot, plays just as great as

[00:29] you remember and even looks better. But

[00:32] if you've already played Star Fox 64 in

[00:35] any iteration, it will be hard to shake

[00:37] the feeling of deja vu.

[00:46] Atmospheric entry complete. Extend the

[00:48] wings. For the uninitiated, or perhaps

[00:51] those who just learned about ultra cool

[00:53] guy Fox Mloud from his spotlight

[00:55] stealing cameo in the Mario Galaxy

[00:57] movie, Star Fox takes place in a galaxy

[01:00] called the Lilacat system, composed of

[01:03] anthropomorphic animals with futuristic

[01:05] space travel technology. Star Fox is a

[01:08] group of well-funded fighter jock

[01:10] mercenaries who are regularly called

[01:13] upon by a military general, a dog named

[01:16] Pepper, to assist their space combat

[01:19] operations. As established in an opening

[01:21] cutscene some years ago, Fox's father,

[01:24] James Mloud, was in route to investigate

[01:26] questionable activity on a planet named

[01:29] Venom when his wingmate Pigma betrayed

[01:31] him to the mad scientist Andros. James

[01:34] was lost. his trusty wingman Pepe

[01:37] escaped and Andros kept quietly

[01:39] assembling his army for an invasion of

[01:42] the rest of the Lilat system. That

[01:44] sequence establishes one of the major

[01:46] new features of this remake. Fully

[01:49] animated cutscenes, and to their credit,

[01:52] these are very well-made sequences. The

[01:54] aerial stunts look cool while staying

[01:56] true to the original spirit were needed,

[01:59] and the voice acting has been updated to

[02:01] facilitate the expanded scope. The more

[02:04] realistic character designs were

[02:05] divisive when shown off earlier this

[02:07] year, but I felt fine with them from the

[02:10] beginning, and after spending some time

[02:12] seeing them animated in cutscenes, I've

[02:14] come to really appreciate the look.

[02:17] Their faces are nicely expressive, and

[02:19] textures like fur give them a sense of

[02:21] realism while still staying in the

[02:23] fantastical world of space animals. The

[02:26] vast majority of the cut scenes take

[02:28] place aboard their docking ship, The

[02:30] Great Fox, as they discuss strategy, but

[02:32] the characters are still given lots of

[02:34] characterization in their movements and

[02:36] gestures to express their perspectives

[02:38] and personalities. For example, Falco

[02:41] rolls his eyes a lot because he is above

[02:44] all kind of a jerk.

[02:46] >> Some of your crew is worth it anyway. A

[02:49] similarly heightened level of visual

[02:50] fidelity is present in the stages

[02:52] themselves, which look recognizable to

[02:54] their N64 counterparts without feeling

[02:57] too beholden to their jagged edges and

[02:59] geometry. While all the stages look

[03:01] great, the upgraded style is most

[03:04] impressive when it shows off new

[03:05] flourishes that weren't available in the

[03:07] original, like the lighting effects of

[03:09] your lasers reflecting off the surfaces

[03:11] and illuminating dark caves. Star Fox 64

[03:14] always excelled at stage variety, but

[03:17] this remake accentuates it by making

[03:19] each stage appear vastly different from

[03:21] the rest. I especially loved revisiting

[03:24] the stages that are major departures

[03:25] from the others. Revisiting all the

[03:27] areas takes at least a few runs because

[03:29] of how the stage layout has worked since

[03:31] the original. One of the coolest aspects

[03:33] of Star Fox 64, and again here, is the

[03:36] ability to carve your way from one side

[03:38] of the galaxy to another in a relatively

[03:40] free form fashion, completing optional

[03:43] objectives. In broad terms, you can see

[03:45] the three paths as easy, medium, and

[03:48] hard, but you aren't limited to one

[03:50] track. If you know how to find your way,

[03:52] you can easily hop between paths

[03:54] throughout. So, you aren't committed to

[03:56] only staying on one difficulty track.

[03:58] Completing a hidden objective that opens

[04:01] the harder path will always let you

[04:02] switch to the easier one. But if you

[04:05] only complete the easier objective, you

[04:07] can't switch to the harder path. In the

[04:09] original Star Fox 64, this was presented

[04:12] rather plainly with a blue, yellow, or

[04:14] red line showing where you can go. In

[04:16] this version, it's given a good deal

[04:18] more panache, thanks again to the new

[04:20] extended cutscenes. Rather than simply

[04:23] present you with a choice of locations

[04:25] for your next mission, each mission

[04:27] starts with General Pepper debriefing

[04:29] from the last mission and explaining the

[04:31] strategic importance of both next

[04:33] possible locations. One might have a

[04:35] suspected bioweapon while the other is

[04:37] an outpost under attack. In each case,

[04:40] Pepper outlines why Star Fox is the best

[04:42] or perhaps only available force to

[04:44] complete this mission. And since there's

[04:47] some overlap as you could approach a

[04:49] planet from different directions, it's

[04:51] particularly impressive how these

[04:52] cutscenes stitch different pieces

[04:54] together without feeling noticeably

[04:56] disjointed.

[04:57] >> You should neutralize the facility and

[04:59] destroy that weapon before it's deployed

[05:01] against us.

[05:02] >> We'll take it under advisement, General.

[05:05] >> These all lead to the same outcome. Of

[05:07] course, you're ultimately headed toward

[05:09] Venom to take on Andros no matter what,

[05:12] and it doesn't make a difference in the

[05:13] end whether you went to Sector X or

[05:15] Solar, but it does a good job of tying

[05:18] the journey together and giving each

[05:19] mission an appropriate amount of weight.

[05:22] Sometimes I even felt bad abandoning one

[05:24] planet in Ne for another, even knowing

[05:26] that it doesn't have any impact. The

[05:28] extended cutscenes also help define the

[05:30] characters' relationships with each

[05:32] other and with General Pepper. Felco has

[05:35] always been portrayed as a cocky hot

[05:37] shot, but here we get to see him slowly

[05:40] warming to Fox's leadership. Pepe is the

[05:43] assured veteran who trusts Fox will come

[05:45] into his own as a leader. We even get

[05:48] some insight about why the team keeps

[05:50] Slippy around as the cut scenes sell him

[05:52] as a machinist wonder kind who's always

[05:55] two steps ahead in anticipating their

[05:57] equipment needs. I've been developing a

[06:00] prototype submersible. It's exactly what

[06:02] we need for this sort of mission.

[06:04] >> And Fox, for the most part, is played as

[06:07] the cool Han Solo type, a mercenary

[06:09] needing General Pepper to pay for their

[06:11] valuable services, even if he's

[06:13] obviously going to do the heroic thing

[06:15] regardless. Wayfinding to new paths is a

[06:18] little easier this time around, too.

[06:20] Dialogue will drop hints about what to

[06:22] do to open new paths without being

[06:24] overly on the nose or spelling it out

[06:26] for you. If you miss an optional

[06:27] objective, it's easier to restart a

[06:29] stage from the beginning or from your

[06:31] most recent checkpoint. And doing so

[06:33] doesn't even cost you a life or

[06:35] eliminate your laser upgrades or bombs.

[06:38] You can even entirely complete a stage,

[06:40] see where it leads, and then go back and

[06:42] do it again immediately to try for

[06:44] another way. That said, I was surprised

[06:46] that each run through the Lilat system

[06:49] is treated as its own distinct game

[06:51] progression, like the original. That

[06:53] means that once you finish the game,

[06:55] you'll need to start a new on Corneria

[06:57] and cut your path through from the

[06:59] beginning. This is true to the original,

[07:01] and I don't mind the faithfulness to a

[07:04] point, but for returning fans who

[07:06] already know their way around, it would

[07:08] have been nice to have the option to

[07:09] track which paths you've already opened

[07:12] and let you jump back to planets,

[07:14] eventually creating a fully filled out

[07:16] star map. And while the updated visuals

[07:18] are often gorgeous, they do come with

[07:20] some trade-offs that take getting used

[07:22] to. For one thing, your targets are a

[07:24] lot less obvious with much more

[07:26] happening on screen visually, so it's

[07:28] easier to miss a flyer who gets away. In

[07:31] boss battles, weak points are less

[07:33] obvious than the glowing vulnerabilities

[07:35] of the original, and they don't flash as

[07:37] brightly when you land a successful hit

[07:39] to let you know that you're doing

[07:41] damage. And with the higher fidelity

[07:43] making everything look much more like it

[07:45] has weight and bulk. It's a little

[07:46] strange when a capital warship in Area 6

[07:50] explodes like an empty cardboard box.

[07:53] >> Curse you, Star Fox.

[07:58] >> Star Fox is a remake, but also appears

[08:01] to be an attempt at a reset. The

[08:04] franchise has never really found its

[08:06] footing despite clearly having a lot of

[08:07] love from Nintendo. This story has

[08:10] always felt like a starting point,

[08:11] establishing the characters and hinting

[08:13] at their backstory. So altogether, this

[08:16] remake may be the best possible way to

[08:18] give the series a fresh start. At the

[08:21] same time, the original still holds up

[08:23] very well. And if you have Switch online

[08:26] with the expansion pass, you can already

[08:28] play it. That makes this hard to

[08:30] recommend, which is a shame. If Nintendo

[08:33] means this to be a new beginning for

[08:35] Star Fox, retreading familiar ground

[08:37] undermines the effort.