Star Fox, released all the way in 1993, was the first Super Nintendo game to take advantage of what Nintendo termed their Super FX chip. This enabled unique polygon graphics, which you can check out here, and provided Nintendo with a new, entertaining IP for their collection.

Star Fox is what’s known as a ‘rail shooter’, whereby the ship or vehicle is on a more or less set path through any given level, with limited or zero divergence from the path. The player’s ship, the Arwing, is viewed from behind, and to a degree the player can change the view, by setting a cockpit mode, though this is not always possible for every level. There are three paths through the game, each with their own levels, and sorted by varying degrees of difficulty.

I remember finding the game to be a delight when I first played it. Some of the levels always brought a thrill, especially the boss fights, and the game’s graphical style was so completely different to anything else on the big 16-bit consoles of the time. You can perform various twists and turns in the Arwing craft, and take on some terrifying dives underneath or around looming structures and enemies. There is immense satisfaction to be found in destroying bosses, especially ones that you have previously been stumped by.

It took me literally years (in fact, I don’t think this happened till I got to play Star Fox via the Switch) to beat the game via the hardest path, but it was such a great moment for me. It goes to show that years later, this game has terrific replay value, and remains enjoyable.

Star Fox has led to a long-running franchise. A second game was developed for the SNES, and was nearly released, but scrapped in order to develop a game for the Nintendo 64 instead. Star Fox 64 was similar to its predecessor, albeit with new features and expanded mechanics. This was followed by Star Fox Adventures, which was in fact meant to be a different game entirely, with Fox McCloud and his team added in the late stages. This game was more akin to a Zelda-style exploration game, though it was fun in its own right. Star Fox Assault and Star Fox Zero round off the main console games, though there are also games available for the likes of the Nintendo DS.

One of the curious things about the abandoned Star Fox 2 is that it would eventually resurface. A nearly-complete version of the game leaked online, and given the demand for this game, Nintendo would take the decision to release it as part of the SNES Mini package. It would also find its way to the Nintendo Online catalogue. I haven’t played it very much, though it struck me as being reasonable enough, and certainly different enough to the original to qualify as unique. Other unusual aspects of the Star Fox franchise include different game titles in the UK, at least at first. When I got the game, it was known as Starwing in the UK, due to a pre-existing Star Fox game. Star Fox 64 was launched as Lylat Wars in the UK, due to further copyright issues, this time about the name Starwing!

Returning to the beginning, I love the original Star Fox game. 9/10

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