SoI've had my n64 laying around for the past couple of years just gathering dust and I recently found my old copy of Star Fox 64. After buying a new power chord for the machine, I decided to power it up again and the 1st game I popped in was Star Fox 64. Oddly, I haven't been able to put it down for the past week. Right now I'm in the process of trying to earn all the medals, but halfway through my second playthrough I started thinking, "Why hasn't this franchise seen more than 2 titles with this formula in the past 20 years?" The gameplay is downright addicting,even if it isa lot easier than I remember as a kid. Almost evey level is vastly different from one another, the bosses were all seem unique even if the method to killing each one is rather similar, and some of the water levels still had me in awe of the artistic direction. In the end, something about seeing these unreasonably upbeat (probably to the point of psychosis),anthropomorphic killing machines take down wave after wave of enemy shipsputs a smile on my face everytime. :D

Now I know there have been a1 or 2 Star Fox games on the Gamecube, but they changed the formula up so much thatthey barely even felt like a Star Fox game besides familiar faces and names. Maybe the team behind the series is trying to hard to "keep up" with gaming trends, but I seriously think that if they would stick to the formula and just try to make it bigger and better where appropriate and expand on everything the core series offered, it could still be a muchbigger and more popularfranchise. Imo this is the most under utilized franchise in Nintendo's arsenal and probably on any console.

Which brings me to e3 2011. If Nintendo's new system (whatever it's going to be called) were toshowcase with a new Star Fox game I would seriously consider buying it the month it launches. The amazing new worlds they could create along with graphical improvements to the arwing, the characters themselves, and literally everything, would be nothing short of amazing. Even though I know there's no reason to assume that a new Star Fox game like the originals will begin development anytime soon, I still find myself wondering (like every other jaded gamer) how great a game it would,could, and should be...

'Couldn't agree more? 'Think I'm letting nostalgia get the best of me? Or maybe you think my blog downright sucks. :(

Either way, feel free to let me know what you think. :)

Let me start off by saying that I''ve been playing games since the original NES era. You know, back when games were more about the enjoyment you got from it than how realistic it looked? Now don't get me wrong, I have a ton of respect for the hard work and effort devs like Rockstar, Crytek, and others put into creating realistic game worlds this gen, but at the end of the day what determines how much time I'll sink into a game is how much fun i have while playing. So whether it's a deep and engrossing epic like "Mass Effect" 1 and 2, or a shamelessly violent and morality-void romp through the purely entertaining worlds of "Saints Row 2" and "Just Cause 2" the goal is the same; to have a fun. I think some game developers are pushing so much for photo-realsim that we're missing out on what gaming is supposed to be doing, playing to your imagination and creating worlds that couldn't exist in real life. There's def a great experience to be had from playing games like "GTA4," "Red Dead Redemption," "LA Noire" (which I'm really looking forward to), and the "Far Cry" series (excluding the last gen console installments). But what is to keep people coming back to cities like New York, LA, and realistic jungle and island settings when - at least as far as cities are concerned - we could experience the same sights and sounds in everyday life. in short, where's the imagination? Contrast those settings to the somewhat futuristic, or at least outlandish, design of some of "Saints Row 2's" architecture. An underground cave as a tourist spot, underground mall (although the idea was better than the execution tbh), multiple side islands including an Alcatraz like prison with "fight club" in the center and the other housing a nuclear power plant, and last but not least a sky scraper that would make the Burj Khalifa in Dubai blush. Or take "Just cause 2's" incredibly large and, at times comically ethnically confused, world for instance. There are so many things to destroy that it took me upwards of 15 hours just to build up the will to fly to the 2nd major island. And I only did that because I wanted to say that I had visited every island. There's so much to explore and destroy that it's almost daunting trying to figure out what region to go to next. What's not to enjoy about hijacking a military helicopter and fying out to sea to destroy an island military base or oil rig, straffing left and right while dodging incoming missiles and counter-helicopter attacks? Or flying above the clouds and parachuting onto a floating nightclub which is suspended a mile above ground and which inexplicably resembles some kind of airship/yatch/blimp hybrid to cause havoc only to hop into an already parked plane and jettison off using the nightclub's runway? Although it's mostly senseless, it sure is fun. And from what I remember, that's everything that gaming is supposed to be about. Maybe the draw behind ultra-realistic, real world environments in gaming just doesn't appeal very much to me. I wouldn't deny the critical acclaim that many of these games receive. I simply wish they would put more imagination into the world's and characters that they create. Because at this point many of the most rewarding experiences I've had this gen haven't been from the big name modern fps and realistic open world games, but instead from the game devs who took a hit with the critics in an attempt to give players nothing but pure and unadultured fun...