Place some talking animals in an original Star Wars-themed adventure and you'll get a highly addictive classic.
It is essentially a remake of the original SNES classic, but with more detail. Fox McCloud and his ragtag team of animal pilots go out in search of the sinister Andross and stop him from taking over the Lylat System once more. Fox is also doing so in order to avenge his father, who was betrayed by one of his comrades and was killed by Andross.
The game is presented as an on-rails shooter. Your ship is automatically pushed forward, in which case all you have to do is move around the screen to kill enemies and dodge obstacles along side your comrades. There are quite a few paths to go through in this game. The path you ultimately choose toward the end is what will determine the ending. One is a fake ending and the other is the true ending. The levels themselves are varied throughout. Most of the time you'll remain in the air with your Arwing, but there are a couple of land missions and one water level. The two land missions have you in a vehicle called the land master. It controls pretty much the same as the Arwing, but you can hover for a little bit. The same controls apply to the Blue Marine, your water vehicle. All of these vehicles are fun to use and control beautifully. This game includes some of the finest controls in a shooter. It's practically flawless really.
In certain levels you'll be engaging in All-Range mode, which is a feature that was built into the ill-fated Star Fox 2. You'll be moving around a large space trying to shoot down your targets without having to be pushed in a straight path. And just like Star Fox 2, during a couple of the All-Range mode missions you'll be fighting off the rival mercenary squadron Star Wolf, who are sent by Andross to stop you. Your teammates will be asking for your help more than once in this mode, which gets rather irritating. While there are a good amount of levels to be found, you'll only be able to go through around seven levels and you can beat each path in roughly 45 minutes. That can come as a disappointment to some, but this is what helps add to the replay value. Included with the single player is a 4-player battle mode set up as All-Range mode. All you have to do is shoot down your teammates. There are only two levels to choose from. You can start off using the arwing, but as you progress through single player you can unlock the land master and even go on foot. As fun as the multiplayer can be, it isn't as memorable as a game like Goldeneye's multiplayer option.You really go into this game mainly for the single player experience.
There are three ways to finish a mission. Depending on how you beat the mission determines where you will go next. Mission Complete means that you weren't able to complete the level the way you were supposed to. Mission Accomplished means, of course, you did every thing right. You'll want to get a mission accomplished in order to reach the higher paths. If you were to mess up, you can always retry the mission at the cost of one life per retry. The game also includes a medal system. By defeating a certain number of enemies and having your teammates in tact you can obtain these medals. Getting all of the medals unlocks various features, such as multiplayer options, sound test, and an expert mode. The combination of fun levels, a medal system, added unlockable features, and multiple paths help to create excellent replay value.
Star Fox 64 remains one of the best looking games for the N64. The levels, enemies, and ship models all look great and have a great amount of detail and the game boasts an excellent Star Wars styled art design. Even better than the graphics is the memorable music and sound. The soundtrack is top notch and suit each level nicely. The sound effects sound great and the cheesy voice acting is classic.
PROS:
-Excellent graphics
-Great music and sound
-Cheesy good voice acting
-Creative levels that are full of variety
-Some of the smoothest controls ever put together in a shooting game
-Tons of replayabilty
CONS:
-Short game
-Teammates are constantly asking for your help, especially in All-Range mode
To put it simply: this is a must own title for all N64 owners out there.