Despite its lack of the rumble feature, the Wii port is definitely better than the N64 cartridge!
And now that this game is out in the Virtual Console, It still remains as one of my favorite shooters as it holds up excellently. I mean this is so far the best Star Fox game; The first game on the SNES was really good, too, as the Adventures game on the GameCube seemed more a Zelda rip-off, and the Assault game on the same system is a step in the right direction, but still leaves much to be desired.
Compared to the GameCube games, the N64 game carried only one premise: An evil monkey named Andross is taking over the Lylat system and you are in a team to stop the monkey from happen, and along the way you have to fight the monkey's troops and main bosses in various planets. That's it; no epic story floating around carlessly. As simple as the premise is, the strongest point is the gameplay as you fly in your Arwing and just blow enemies and other crap up. The gameplay is insane as there are enemies popping up all over the place, and makes it even more insane when you're competing for high points, which depend in how many enemies you shoot in each level. When you shoot a high enough number of enemies, as well as keep all three of your teammates alive by simply defending them, you'll earn a medal. If you earn medals in all 15 levels of the game (you can only travel through 7 each time), you'll open up Expert more, which has more enemies and it is easier to lose your wings.
Now, despite the fact that the rumble feature isn't present in the Wii port, the thing that makes the port better than the N64 cartridge is the updated graphics themselves. Running at a 480p resolution, the port looks sharper as it runs at a much smoother framerate than the N64 game. I mean, compare the defeated boss's explosions--such as the Forever Train's explosion in the building--on the Wii port and the N64 cartridge and you'll see what I mean.
Another minor issue is which controller to play it: Classic or GameCube controller? Well the Classic controller is rather awkward as you'll no doubt mistakenly push wrong buttons and pull off wrong moves. The GameCube controller handles the control much better, yet it takes a little time to get used to. If you can learn the button "shortcuts" in this game--that is, Y button to boost, X to brake, Z to recieve messages from ROB64, you'll get the hang of it.
This is by far the best N64 game on the VC so far. Yes you'll lose the rumble ability, but that's only a minor issue. If you're looking for a good N64 game on the VC, better check this one out.