WE ALL HAVE THAT ONE GAME WE CAN PLAY FOREVER

When you get caught up in nostalgia, it can be a powerful force to struggle against. It's strange to peek into someone else's particular preferences when it comes to their favorite game, and by that I mean a game that can be played endlessly while still providing infinite hours of enjoyment for whatever reason that may be.

I look at some people who can play through a game like The Legend of Zelda or even Super Mario 64 and how boring it looks, even though I know I played a hell of a lot of it as a child. Every time I try to go back to it, whether for ranomized runs or just the basic run, it feels way too dated with the the concept of it, while they are playing it for thousands and thousands of hours, and I am just shocked at how that could be.

But for me, that feeling comes to me from Star Fox 64 a very popular Sci-Fi adventure game for the Nintendo 64. This was a game alongside Super Mario, Smash Bros and even The Legend of Zelda. I can't begin to explain to you how many times I've played through each scenario. I recently realized that this was probably the first game I ever played with a multi-branch of events that led you down so many secret warps and missions with two possible endings.

Story

Starfox

This game has a lot of story to tell with its characters, the dialogue between General Pepper, Falco, Fox, Peppy, Bill, Katt, and, to a lesser extent, Slippy, but we won't go into details about him. I can essentially remember every single instance of each map and interaction verbatim, and each time I do, there is a flood of a calming peaceful emotion that allows me to play this game when I am really sad or just enraged.

You are Fox Mcloud, hired by the Cornerian army to help put an end to Andross, the evildoer who is attempting to take over the Galaxy with his equally evil crew behind Starwolf, your nemesis, and some former team members who betrayed your father which ended up getting him killed in the battle against Andross prior.

They didn't need to go so hard on the backstory, they could have just thrown you in without voice acting and let you fight through each map, allowing you to piece together your own story, but this was the golden age of gaming, and developers like Nintendo went out of their way to provide you with an experience you'd never forget, and this still rings true today with each and every IP they continue to push forward!

Presentation

Aged like a fine wine

Visually, it's as simple as it could have been, with its polygon design for the ArWings and sometimes frustrating controls since we had to use the old N64 controller back then, and if you don't remember what that looked like, you're in for a huge surprise.

Man, I haven't had one of these in decades. I can't remember how we used such a controller to physically play a lot of the games we did, constantly shifting our left and right hand from the side to the middle to control movement in certain games while using the D-Pad for other things like switching inventory items and navigating menus.

But we did, and if I recall it was like an arcade experience. Looking back, I was quite accurate about how bad the controls were, playing this game again with an emulator and an actual controller I can handle like a dignified person, it's still wonderful.

Gameplay

So exciting!

While not every part of the game itself is amazing, it's one of the few if not only games I could actually see myself getting excited for in the sense of Speed Running, a lot of these bosses and a lot of the movement they make is actually quite difficult to pin-point at times just due to the rubber banding reticle where you have to keep tapping the directional control towards them and mashing the (A) button. Out of the hundreds of thousands of runs I've put into this game, there has only been one time I've taken out the Gundam Suit boss, StarWolf (True Ending), and Andross (True Ending) in mere seconds for the perfect medal and I wasn't even speed running!

It may seem dated to some and even me, but it's one of the best Nintendo titles that I honestly wish they would remake without changing a thing and ruining it's image.

Conclusion

I'll continue to play it

It's a game that makes me laugh and smile, reminding me of simpler times when I played games with my grandma and walk outdoors with her to gather berries, collect insects, and have other adventures. Maybe that's what it is, a pleasant memory.

I can't do a lot of those things anymore for obvious reasons, but I can sit here and reflect on the happy times we had together, as well as have something to brighten me up anytime I need it, without being judged. You'll most likely have an entirely different game that you like over this one. That is great and very wonderful to hear. If you ever want to play this game, you should do it through Emulation because it is one of the few methods to get your hands on it, as a real copy of the system and game may cost up to $200-300, which is obviously not very worth the experience.

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