Star Fox 64

Star Fox 64 (also known in Australia and Europe as Lylat Wars due to trademark issues) is the second game in Nintendo's Star Fox series, and the only to be released on the Nintendo 64. It is also a confirmed title for download on the Wii Virtual Console.

The planned second game in the series for the SNES, Star Fox 2, was scrapped due to the upcoming release of the Nintendo 64, but some of its features were used in Star Fox 64, such as all range mode. It was the first game to introduce support for the Rumble Pak.

Gameplay
In Star Fox 64, the player controls one of the vehicles piloted by Fox McCloud, usually an Arwing, as it travels on a fixed-rail that generally moves straight forward. The player's vehicle can be maneuvered around the screen to dodge obstacles and shoot incoming enemies with laser cannons. All vehicles can also charge up their laser cannons to unleash a powerful lock-on laser.

As well as the forced progression of the main game, some levels and bosses take place in "all range mode" (available only with the Arwing during single-player), where the player can move freely around a rectangular arena and engage in combat with various enemies. The Arwing has one new maneuver it can perform in all range mode; it can U-turn up-and-over to change direction.

Returning from the original Star Fox game are wingmen that fly beside the player in Arwings and are sometimes pursued into your field of vision by enemies. The longer it takes you to save the wingmen the more damage they will take, eventually leading to that wingman retreating to the Great Fox for repairs. If one of the wingmen has returned to the Great Fox, that wingman cannot help the player in the next mission, but returns after that. Extra points are added to the player's score by keeping all of the wingmen's health meters full. Although it may seem like a burden to keep your wingmen alive, it is necessary for all three to be with you still at the end of each stage to be able to achieve a medal. Also, if Slippy is on the Great Fox, he will not be able to scan the boss and reveal it's life bar.

Among Star Fox 64 ' s features is the vastly hyped in-game sampled voice speech that replaced the chatter from the original game. However, the original chatter, referred to as Lylat in the language option-screen, can be enabled in the PAL version, though the feature is not in the Japanese and NTSC versions. The game relies much more heavily on dialogue than the original, and together with the cinematic sequences, they drive the story forward. This dialogue has also become the target of parody in recent years, especially the repetitive phrases of Peppy Hare (particularly the phrase "Do a barrel roll!").

Instead of the fixed series of levels of the original (determined by the difficulty level chosen), many of the levels branch out to two different levels, with the "upper" branch requiring the player to accomplish a certain task. If the task is completed, the end of the level will read "Mission Accomplished." However, if this task is not achieved, the ending will read "Mission Complete", and the player must take the "downward" route. The levels correspond loosely to the difficulty levels of the original Star Fox, with routes color coded blue, yellow, and red to represent the easy, normal, and hard levels of difficulty respectively. Many of the forced paths bring the Star Fox team into contact with the Star Wolf team, a nemesis squadron originally slated to appear in the unreleased Star Fox 2.

Finally, to add replay challenge, the game features awardable "medals," which are earned by accomplishing a mission with all wingmen intact and having achieved a certain hit total. These totals are often a high percentage of the total enemies on the stage, leaving little room for error. Obtaining medals results in unlocking bonus features, such as a sound test and the ability to use the Landmaster tank and fight on foot in multiplayer mode. Acquiring all medals unlocks a new "Expert" mode in which there are more enemies per level, the player's Arwing takes more damage (a direct collision with solid obstacles will destroy any of the Arwing's wings in one hit), and Fox wears sunglasses similar to his father's. Acquiring all medals on Expert mode unlocks a new title screen for the game.

Vehicles

 * Arwing &mdash; The primary craft used by the Star Fox team in the game, the Arwing is a spaceship armed with one standard laser (which can be upgraded to twin or hyper lasers) and is capable of firing Nova Bombs which help clear the area of enemy craft, though the Nova Bombs aren't as effective in all-range places such as Katina. As with all of the Star Fox games, barrel rolling is an integral part of gameplay because your ship deflects lasers while performing a barrel roll. Your Arwing can also use its boost meter to perform three special moves to avoid collisions and get the drop on pursuers: boost, brake, and loop.
 * Landmaster &mdash; A tank-like vehicle, the Landmaster is only used on two levels in the entire game. The Landmaster has one standard laser, which can only be upgraded to twin lasers in multiplayer mode. Like the Arwing, the Landmaster can perform a barrel roll and fire Nova Bombs. The barrel roll performed by the Landmaster, however, is used only as an evasionary tactic because it doesn't deflect lasers. The Landmaster can hover a short while in addition to being able to perform a boost.


 * Blue Marine &mdash; This submarine recently-finished by Slippy can only be used on Aquas, which houses a primarily aquatic environment. The Blue Marine has one standard laser which can be upgraded to twin or hyper lasers, and also has an unlimited supply of torpedos which not only damage enemies but also allow the player to see when there is limited light.

Story
Strange activity is spotted on the planet Venom, part of the Lylat System, where the evil scientist Andross has been exiled. The governing planet, Corneria, sends the Star Fox team to investigate. The Star Fox team consists of pilots James McCloud, Peppy Hare, and Pigma Dengar. Upon their arrival at Venom, Pigma betrays the team, causing James and Peppy to be captured by Andross. Peppy escapes Venom, but James does not return.

Some time later, strange activity is noticed again and a new Star Fox team, consisting of Fox McCloud (the player), Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad, is sent to investigate. After battling their way through various stages, including planets and asteroid fields, as well as battling the rival team Star Wolf (Wolf O'Donnell, Pigma Dengar, Leon Powalski, and Andrew Oikonny) Star Fox reaches Venom and defeats Andross. Afterwards, General Pepper asks the members of the Star Fox team to become members of the Cornerian army, but they decline the offer.

Multiplayer
Star Fox 64 features multiplayer support for up to four players simultaneously. At first users can only choose to play using the Arwing spaceship, but by earning the proper amount of medals in Story Mode, players can choose the Landmaster tank, or the abillity to play as the pilot on foot. Unlike the main game, players cannot upgrade to hyper lasers, although players can upgrade to twin lasers, and can only carry a maximum of one nova bomb at a time.

Reception
Acclaimed by many reviewers, Star Fox 64 was one of the top-selling games of 1997, second only to Mario Kart 64. In the first five days of the game's U.S. launch, over 300,000 copies were sold, surpassing the record previously held by Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario 64. Sales were considerably less in Japan, where it sold 75,595 copies during the first week of sale. . The game also took the #73 spot in Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever".

GameSpot noted that Star Fox 64 is "an instant classic" and was impressed by the voice acting. Glenn Rubenstein, the reviewer, noted that the game is "a pleasure to look at" and liked the cinematic quality of the storyline. Although other reviewers such as IGN said that the game is "extremely repetitive" and that the music quality was not as good as the original Star Fox, they still praised the branching system and "intelligently designed levels" which compensate for those points.

Star Fox 64 toys were included with Taco Bell kids meals alongside four other Nintendo themed toys in 1997. Nintendo Power subscribers received a promotional video prior to Star Fox 64's release (the same tactic was used to promote Donkey Kong Country for the SNES) that advertised the game's cinematic presentation, as well as new features like the Rumble Pak and voice acting. It revolves around two agents of Sega and Sony (who, at the time, were Nintendo's biggest competitors) kidnapping Nintendo employres and forcing them to reveal information about the upcoming Star Fox title by "torturing" a Mario doll. A copy of the video can be viewed here in its entirety.

Speedrunning
Brett 'Psonar' Ables of America holds the world's fastest time of completion of Star Fox 64 in Normal Mode on September 7, 2006 &mdash; 25 minutes and 45 seconds. . Brett 'Psonar' Ables also holds speedrun records in two other run categories. He completed the game along the Redline path in Expert Mode on September 27, 2006 in 35 minutes and 35 seconds, and also holds the speedrun record for 100% Completion (collecting all 15 medals) done in Expert Mode on September 21, 2006 with a time of 1 hour, 24 minutes, and 52 seconds. (The 100% speedrun contains 2 resets to allow collection of all 15 medals. The video demonstration was done in a single segment.) Aleks 'SuperCoolAl' Lukic of the UK set the world's fastest time of completion of the PAL version of Star Fox 64, in Expert Mode, on July 2, 2005, &mdash; 33 minutes and 16 seconds. Demonstration videos of these accomplishments, the authors' detailed comments, and community discussion are available at Speed Demos Archive.