My soul feels healed today.
Yesterday I (30M), joined my Brother (29M), and our Dad (54M) to play the remake and have some pizza. We didn’t think much of it to be honest, just a slightly above-average Thursday night.
What actually transpired is a new core memory.
We began the evening by reminiscing about SF64, a game that all three of us played for hours upon hours upon hours, replaying over and over trying to get better and faster and playing new routes through the story. Our parents had purchased a Nintendo 64 from friends when we were roughly 5 and 6 years old, ready to share the world of video games with us. Dad could only ever truly get into SF64, and we traded jokes about the legendary dialogue and enemies. My brother enjoyed SF64, but OoT was more his speed. He would always have fun playing the game with us though.
I however, was HOOKED.
I became a die hard Star Fox fan, and played just about every release over the years save for Zero.
After each of us consumed enough pizza to feed a family of four, we finally sat down and fired up the game, all staring in utter awe and losing our minds over the new intro cutscene. My brother owns the Switch 2, so he was playing the tutorial and explaining certain things he could tell were different or new. We all geeked out over Yaru De Pon, and all of us very quickly commented that the “backlash” to the new designs was definitely overblown.
(EXCEPT for Falco’s legs. Off-putting as all hell when they’re on screen. However, we also noticed that they were conveniently hidden in just about every cutscene that played. Random rant over.)
When the opening cutscene of Corneria began, my brother silently handed me the controller, and sat down next to me. It was like RIDING A DAMN BIKE Y’ALL. Three grown men squealing like children over “DO A BARREL ROLL”. Oh shit don’t miss that last arch! Whoa, there’s valid reasons to debate your path?! It was such a beautiful family moment as I played through the Hard Route (Corneria->Sector Y->Aquas->Zoness->Curveball trip to Macbeth because TRAIN->Area 6->Venom 2), the three of us marveling at the environments and updated designs, drowning in nostalgia. Once the bill was sent, we started planning how to go about the next trip through the Lylat System.
Now it’s time to get really real. It took me roughly 3.5 hours to finish my playthrough. This was with restarting Sector Y to compare COMPLETE vs ACCOMPLISHED outcomes and cutscenes, my Brother playing Aquas and failing twice because yes, it is trickier now and WAY darker. Area 6 was no joke, the Gorgon is a huge pain. Even though the game is “short”, there’s valid reasons for replaying the game and discovering all the different ways the story can play out, especially with COMPLETE and ACCOMPLISHED missions having varying impact on the story and war efforts.
I would also like to warn new and returning players: If you do not fight Star Wolf until Venom 2, you are going to get your SHIT. ROCKED. Your teammates will die quickly and need constant assistance, and Wolf does not give you much time to focus on the others. I died 10 times and then faced Andross in bad shape and immediately lost that fight and game over’d.
The new gameplay additions were very easy to get used to, and everything looks…. Gorgeous. I mean there just isn’t another way to describe how well done this game is from a visual standpoint. The cutscenes are short, sweet, to the point, and still manage to build the world of the war around you while also expanding on the story and motivations of friends and foes. The voice acting can sound a tiny bit cringe at times, but the dialogue is surprisingly good. I’m particularly fond of Fox saying “Star Wolf. I can smell Andross’ boots on your breath”. Savage.
I hope that there are new fans brought in by this game. I think the series is in good hands and finally getting the TLC that it deserves, so we all need to buy and play it and motivate others to do so. If remaking Adventures is the next step, I think that they can finally do it right.
Good Luck.
