What is it about Star Fox Games?

[Terramax]

Obvious question really. I hope it's not been done already though, but if it has, perhaps this can be an update thread of sorts.

 

Basically, why are you guys such a fan of Star Fox? Is it nostalgia? The Story? The Gameplay?

 

For me, my first one in the series was Lylat Wars (64). It was, and still is, my favourite N64 game, along with Sin & Punishment. Lylat Wars' single player had a lot of replay value, back in the day when I was willing to play games over and over, and the multiplayer was killer, when I got to play it 3 or 4 players.

 

Star Fox Assault cemeted it for me. It's the only one in the series which, IMO, feels like a connected world. Again, multiplayer was a key reason. I also love the colourful visuals, which suit the world much more than the slightly mirky visuals of the previous games.

 

Part of my love for them is that it's a 3D rail shooter game. I'm also a huge Panzer Dragoon and Sin & Punishment fan. I loves me some rail shooters!

[NovaPhoenyx]

Hmm. This is a good question.

I guess my long-time love for the series has come from Starfox 64. I was fascinated with the story and the different types planets. With each new game I was excited to see what the characters were up to, and how they would react. 

[InfinitySquared]

I grew up playing the N64 and Gamecube, so of course I played Starfox. It was never my favorite franchise (I played Mario and Sly Cooper more as a kid), but it's definitely one that's dear to me. I don't know what it is, but Starfox has definitely got it. I think it probably has to do with the fact that my mom never let my brothers and I play games or watch TV for more than 1-2 hours at a time (between basketball, football, baseball, soccer, piano lessons, cello lessons, singing lessons, and highly scheduled "playdates", it's not like I had much time either ), so being able to complete Starfox 64 in 45 minutes tops made it quite appealing. Fox has also always been my "lucky character" in Super Smash Bros., so that helps. 

[Ori]

Unlike most people in here I can't say SF had me since childhood. I've only found it rather recently (say, 2009? I can't remember). I'm still puzzled on how a simple game and formula got to me so much. Is it the characters that are likable? The lore of the game universe that is awesome? The potential for world building that there is? I really don't know. I think it's probably the latter since I do like some crazy epileptic trees and wild mass guessing.

 

That or I was a Furry and never knew until more recently.

[LazerMaster5]

Orbi, you have some damn good points. I only began playing SF643D last summer, and it kind of sucked me in. Maybe it's the level design, the difficulty curve, the characters, or the fact the game makes you feel like a badass. Also, I feel the universe can be greatly built upon with a game similar to Star Wars Battlefront, with wicked land and space battles. There is so much to like about the SF series, especially the earlier games. Also, the music kicks ass.

[SF Redd]

I honestly never even heard of Star Fox until I saw an advert for SF Command on the telly (Which can't be that surprising as I was just a wee bairn back then (8 years old)) I got the game for my DS, but I didn't play it much, as I wasn't much of a gamer back then. It wasn't until around two or three years ago that I found the cartridge in my bedroom. I played it for a while and became intrigued by the story; I realised that Command was obviously a sequel, as at the start of the game it explains the story of previous titles. I decided to do some research on the series and read into the storyline. It was then that I came across some fanfiction on a different site, I read those stories, and since then, Star Fox has been my favorite game series. It's funny, because the game that introduced me to the franchise (Command), is now my least favorite game of the series, as I feel that it ruins the story of the others. I hope that Miyamoto will realise how much potential the Star Fox games have story-wise, and will give the next game a story that can live up to the name, Star Fox(hopefully with Command as non-canon).

[Krock]

My first exposure to the series was the SNES game. It was reading all about it in Nintendo Power that sucked me right in. I've always had a thing for science fiction, and this was a space game! With futuristic graphics! And talking animals! What more could a seven year old ask for? So I got the game and loved it, but the first game was more of a novelty than anything. It also (kinda) had an in-game story.

 

It was 64 that really got me into Star Fox. While the gameplay of the original game was fun, it wasn't all that refined. SF64 changed that with its brilliant level design, tight controls, and addictive gameplay. While I was intrigued by the banter of the original game, the voice acting in SF64 got me far more invested in it. I can pretty much quote the entire game right here and now. And the Star Wars references. All the Star Wars references.

 

Adventures just got me deeper into Star Fox. I was following Dinosaur Planet very closely back in the day, so I was natrually disapointed when I found out about the Star Fox transition. But I still gave Rare the benefit of the doubt and ended up loving the game.

 

Oh, and I'm back from my long hiatus, I guess.

[Mr-Chris]

I love Star Fox because I really dig the concept of the series. Space Animals going through the galaxy and shooting stuff up? Sounds awesome! I like the games' tone, with it being light but serious at times. I like the characters on the whole as well. And the gameplay is great too usually with you shooting stuff up, trying to get a better score, going through cool scenery. I just love it all really.

[The Undying Nephalim]

At first it is sort of strange, even for me as a someone who loves Star Fox, that a game essentially about goofy talking animals in space shooting at giant impractical super ships is so well loved... but that's just it. The premise is so out there that it oozes personality, something many games are seriously lacking. As simple as the character designs and personalities are, you know them and what they represent in an instant. In my mind Star Fox is the ultimate child's fantasy come to life: it's something you would come up with as a ten year old kid after seeing Star Wars for the first time and getting completely psyched by adding all your other favorite childhood concepts and shows into it.... and that's probably why it's so successful. It taps into that inner child in a way that's awesome and not embarrassing or stupid (at least SF 64 did.... the later games not so much.) I actually noticed a lot of similarities of characters and tone between Starfox and Guardians of the Galaxy recently, perhaps the later movie was influenced by 64?

[Pharaoh Shadon]

One of my first gamecube games as a kid was starfox assault. I loved the characters, I loved the stories, I loved the looks/graphics and even the gameplay. That game had me hooked instantly. Then I played starfox adventures and was okay for the most part (You have no idea how pissed off I was when I saved at the end at Krazoa palace, beat andross, only to go back and be at krazoa palace with no way back... I sold that game because I was soooooooo mad XD

 

So what do I like most about it? I guess the potential. Starfox assault for me had soooooo much win, yeah the ground was clunky, but that's why I say potential, if they build on it, then an assault 2 will be the best game ever made. If they stick to assaults sleek designs (Like the great fox), keep everyones armor, take pointers from mass effect about 3rd person shooters (More specifically the ground combat) and give an epic story/enemy like the aparoids? Do you not know how amazing this game will be? I know I might be suggesting a mass effect like clone with starfox airwing missions thrown in, but I think the starfox universe is perfect for that. I would love to travel the great fox in a hub world, have my team like Falco and Krystal follow me around in a city, hearing their comments on things. Call Krystal in my room so we can hang out and play space chess.

 

And it doesn't even need to be a standard. It could be a spin off for all I care. I personally just crave one more, epic starfox game. If they make more, then great! But I just want one more that improves on what Assault had going.

[Patch93]

To me, Star Fox is the Star Wars of video games. The SNES/N64 games were like the original trilogy from the late 70's and early 80's. Star Fox 1 was like A New Hope, Star Fox 2 was like The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Fox 64 was like The Return of The Jedi. They're all classics that will always have a special place in my heart, even if they haven't aged too well in some departments. They combined classic arcade shmup gameplay with (at the time) impressive 3D visuals, and likeable anthromorphic animal characters, something that hadn't really been done outside of platformers (like Sonic), and were usually met with lukewarm results.

 

I also found myself comparing Adventures-Command to the prequel trilogy in terms of how disappointing they were compared to the originals that came before them. Adventures was like The Phantom Menace, something that wasn't as bad as the entries that came after it but still ended up being mediocre-okayish, and Assault was like The Attack of the Clones and Command was like The Revenge of The Sith because they were just plain stupid. Heck they even introduced a shitty and unnecessary comedic relief character (Tricky and Jar Jar Binks), and a really bland, forced and stereotypical romance. (Fox/Krystal and Anakin/Padme).

[InfinitySquared]

On the topic of the Star Wars comparison, I really think that one of the things that does make those early games so great is that they don't try so hard to do everything. The first 3 Star Wars movies were just throwbacks to the old '40s sci-fi serials, updated for the '70s and '80s, with a neat gimmick of starting with the fourth movie instead of the first. They were simple pew-pew space operas with a decent bit of overall story, and this allowed for a huge amount of mystique and fan-theory to fill in what must've happened in Episodes I-III. Fast forward 20 years later, we get the prequels, and we're disappointed, mostly because they tried to do too much and live up to the fan's expectations instead of just doing their own thing. 

 

The original SNES/N64 titles were straightforward retro-modern (for the '90s) shooters with a straightforward plot and likable but not necessarily deep characters. As great as it would be to have the in-game universe be all fleshed out and filled with delightfully distinct three-dimensional characters, attempts to do that in the GC/DS games come off like the prequels where you just get so much thrown in and nothing done with it, like bits and pieces of a better story slapped together at the last minute. At best, it comes off like some half-baked fanfic. The bareness of the originals allows us to fill it in for ourselves via fanart/fanfic/imagination. The key to success for any new Starfox game would be to keep emphasis on the gameplay and slowly introduce any sort of grander plot into it. Don't just run out to the fiction junkyard and grab any plot elements that look appealing, but plan it out beforehand and maybe invest in some items from the Originality Store. It'll be a much better final result in the end. 

[Iblistech]

Honestly... I had little to no interest in this particular franchise as a child at first. In fact, it wasn't until one of my childhood friends told me about it while we were hanging out one day because he was really into it. That action alone was what ended up getting me hooked into the games themselves, and back in 2005, I got my first Star Fox game in the form of Assault via an order from Gamestop. When I started playing it for the first time, I had no idea what I was doing, since I had never even touched a single game from the SF series, not even once up until that point. It took some time, but I eventually got the hang of it thanks to my ability to learn all kinds of things quickly. I liked nearly everything about it, especially the Multiplayer Mode, which I played with the same friend who got me into the series as a whole. We were almost pretty much evenly matched: In one of our matches, I used the Orbital Gate itself to my advantage by using it as a cover, then while he had his guard down, I came out of hiding and shot him down. A couple of years later, I wound up getting the remake of Star Fox 64 for the 3DS. 

[TCPeppyTc]

Starfox has had me since I was a kid. I was 7 when "Santa" bought me it first.

 

Idk, I liked the animals in it a lot, even for the limited constraints of a 90s game each had their distinctive personality, and were fun in their own way.

 

N64 is the only one I've really liked. Its the one game I never really get sick of cause its pretty straightforward, and does not take up an inordinate amount of time.