Revisiting the Forgotten Star Fox
I’ve not been very happy with the Star Fox franchise ever since Star Fox 64. What I loved about Star Fox 64 – the different branches, the self-contained storyline (hardly the story of a stage would be carried to another stage), the incredible voice acting and the all-or-nothing battles against Star Wolf – were completely messed up in the future iterations of the franchise. Star Fox Adventures was nothing more than a generic collect-a-ton game with Fox McCloud. All Star Fox elements felt completely out of place and I still can’t stand the presence of Krystal in all the posterior games as that factor prevents me from dismissing Adventures as non-canon. But things would be much worse with Star Fox Assault. Forget the fact that the game design was really flawed. The poisoned cheery on the top of that cake of disaster was the story that tried to be much more melodramatic than a cast of furries wold ever allow it. Characters dying in front of you, people getting sentimental, rivals working side-by-side. In my opinion this would be a great plot elements… on a different game! I mean, the characters from Star Fox were never supposed to have any depth. They were created just because piloting futuristic spaceships with animals would be more appealing than using humans back in the SNES days. I played Assault eager to have a fight with Star Wolf. I still had those exciting battles from the N64 game painted at my brain’s wall and after I used that coat of nostalgia over it, I had anxiety coming out of my nostrils. But, in Assault, they work together! They give each other councils! WTF? And even worse, the Star Wolf Theme Song was playing without its cool beat! Now, that was very frustrating. In the end, I wasn’t able to relate myself to the soup opera story. When there was a sad moment, I didn’t feel sad at all. I felt bored. I even felt guilty for not feeling sad. In a certain moment, when a beloved character takes a fall, Slippy starts crying, in the meanwhile, I was feeling kind of embarrassed for not being able to relate to the characters’ pain. Maybe it’s because a crying frog is ridiculous, unless it is created by Disney. However that changed with Star Fox Command. I think I’m the only one here who played and enjoyed that game. So I felt like discussing it. Not the gameplay elements, just the story. Command definitely took the Star Fox franchise into the world of melodrama. But while this was a bad thing in Assault, it actually became a good thing in Command. The fact the game characters were unable to show emotions – since they had no real voices and only thing they could do was to move their months – made what was embarrassing in Assault, stop being embarrassing. Now it’s funny. In fact, while I played I had the impression it was supposed to be funny. It felt like a soap opera taking a piss at itself, which considering we are talking about fluffy animals dogfighting in space, creates a much welcomed new identity for franchise. Besides, how can I not love a game with 9 endings!? Especially when each ending can do a lot for a possible Star Fox sequel. And, thus, brace yourself for some good amount of… SPOILERS!!! The Possible Endings and How to Get Them 1. Fox and Krystal Why is this ending great? 2. Goodbye Fox Why is this ending great? Besides, this next generation even has a villain coming along already: Dash. (see below) 3. Emperor Anglar Why is this ending great? 4. Star Wolf Returns Why is this ending great? On the other side of the coin, we can have a more focused game on the Star Wolf team and – like the mercenaries they are – we can have premises not based on the simplistic good vs. evil scenario. 5. Lucy and Krystal Why is this ending great? 6. Dash Makes a Choice Why is this ending great? 7. Slippy’s Resolve Why is this ending great? Slippy got into messes with such ease, I’m pretty sure he is actually a spy from Andross trying to make me risk my life and get killed. Why is this ending great? 9. The Curse of Pigma Why is this ending great? Despite the many false steps, I still admire Star Fox for how willing they are to mess with the character structure. Star Fox is among the few Nintendo franchises that’s not afraid of change. Not member in the Starfox team will be stuck in there forever. New people come in, old members retire. Meanwhile a Samus Aran that never grows old will continues to hunt Space Pirates and an ageless Mario will continue to save Princess Peach for all eternity. Few characters have the guts to face time like the fox named Fox. |
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