Wednesday 19 March 2014

DAY 78 / GAME 78 StarFox

DAY 78 / GAME 78

StarFox


          One day when we were hanging out at my uncle's place he showed us his new Super Nintendo.  The first game I ever saw on it was StarFox.  Now, StarFox was unlike most anything else on a console at the time.  Using what they called the Super FX chip built into each cartridge, Nintendo was able to create  3D rendered graphics that wasn't easy to generate on a 16-bit system.  (The FX chip was some kind of math co-processor that helped buffer additional frames for the console.)

          StarFox was fantastic.  It seemed like a groundbreaking game at the time.  Poly rendered 3D had this sense of 'virtual reality' or something to that effect.  Being rendered in realtime felt like you were more directly creating what was on the screen rather than pre-animated raster graphics.
             But of course, it was more than that.  It had a real personality to it that resonated with me at the time.  A blend of sci-fi mixed with what I would call a kind of cartoon element.  All the characters are animals, which at the age of 13 kinda added to the appeal.  

               StarFox is a solid game that, considering it's age, stands up well against newer 3D games.  One of the things I never realized about it until recently is how closely it follows traditional shooter games.  I always thought of it as more of an arcadey space simulator, but it really is just R-Type with a different camera view.  Enemies attack in lined up swarms with bonuses for destroying those groups.  Weapons and sheilds upgrade with pickups and boss fights are strategized based on their weak spots.
         StarFox is chock full of great moments too.  On the heels of Star Wars this game had a ton of levels influenced by the films back when there wasn't really any Star Wars games like this yet.  Attacking an enemy armada, flying into a ship and destroying it's core and flying deep into an enemy base.

           With 3 different routes to go through the game, it's short but it offered a lot of replayability.  Not to mention, it can be pretty tough at times.  This is the kind of game I love to pick up once in a while and play since it really doesn't get old.  Star Fox is one of those carts that always sits next to my Super Nintendo and gets included in a regular rotation.



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