When I first began playing, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies and obstacles spread out over the screen. This combined with seriously under-powered and precise weapons can give a real sense of helplessness. The first time I made it through the game, I wasn't quite sure how I did so.

After more extensive play, I became better acquainted with Star Fox 64's many intricacies. Knowing when to use a charged laser blast and when to use a regular blast is just one of the finer elements of the game. It took quite a while to get used to such precise aiming. The big, blue, plasma ball cannons of the original Star Fox have been replaced with finer, less powerful weapons that require good use of the analog stick for successful gameplay.

Star Fox 64 does not allow for game saving, just like the original. Unfortunately, while the original could be played to completion in as little as half an hour, Star Fox 64 takes around an hour or more. While this is probably not long enough to justify game saving, playing through Star Fox 64 can be a tiring experience.

As I improved, Star Fox 64 became a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants experience. If certain conditions were met, I was rewarded with a branching game path. I could then choose which path to take, and in a sense can choose my own adventure. It's quite exciting, and offers a slightly different gameplay experience each time the game is played.

Depending on the path chosen, the player will encounter different characters, levels and cinema scenes. This is done to such an extent that if the Great Fox mothership is damaged by a missile in Sector Z, the visible damage is retained right through the game's ending cinema. There are lots of other changes in the game's cinemas as well. Some are more noticeable than others.

As I improved, I began trying to earn medals by keeping all of my wingmen alive and defeating a certain number of enemies in a stage. Getting all of the medals opens up bonus game modes and features. Getting these medals is very challenging, and even stressful at times. But the sense of accomplishment upon receiving a new one is very nice indeed. Another bonus of pursuing medals is that shooting down more baddies in a stage causes your wingmen to recover more energy at the end of a stage.

Additional things that spice up the gameplay (and complicates it as well), are the Landmaster tank, Blue Marine Submarine, All Range Mode and Vs. mode.

The Landmaster stages can be very frustrating the first few times they are played. Because the tank is on the ground and can only hover for a second or two at a time (hold both R and Z), shooting down arial attackers is very difficult. At first, these stages feel clunky when compared to the Arwing stages. During my first few times through the game, I actually found myself being upset when I'd reach a Landmaster stage on the map. But as I've gained more experience, the stages are more enjoyable and the control seems better. Hitting all of the train switches on Macbeth is actually one of my favorite parts of the game now.

The Blue Marine is only used on Aquas, which is hands down the worst stage in the game. The graphics are overly dark and confusing. The torpedoes are slow to fire, and do little damage. Most players will find this stage a piece of cake if they keep barrel rolling and mashing A and B. I've only played it two or three times, so perhaps there are intricacies I have yet to discover, but I doubt it.

Of the new additions to Star Fox 64, All Range Mode was the one that took me the longest to get the hang of. Using Z and R to bank sharply, and efficiently tracking down enemies are skills that took me a while to learn. The on-screen radar is very poor, basically giving you your location relative to the square area. There are other things shown on radar as well, but the only things that are somewhat easy to make out are your wingmen and item boxes dropped by Rob64.

All Range Mode is where you'll get the most use out of the Arwing's new Loop maneuver, and the U-turn maneuver is only available in this mode.. The U-turn maneuver is only useful once in awhile, and the loop maneuver is very handy when being tailed by an enemy. However, even after gaining a significant amount of experience with the game, I will still occasionally fail to execute these maneuvers properly during heated battle. On occasion, I have even accidentally induced a loop while hitting the booster as I start to climb out of harm's way during regular arial combat.

The last mode of play in Star Fox is the Vs. mode. Up to four people can dogfight in All Range Mode-style courses. There are three modes of VS. play. Point Match (the first one to down opponents a certain number of times wins), Battle Royale (last one standing wins), and Time Trial (whoever shoots down the most baddies in the given amount of time wins).

The Vs mode is a lot of fun, and it offers a three level handicap option to balance out play among experts and novices. More multi-player options are added if certain goals are achieved in the one player mode. For example, getting a medal from the dogfight with Star Wolf on Venom will earn you the ability to play VS. in Landmaster tanks. The Vs. mode is a really nice bonus, and is probably as cool, if not cooler than Mario Kart 64's multi-player modes.

Another big addition to the game (and N64 games in general) is the N64 Rumble Pak (RP) accessory. This device is included with Star Fox 64, and can also be bought through Nintendo (call 1-800-255-3700 to order one for $20). The RP has various patterns and degrees of vibration that shake the controller to match on-screen events. At first this effect is surprisingly effective, as an RP enhanced boost really does feel different than an RP enhanced crash or explosion. It also connects you with the gameplay in a unique way, and feeling a boss explode is almost as much a reward as seeing it. Eventually, however, the effect fades into the background until a boss is destroyed, or your ship takes major damage. It's just a matter of getting used to the effect.

There are a few things you should be aware of before you play Star Fox 64. First of all, you can damage your wingmen. You can even shoot them down for the stage. When you first begin playing, this can be a real pain. Also, the Nova Bombs of the original Star Fox have been replaced with less powerful Smart Bombs (you can have up to 9 of them). These bombs only do damage to a portion of the screen, and you must pay attention to how deep into the screen you detonate them. On the plus side, however, you can lock a bomb onto an enemy by locking your laser onto an enemy, and then pressing B instead of A. The last major thing you should be aware of before beginning play is that the close-up play view is gone: you are either inside or outside the Arwing as you play. It's worth noting that objects are hazy when viewed from inside the Arwing, and barrel rolling with this view causes the whole screen to roll. The cockpit view is strictly for kicks only.

On the superficial side, the graphics and sound aren't quite what I'd been hoping for, and they are largely responsible for the game's more childlike atmosphere.

Believe it or not, the music of the 16-bit Star Fox outshines the music of the 64-bit Star Fox in every way. Instead of producing a high-quality, adrenaline pumping, triumphant soundtrack, Koji Kondo and crew have created a score that's overly hyper at times, overly happy at others, occasionally too quiet, and seldom just right. The quality of the sound is on par with early SNES music, which is very disappointing. Even more disappointing is the fact that the original Star Fox theme is nowhere to be found in Star Fox 64. :-(

The voices are a nice addition, and trying to play through the first time without them would be a tough task, as your wingmen offer very helpful advice at times. The voices of Falco, Fox and Peppy are done pretty well, and the dialogue for these characters (especially Falco) has its brighter moments. Unfortunately, the voices of General Pepper, Slippy, and numerous other characters are so cartoony that they take what could be an intense thrill ride, and make it laughably silly. It's hard to keep a straight face as Slippy's seven year old voice shouts "Your carcass is mine!" It's also odd that the character that gives you instructions during training mode wasn't given a voice at all.

As for the graphics, they are definitely impressive (the Arwings and the water effects are worthy of note), but there are many flaws to them as well. Overall, the graphics of Super Mario 64 appear higher res, and altogether sharper than Star Fox 64's. Some of the textures are rather poor as well. It's very disappointing to see the Great Fox fly by in the game's intro and see the new Star Fox logo turn unacceptably blocky. Star Fox's cartridge shows its limits as the texture of the letters "SF" is backwards on one side of each Arwing. There's also a lot of odd dithering, giving the game a hazy, low-color look at times. The explosions are also kind of strangely colored. Also, while the cinemas are often cool, they're not as cinematic as I was led to believe they would be. Most of the cool ones are take offs on movies such as Star Wars or ID4. The rest just show off the Arwings, and aren't much different (with regard to content) from the original's cut scenes.

Where Star Fox 64's graphics are truly awe inspiring, however, is during the boss battles. Several of the bosses are upgrades or hybrids of original Star Fox bosses, and they are very impressive. The last boss (Andross) is hands down the coolest boss I have ever seen, regardless of which version you battle. In fact, Andross is the only portion of Star Fox 64 that I feel takes all of the elements of the original Star Fox and improves on them. The design team took the giant head at the end of Star Fox and made it what it clearly should have always been. It's simply awesome.

There's a lot to Star Fox 64. The learning curve is more difficult than the original, and a lot of time has to be spent to really enjoy the game. It's obvious that Mr. Miyamoto wanted this to be all of the things the original Star Fox couldn't be. Since this game was developed entirely by Nintendo (not with Argonaut Software, as the original was), the game has a much more Japanese feel to it. From the new logo to the story line, Star Fox 64 is almost like a children's anime cartoon. Think of Star Fox 64 as being Star Fox: Special Edition Alpha, and you get a good idea of what the game's atmosphere is like.

Star Fox 64 probably isn't for everyone. For $60 you can get a solid one-player game, a solid multi-player game and a Rumble Pak. That's a lot of bang for your buck. On the other hand, if anything said in this review has made you question whether or not Star Fox is the game for you, you may want to rent the game first. If you find that you don't like the game, you may want to order a Rumble Pak from Nintendo, as it will be compatible with a number of future N64 titles.

After obtaining all 15 medals, Star Fox 64 grants access to the Expert Mode, and 15 more medals must be obtained to totally complete the game. At this stage of the game, gameplay deteriorates into extremely frustrating, and often unfair gameplay. Be warned, Star Fox 64 can easily become more frustrating than fun. If you don't like overly challenging/frustrating games, you may want to stay away from Star Fox 64.

Related Editorial:What's Wrong With Star Fox 64?