Star Fox 64 3D (Hands-On) (Nintendo 3DS) Preview

For those unfamiliar with the original or Star Fox games in general, Star Fox 64 is, for the most part, an on-rails shooter which sees you taking control of Fox McCloud, leader of a group of elite fighter pilots working as mercenaries for the Cornerian army. The basic premise is for team Star Fox to take down evil monkey scientist Andross after he launches an attack across the Lylat System. Most stages of the game have you piloting Fox in his Arwing space ship and blasting your way through incoming enemies, before defeating the end-level boss. Certain stages allow you to take control of a Landmaster tank or submarine to mix up the formula and tackle a range of different types of missions that provide you with strategic goals. Slightly different to simply choosing the easy, normal or hard paths in the original Star Fox, Star Fox 64 has branches that can be taken in levels, with some paths being more difficult to find than others. This determines which stages you will play next and therefore the level of difficulty.

Outside of the forward-scrolling stages, some levels put you into ‘all-range mode’, allowing you to freely move around an arena and perform all manner of loops and turns, activated with simple button presses. The controls themselves were very responsive, with the analogue stick providing an extremely smooth and accurate means to piloting your ship, which give a great sense of floating through the air. Laser upgrades and bombs scattered about the stages upgrade your ship mid-battle and successive damage can cause you to lose your wings, resulting in you being pulled down to one side slightly.

The game was also very reliant on spoken dialogue to drive the story forward, and the N64 version was one of the first Nintendo games to utilise voice acting and a speaking central character. Fox and his teammates consistently speak during gameplay, as you meet a variety of NPCs, both friendly and those less so, with cinematic sequences creating a very movie-like adventure. An interesting touch was the ability to change the game’s English voices to ‘Lylat’ talk, an option only in the PAL versions of Star Fox 64, which made all characters speak in gibberish, as they did in Star Fox on the SNES. Whether this option will be included for the 3DS remake is unknown.

In Star Fox 64 3D, the stereoscopic 3D will provide an added level of depth, which should allow players to gauge the distance between their ship and enemies far more easily, as well as the rings that are flown through and items. More than just adding stereoscopic 3D though, the game has received a complete overhaul in graphics. It now has updated textures and lighting effects to go along with clearer and sharper visuals. With the added power of the 3DS, the polygon count and frame rates can be pushed further than they were on the N64; they were being pushed to their limits back then, and this is one reason for Miyamoto wanting to remake the game.

The four player multiplayer mode also returns with the same variety of battle types as were present in the original. You have the ability to fight in the air with Arwings, on the ground with Landmaster tanks, and on foot with bazookas, controlling one of the members of the Star Fox team. The game features local download play via one game card, but unfortunately there will be no online multiplayer or leaderboards. There is a neat addition in that you can use the 3DS’ internal camera to take a picture of yourself and use it as your personal avatar as a little incentive for your mates to chase down your mug shot during battles, though.

There are also two different control methods available. First is the classic N64 mode, which allows you to control your character using the circle pad, and second is the gyroscope mode, which allows you to move by tilting the 3DS in your hands. It should be interesting to see how the gyro mode plays, especially as many fans wanted a similar control method using the Wii Remote in a theoretical Wii Star Fox game.

At the moment it is unclear whether the soundtrack to the game has been completely remixed, but if the opening cinematic scene on the Japanese website is anything to go by, then signs point to yes. It would certainly be a very welcome addition to what is looking to be another solid title for the 3DS.

Adam Riley, Senior Editor - Hands-On

Having only a limited amount of time to try out the 18 different titles on offer at the recent post-E3 Nintendo UK event, Star Fox 64 3D did not get much of a look in, unfortunately. However, there was sufficient chance to try out the first level, Corneria, in order to get a good feel for how the control set-up. Just as with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, the whole experience is so wonderfully familiar, and yet has a fantastic extra sheen to the visuals that revitalises the old Nintendo 64 release. Even the new voice-over work is impressive, although it was difficult to hear it very clearly in the bustling environment with other game music blaring away in the background, but the classic soundtrack is definitely back with a vengeance and sounds as epic as it did back on the 64-bit days.

The beauty of the demonstration edition was that whilst playing through the old favourite level, dodging enemies, collecting awkwardly placed rings and power-ups, shooting down pillars, protecting your partners from enemies on their tail, as well as re-learning how to do barrel rolls and loop-the-loops, everything felt so perfect on 3DS. This was backed up by the smooth analogue controls of the Circle Pad that gives extremely accurate movement of the Arwing, and the motion option that the internal gyroscope brings. The latter choice makes for an even more immersive experience, almost feeling as if you are the one in the cockpit, firing away constantly.

Depending on the type of player you are, this can involve zooming around the room, looking like an idiot (kind of like how I tested it, in front of lots of others), or using gentle tilting techniques that set the Arwing off on a particular turning angle and keep it going like that until you change direction. When the action is extremely hectic, the 3D effect definitely needs to be switched off as only real professionals would be able to swing the 3DS around and keep their eyes locked in the right position. However, when the (comparatively) calmer moments draw in, there really are no problems and the extra depth helps to draw players in even more. Being able to use motion controls in certain sections of Steel Diver and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and here in Star Fox 64 3D it shows how great it can be for an entire game. Is this the return of the Star Fox series that fans have been hoping for? With Nintendo’s N64 original being tweaked by the ex-Argonaut staff that worked on StarWing (Q-Games), it definitely deserves to be.