First Contact

Pretty much all Nintendo 64 games I discovered either through a Fingerhut catalog or a commercial. In this case, it was the commercial of Star Fox 64 that tipped me off to its existence. The Rumble Pak caught my interest though since I’ve never heard of it before. So enter my cousins once again who owned the Nintendo 64. The had the game along with the Rumble Pak. And damn did that thing rumble. My ownership of this game wouldn’t happen until its release on the Wii’s Virtual Console. So my memories of the game will stem from both my childhood and recent years (both at home and college).

Memorable Moments

One thing that blew my mind as a kid was All-Range Mode. Since my first flying game was Star Fox, I always saw it as a straightforward (literally) flying game obstacle course. And this was before I would play games like Ace Combat and Star Wars Starfighter. So when I played against the first boss in Corneria, it was like a new level of freedom opened. My cousins showed me how to do somersaults and u-turns, both of which looked really awesome. In terms of stages that were nothing but All-Range mode, Katina was the most memorable. My cousins would advise me that the mothership’s hatches would open from time to time. The battle went for a long time but we eventually succeeded.

One mysterious part of the Lylat System I wondered about was Solar. At one point Solar was the next destination. But my cousins stepped in and told me not to go there. I asked why and they said, quoting General Pepper, “It’s like an oven in there.” “Really? How bad could it be?” “No trust me, don’t play that level.” And so we proceeded to Sector X instead. In another session, Solar was the next stage again. Once again I was warned by my cousins to not play the stage. But this time I convinced them to play the stage under the pretense that they would do the playing. And so in they went to Solar, and damn they weren’t kidding. As my older cousin flew, my younger cousin pointed out that Fox’s health would constantly drop (and deplete faster the closer you flew to the lava below). ROB 64 had to constatly send in supplies to keep Fox’s health up. The boss battle was probably the most intense as lava waves would rise to near unavoidable heights.

Lets fast-forward over a decade to college. I have the game on the Wii’s Virtual Console and am able to fully enjoy the game from beginning to end. So James brings in his N64 to the clubroom and we decide to play Star Fox 64, alternating turns between lives/stages. At Sector X, my turn comes up. I live all the way to the boss and I have every intent to beat the boss without going into Titania. Others are looking on while I play. So I damage the boss and knock out his life. Then his second form kicks in. I tap the button like crazy, trying to drain his life before Slippy is slapped by the boss. There’s only a little bit of life left and Slippy’s in position. In a desperate attempt I launch a Smart Bomb. At the same time the bomb explodes, the boss hits Slippy into Titania. Everyone’s disappointed, but James laughs his ass off though! “Did you just bomb Slippy into Titania!?” Room-wide laughter ensued. While I didn’t bomb him in there, it looked like I did. James passed on his turn, so I resumed in Titania to redeem myself. *sigh* Slippy can be such a pain in the ass.