Star Fox (Switch 2) - Expert, True End (All Medals)

Nintendo has once again remade Star Fox 64, this time for the Switch 2. I loved Star Fox 64 when I was a kid, and since I still hadn't played anything newer than that, I was looking forward to revisiting it as an adult with this remake. For the most part, I think they did a very good with this, although they played it super safe and didn't attempt to make many improvements. First off, there's the art style. It seems like there are mixed opinions on it, but I love how it looks. It feels like they tried to follow the original puppet designs from SNES era, and I prefer that over the more cartoony look this series has had since the N64. The art design of each stage is generally fantastic too. Almost every scene feels like they kept the original art direction intact, and reimagined it with more detail and artistic flare. I do have a few gripes about some of the differences between this and the N64 version, but I think almost everything is an improvement. Andross got the short end of the stick, imo. And then we get to the gameplay, which while faithful to the original, has some major problems. First off, I like the structure of the game, with its Darius-like routes, and there's a lot of variety between the locales and gameplay styles. Several stages have multiple routes through them too, and there are even some hidden enemy waves you can spawn by doing certain things, like flying between the ruined buildings in Corneria. All of that stuff is great, and the stages are generally very well designed. No real complaints here. My biggest issues are with the controls and game design. First off, the controls are just awful, both in this game and the N64 original. And there's nothing you can do about it unless you have a controller that has paddles on the back. Your shot is mapped to the B button, your 'brake' is on A, and to optimize scoring, you want to hold both shoulder buttons while using charged shots, because hitting enemies with the splash damage from the charge gives you an extra point, instead of hitting them directly. The problem is that you'll want to be using your brake constantly, since it gives you more time to aim and kill enemies before they fly off screen, but it's extremely cumbersome to keep pressing that while you're constantly using 3 other buttons. And it's ridiculous that you can't rebind the controls - you're stuck with what they give you. So again, the only way to fix this and play comfortably is to use a 'pro' controller with paddles on the back. Beyond that, and these are much more critical flaws, the game gives you a metric ton of lives, and there's no penalty at all for dying or reloading checkpoints. So there's essentially no difficulty at all if you're just trying to clear the game. Getting the medal on each stage takes a bit more effort, but the target score is almost never particularly high, so it's kind of a given once you're familiar with the game. And even if you screw up, you can just restart the stage or reload the checkpoint with no significant penalty, so it doesn't matter anyway. I get it, it's a Nintendo game and it's made to appeal to millions of people, but couldn't they at least give you a score bonus for each live you have in stock to encourage better play? And finally, the thing that really annoys me about this game is Venom II, specifically how your teammates can rob you of 50 points, or quickly get shot down and screw you out of the medal. One of those two things kept happening to me all day yesterday, and the last time it happened, I just used a restart on the stage and finished it. I wanted to do a proper arcade style, all medals clear, but I got sick of dealing with all the bs and just wanted it to be over with. Why am I forcing arcade design into a game that fights against it? Venom II wouldn't be so bad either if the Area 6 boss didn't have lightspeed whip attacks. It's totally different from the N64 version, which was easy to read and dodge. This could be a skill issue, tbf. In the end, none of this even matters when you have a game that lets you retry anything as much as you want. It's just stupid to take it seriously, so that's on me. That's a lot of complaining, but I still had a lot of fun with this game. There's a lot to like about it, and the things that annoy me are mostly nitpicks from trying to play this like an arcade game, when it's meant to be a more casual console game. It's still fun for what it is, and I enjoyed getting all of the medals and doing all of the challenges. It's not really worth going any deeper than that. If you happen to want a rail shooter that was designed with that arcade structure and scoring minutiae in mind, I'd highly recommend getting Night Striker Gear. It's both cheaper and a better game. 0:00 Intro 2:35 Corneria 9:39 Sector Y 17:28 Aquas 26:32 Zoness 35:03 Macbeth 42:36 Area 6 50:08 Venom II 57:26 Ending