“We’re Star Fox!” (#3 The Little Things….)
I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice this….
So, Nintendo has re-released Lylat Wars (Star Fox 64) on the 3DS with the amazingly awkward new name of Star Fox 64 3D. Despite the unfortunate name it’s an extensive remake with touched up visuals, re-recorded dialogue, new methods of control and, of course, the titular 3D effect slapped on to warrant its release on the 3DS. It’s a great game, quite possibly the very best on-rails shooter ever released, balancing a short campaign play time with endless variables in how you progress through the different levels available to you. Do you choose to rescue Falco and fly through the stone archways of the first level and head off to Sector Y? Or do you let Falco die (or live) and ignore the archways all together and fly onwards to Meteo? The levels link to each other in various, surprising ways and subsequent playthroughs encourage the player to find new pathways and unlock new levels as they head towards their final destination.
Someone at Nintendo clearly wasn’t happy with just a simple remake though. Adapting the multiplayer component of the original game to wireless, four player, head to head combat on separate 3DS systems was a logical decision but not so logical was the decision to have local link up play only. Nintendo implemented a system that records a video of each player’s face using the 3DS forward-facing camera attachment and displays it to other users whilst playing multiplayer. While I can understand the intention of the feature was to mimic the iconic marionette style character boxes that show up in the single-player campaign, Nintendo have clearly failed to realise that such a feature would only be beneficial for online play only. After all, why would you want to see your friends facial reactions as you shoot them down on a tiny little screen when you can simply look up from your 3DS and see their entire body right in front of you? It would probably be less pixellated too.
Illustration by TimeCowboy
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