Fox McCloud’s Bogus Super FX Journey [Intro and How-To + Part 1!]

Alt. post titles:
Your most powerful weapon is made of triangles (Star Fox LP)
Star Fox: Seizure Approved!
Furries in space ship polygons. Let’s Play Star Fox!

Oh, hey folks, you might know Star Fox Zero is coming out this month. Considering my first attempt to LP this game didn’t meet what I feel was an adequate effort, and I am not good at voice communication post-video editing, I’m going to tackle this game again in a different way. A silent way. I just hope you won’t get seizures while watching it.

Yes, you won’t get to hear my asexual sounding voice. I know, it’s tragic. Instead throughout the videos I will provide subtitles. Just make sure to turn them on the YouTube player, but YouTube doesn’t make them automatic. No constant commentary, mind you, because…

Star Fox for the SNES isn’t overly interesting to talk about. Sure, it’s still a very fun on-rails shooter and a very innovative title on the SNES, but like with the original Super Mario Bros. (which I attempted to do a voice LP for which was a stupid idea) there isn’t a whole lot to say. Granted, some of the levels have neat gimmicks but most of the time they are one-off at best.

Ok… so why is it a Hybrid LP exactly and what is with that stupid post title?
Excellent question! I am one of those insufferable nerds that likes Nintendo’s history, from the game development to the licensing of said product intellectual properties (toys, comics, etc.). While Star Fox didn’t get the cartoons and cereal Mario and Zelda got back in the late 80s, it did get a Nintendo Power comic that is pretty hilarious to read through and expands on the SNES game’s plot.

But here is the thing; Star Fox, its cancelled sequel for the SNES and the NP comic which expanded on the first game were pretty much all retconned by Miyamoto and pals with Star Fox 64. From there came Star Fox Adventures, Star Fox Assault and Star Fox Command which followed the canon set from SF64. But now Star Fox Zero appears to be another reimagining of the Star Fox canon, this time Star Fox 64.

So in short, these are the canons presently:

Canon A:
Star Fox =/= Star Fox NP Comic > Star Fox 2 (Cancelled)

Canon B:
Star Fox 64 > Star Fox Adventures > Star Fox Assault > Star Fox Command

Canon C(?):
Star Fox Zero

I will mostly focus on key differences between Star Fox and Star Fox 64 and examine them in optional bonus updates since from a design and creativity perspective it’s really interesting how things changed from 1993 to 1997.

So how is this Durpthrough going to go exactly?
I will be spacing out the video playthroughs by the three routes, two videos per route with three planets each. The final route videos will be shorter due to more stages. Boss footage will see some edits as the battles I’ve found do drag on longer then they should. Some bosses also repeat, so I will only show unique differences and (maybe) speed up the footage.

As for an update schedule, I will aim for one a week depending on how circumstances are.

Wait, seizures? What the fuck are you talking about?
This game has a shit ton of strobe like flashing when some of the bosses are killed. If you are prone to seizures and these cause it, FOR THE LOVE OF SHIT DON’T WATCH MY VIDEOS.

God you are being wordy!
It is going to get a little worse. Sorry about that.

Now here, go watch part 1! Don’t know much about how to play Star Fox though? Don’t worry, I got you covered below the video itself!

The Basics of Star Fox (or Star Fox Gameplay for Dummies)

The Basic Gameplay

Being the most vanilla of the Star Fox franchise, you control Fox McCloud’s Arwing through the various Surface and Space levels where at the end of each level you battle a boss. Space levels give you freedom to fly all over the place without worrying about clipping your wings on flat surfaces (most of the time). Ever play a shump? Picture that shump in crude polygonal 3-D graphics, with the ability to give your ship a small speed boost or to slow it down, and not die in one hit thanks to a health meter and a nice ability of barrel rolling. You also get a limited supply of Smart Bombs, which… kind of suck, actually. Also, your wingmen are 90% worthless throughout the entire game.

Star Fox is one of those semi-rare Nintendo-developed SNES games that uses all the buttons but they were nice enough to give you some control options. Type-A, the top most control scheme you see, is the one I constantly use. Type-A and B have their y-axis controls reversed, which is common flight stick movement, while Type-C and D is normal y-axis and feels awkward as hell. The game even offers you to a training option to get used to controls, because fucking around in the game proper will get you killed. Extra lives are not plentiful and continues are limited as well.

See this map? Good, you will no doubt be seeing it in the videos proper. The routes are divided by straight paths by their difficulty; Route 1 is easy, Route 2 is medium and Route 3 is hard. As said before, we are going through these levels in order, since there is (technically) no Star Fox 64 style progression.

Now, here is a handy visual guide to the levels:

Be appreciative I pulled this out of my ass in a little over five minutes.

How not to die. (Hint: It’s called the barrel roll and plasma lasers)
With this being an on-rails flight simulator, enemies and the bosses are obviously trying to kill you. However, you have an advantage. You can do barrel rolls. Yes, four years before Peppy Hare became famous for uttering that line voiced on a Nintendo 64 cartridge, your hopes for survival is still the barrel roll. There is, however, a catch; you cannot barrel roll some enemy projectiles.

Taken right from the original manual in its grainy glory, here are the weapon types you will encounter (with one strangely missing from said instruction manual). Allow me to go through them quickly by number order.

1. Seeker Missile – Easily the biggest pain in the ass to deal with when bosses use them as a weapon and send out more than one to shoot down. Like with flames, you cannot barrel roll them. In the same damage class as plasma ball.
2. Plasma Ball – The second biggest pain in the ass weapon you will deal with in the entire game. Almost all bosses and enemies use these weapons and not barrel rolling them will hurt like a bitch. 
3. Oval Beam – Shot mostly from surface based tanks. Damage output is slightly lower than the plasma orb.
4. Ring Lasers – Laser donuts, mostly shot by enemies in the space levels and hurt as much as the standard enemy laser. Can be barrel rolled.
5. Regular Laser – Does little damage to your shield unless you get hurt by a barrage of them. Most enemies you encounter and some bosses shoot lasers at you. Easily barrel rolled.

Flames – Not pictured in the manual are flames. Aside from two bosses in the entire game and a really annoying set of enemies in Fortuna, you thankfully won’t have to deal with them much. In the same class of Seeker Missiles in that they cannot be barrel rolled. Even worse is that flame breath can hit multiple times.

So now you know the enemy weapons, let’s talk about the all-important laser upgrade. When you first start off, you are given a weak single laser. Your main objective when playing through the beginning of the Corneria levels and the second levels is to find the Twin Blaster Upgrade, shown here:

This increases not only your firing rate but your damage output as well. The hyper laser, the next upgrade, triples both. The hyper laser also won’t be reflected, but that aspect of the game doesn’t come until much later.

Bosses would’ve gotten their own section but to hell with it. Here is what you do: figure out it’s weak-point, then murder it.

There you go, Star Fox for dummies. Hope it was enlightening.