Star Fox 64, called Lylat Wars in PAL regions, is a 1997 rail shooter game made and sold by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the second game in the Star Fox series and a new version of the original Star Fox game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Star Fox 64 was the first Nintendo 64 game to support the system's Rumble Pak accessory, which came with copies of the game when it was first sold. Since its release in 1997, the game has sold over 4 million copies, making it the most successful game in the series and the ninth most successful game on the Nintendo 64. The game was praised for its accurate controls, voice acting, multiplayer options, and replayability due to different paths players could take. Like the earlier SNES version of Star Fox, Star Fox 64 is considered one of the greatest video games ever made. A 3D version for the Nintendo 3DS, called Star Fox 64 3D, was released in 2011. A new version for the Wii U, called Star Fox Zero, was released in 2016. The game was also released again on the Nintendo Classics service on October 25, 2021.

Gameplay

Star Fox 64 is a 3D rail shooter game. The player controls a vehicle piloted by Fox McCloud, usually an Arwing. Most of the game takes place in "Corridor Mode," which moves Fox's vehicle along a fixed path forward through the environment. In Corridor Mode, the player can move the vehicle around the screen to avoid obstacles and perform a somersault to get behind enemies or dodge attacks. The Arwing can also deflect enemy fire during a spinning move called a "barrel roll" (similar to an aileron roll in real-life aviation). The Arwing and Landmaster can charge their laser cannons to fire a strong lock-on laser.

Some parts of the game, including multiplayer and boss battles, take place in "All-Range Mode." In this mode, the player can move freely in a three-dimensional space within a large arena. The Arwing can also perform a U-Turn to change direction in All-Range Mode.

Throughout the game, the player can collect power-ups by flying or driving through them. These include silver and gold rings that restore the vehicle's shields, weapon upgrades, wing repairs, extra lives, and Nova bombs.

Wingmen from the original Star Fox game fly with the player in their own Arwings. Wingmen attack enemies or enter the player's view, requiring the player to shoot down pursuers before the wingman retreats to the Great Fox mothership for repairs. Wingmen return later if enough time passes. Each wingman helps the player differently: Slippy Toad shows boss shields on the screen, Peppy Hare gives gameplay tips, and Falco Lombardi finds alternate paths. Some stages include appearances from Katt Monroe or Bill Grey, who help the team.

The game has a branching level system. Harder paths are unlocked by completing certain tasks. Players can change paths after finishing a mission. All paths begin at Corneria, lead to a meeting with the Star Wolf Team, and end at Venom with a battle against Andross.

To increase replayability, the game awards medals for completing missions with all wingmen intact and achieving a specific hit count. Medals unlock bonus features, such as new multiplayer vehicles, cosmetic changes for Fox, and settings like "Expert Mode."

The Arwing is the main fighter used by the Star Fox team. Players can use the boost meter to perform special moves to avoid collisions, change direction, and gain combat advantages. Some levels use the Landmaster, a tank-like vehicle, or the Blue Marine, a submarine on Aquas. Each vehicle shares some traits with the Arwing but offers unique gameplay.

Star Fox 64 supports split-screen multiplayer for up to four players. Initially, players use the Arwing, but earning medals in the main game unlocks the Landmaster tank and allows players to fight on foot with a bazooka. Multiplayer is the only place where players can use a Landmaster with upgraded lasers.

Multiplayer has three modes: "point match," where players must shoot opponents a set number of times; "battle royal," where the last player remaining wins; and "time trial," where players destroy enemies within a time limit.

Plot

The Star Fox team is a group of soldiers for hire who are hired by General Pepper to protect the Lylat system. The team includes:

• Fox McCloud: A red fox who became the team’s leader after his father, James, was captured and killed by Andross during a previous mission. Fox is the main character in the game and the only player-controlled character in Story Mode.
• Falco Lombardi: A falcon who is a skilled fighter but also very confident and proud. He often looks for faster paths during missions.
• Peppy Hare: A rabbit who was part of the original Star Fox team. He survived when Pigma betrayed the team, which led to James’s capture. Peppy now helps train Fox during missions.
• Slippy Toad: A frog who is the team’s expert in machines. He is friendly and energetic but sometimes causes problems. He gives players important information about enemies and bosses.

General Pepper, a bloodhound and leader of the Cornerian militia, gives the team instructions and support. The team’s spaceship, the Great Fox, is controlled by a robot named ROB 64 (called NUS64 in the Japanese version). Two other characters help the team during certain missions: Bill Grey, a bulldog and leader of two fighter groups who is Fox’s friend; and Katt Monroe, a former gang member who is Falco’s friend.

Andross is the main enemy in the game. He looks like a monkey or ape and is a dangerous scientist who wants to take over the Lylat system. To stop Star Fox, he hires the Star Wolf team, a rival group of mercenaries. This team includes:
– Wolf O’Donnell, a wolf and Fox’s long-time enemy who leads the team.
– Leon Powalski, a sneaky chameleon who targets Falco.
– Andrew Oikonny, Andross’s nephew who hunts Slippy.
– Pigma Dengar, a pig who betrayed the original Star Fox team and chases Peppy.

On Corneria, the fourth planet of the Lylat system, Andross was exiled to the planet Venom by General Pepper for nearly destroying Corneria with dangerous weapons. Five years later, Pepper notices strange activity on Venom and hires the Star Fox team—James McCloud, Peppy Hare, and Pigma Dengar—to investigate. Pigma betrays the team, leading to James’s capture and death, while Peppy escapes.

Two years later, Andross attacks the Lylat system. General Pepper calls on a new Star Fox team, now led by Fox, James’s son, with Peppy as his mentor and new members Falco and Slippy. As the team travels through planets, they fight Andross’s forces, including the Star Wolf team. When the team reaches Venom, Fox faces Andross alone. The battle has two possible outcomes, depending on which planet the player approaches from:
– If the player comes from Bolse, Fox destroys a robotic version of Andross, leaving the real Andross stranded in space.
– If the player comes from Area 6, Fox discovers Andross’s true form as a floating brain and kills him.

Before dying, Andross activates his base’s self-destruct system to destroy Fox. However, James appears briefly to help Fox escape the explosion.

After defeating Andross, Fox returns to Corneria with his team for a celebration. General Pepper offers the team a chance to join the Cornerian Army, but Fox refuses, and the team leaves. After the game ends, the player sees a final score displayed as a bill sent to Star Fox by General Pepper for their work.

Development

After the release of Star Fox in 1993, the game’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, began working on Star Fox 2 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). By 1995, Miyamoto and his team had mostly completed Star Fox 2. However, they realized that releasing the game would require a more powerful chip called the Super FX 2, which would make the game more expensive. At the same time, new video game consoles, such as the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation, had much better computer power and graphics than the SNES, making Star Fox 2 seem outdated. Miyamoto also knew that the Nintendo 64, which would be released the next year, had even better technology. Because of these challenges, Miyamoto decided to cancel Star Fox 2. The game was later released officially on the Super NES Classic Edition and the Nintendo Classics service.

Around this time, development of Star Fox 64 began. Character designer Takaya Imamura and programmer Kazuaki Morita experimented with creating the game. Morita, who was new to 3D programming, found it difficult to make something new. The team did not have the actual Nintendo 64 hardware to use, so they worked with a large development computer and a modified Super Nintendo controller that lacked analog sticks, which were being used for another game, Super Mario 64. To start, the team decided to use the original Star Fox game as a base to help them learn 3D programming. Morita began by placing simple shapes and launching basic versions of the Arwing spaceship, calling this early version "Star Box." Imamura and Morita worked on the game for six months, growing attached to it, while Nintendo officials were not excited about the project and hoped the team would stop. This changed when a short clip of the game was shown at Shoshinkai 1995, leading Nintendo to officially support the project and bring in director Takao Shimizu.

Imamura was credited as Star Fox 64’s art director, but he was also responsible for many other parts of the game, including planning, writing the story, choosing music, and designing gameplay and graphics. He later called it "the game of his life." Miyamoto had two main goals for Star Fox 64: first, to create a more complete version of Star Fox, as the original game had been limited by the SNES’s technology. Second, to include elements from the canceled Star Fox 2, so the work done on that game would not be wasted. The development team used ideas from both Star Fox and Star Fox 2, with about 60% of the game’s concepts coming from the original, 30% from the canceled sequel, and 10% from new ideas. Miyamoto said that features like All-Range Mode, Multi-Player Mode, and the Star Wolf story were inspired by Star Fox 2. Morita secretly worked on All-Range Mode early in development, inspired by Star Fox 2’s gameplay. The game’s branching paths were designed to balance the original Star Fox’s fixed difficulty with the more open gameplay of Star Fox 2. To make choices in the game feel meaningful, the team added characters like Bill and Katt, who interacted with the player.

A new feature in Star Fox 64 was the inclusion of levels using the Landmaster tank and the Blue-Marine submarine. These were created by the development team in response to Miyamoto’s suggestion to include a "human-type craft." The team originally planned for underwater levels but later removed them because they slowed the game’s pace. They also planned to include a level where Fox fights Andross on foot with a bazooka, but this was cut due to time constraints.

Once the main gameplay was finished, the team focused on improving graphics, sound, dialogue, and enemy behavior to take advantage of the Nintendo 64’s power. For example, the team animated characters’ mouths opening and closing like puppets, inspired by Miyamoto’s love for the British show Thunderbirds, which reduced the work needed for animations. They also added dynamic audio so that allies could warn the player when enemies were nearby. Dialogue was written to resemble traditional historical dramas, with lines like "I’ve been waiting for you, Star Fox" and "You’re becoming more like your father." Edgier lines, such as "I guess it’s your turn to be thankful," were used for Falco Lombardi, while supportive lines like "Never give up. Trust your instincts!" came from Peppy Hare. The team first tried to provide their own voices for the characters, with Imamura voicing Fox and programmer Nobuhiro Sumiyoshi voicing Leon. However, this was not well received, so professional voice actors were used instead. These early voice lines were later found in a 2020 Nintendo data leak.

Star Fox 64 was also the first game to use the Rumble Pak, a controller attachment that vibrated during gameplay. It was included with the game in some versions. Miyamoto noted that the team struggled to make the Rumble Pak’s vibrations meaningful, as players often did not understand why their controllers were vibrating during gameplay.

Release

The game was first shown to the public at E3 1996, where Nintendo released a video of an early version. This early version included only the first level, called Corneria, and had a simple on-screen display that showed a basic gauge for the player's shield. On December 6, 1996, Nintendo shared more beta footage that showed later levels, an improved on-screen display, and a short multiplayer segment.

As the game neared its release, Nintendo worried that the title "Star Fox" might be too similar to the name of a German company called "StarVox." Because of this, the game was renamed "Lylat Wars" in some PAL regions, just like its earlier version. Before the game's release, Nintendo Power subscribers received a promotional video that highlighted the game's cinematic scenes and new features, such as the Rumble Pak and voice acting. The video showed two agents from Sega and Sony (Nintendo's main competitors at the time) questioning a Nintendo employee about the game. The game reportedly had a marketing budget of $7 million.

After the game's release, Miyamoto stated that while he was not completely satisfied with the final version of Star Fox 64, he believed it used the Nintendo 64's increased processing power better than Super Mario 64, another game Miyamoto developed for the same console.

In December 2024, an unofficial PC version of the game called StarShip, created by the team that developed the Ship of Harkinian port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, was released.

Reception

Star Fox 64 received praise from critics and was one of the best-selling games in 1997, second only to Mario Kart 64. Reviewers appreciated the game's level design, which allowed players to explore different paths based on their performance and hidden triggers within levels, rather than following a single route. Many critics also praised the multiplayer modes for adding replay value. However, Crispin Boyer of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) thought the multiplayer modes were not as good, saying the split-screen display made it hard to see targets clearly. The game's voice clips were widely praised not for the acting quality, but for the large number of audio clips included, which was unusual for a cartridge-based game. Critics also liked the precise analog controls, creative boss designs, use of the Rumble Pak, and movie-like cutscenes. GamePro gave the game a perfect score of 5 out of 5 in all four categories: gameplay, graphics, controls, and fun factor.

Some critics said Star Fox 64 did not improve as much over the original Star Fox as Super Mario 64 did over earlier Mario games, noting that the gameplay still followed a set path. This did not change the overall positive reception of the game. GameSpot reviewer Glenn Rubenstein called Star Fox 64 "an instant classic" and "a pleasure to look at." EGM named it "Game of the Month," with Dan Hsu calling it "a shooting fan's dream come true" and Shawn Smith saying it was "almost as good as Mario 64." IGN reviewer Doug Perry said the game showed that shooters had become more exciting than ever.

Alex Navarro of GameSpot praised the Wii Virtual Console version for its simple and enjoyable shooting gameplay and plentiful voice acting. He said the game looked good despite its older graphics and added replay value through hidden paths, but he found the lack of rumble support "alarming," as it was the first game to use the Rumble Pak.

In the first five days of its U.S. launch, more than 300,000 copies were sold, breaking the previous record held by Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario 64. It was the best-selling home console video game in its first three months and stayed in the top ten best-selling games for the rest of 1997. By the end of 1997, it sold over 1 million copies in the United States, making it one of five Nintendo 64 games to reach that milestone. Sales were much lower in Japan, where it sold 75,595 copies during its first week. The game ranked #73 on Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever" list.

Star Fox 64 is listed as the 45th greatest game of all time by Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition in 2009. In 1997, EGM ranked it the 39th best console video game of all time, noting its impressive visuals, large amount of voice acting, and challenging medal-earning system and expert mode. They also named it "Shooter of the Year" at their 1997 Editors' Choice Awards. In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the game 14th in a list of the greatest Nintendo games. In 2012, G4 ranked Star Fox 64 as the 74th greatest game of all time on their list of the top 100 video games.

Remake

At E3 2010, Nintendo announced a new version of Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo 3DS, called Star Fox 64 3D. On the same day, Nintendo showed a demo that highlighted the technology of the Nintendo 3DS. The remake was created together with Q-Games and includes 3D graphics that look like real life, better features for players, motion controls that respond to movement, and new voice recordings. The game was released on July 14 in Japan and on September 9, 2011, in Europe and North America. This was the first time Star Fox 64 was available in PAL territories under its original name. The game allows up to four players to play together using download play, but it does not include an online multiplayer mode.