Starfox (SNES) Review

The original Starfox was a big deal when it first was released in 1993 on the Super Nintendo. It was the first polygonal title to use the Super FX chip that so very few games used.

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Starfox was for many, the entry to a 3d home console experience. Just take a look at the orginal commercial in the background and imagine yourself in 1993.

Seeing these modern graphics for the time. This one really blew my mind as a kid. I got lucky to pick up my copy from a rental store that was closing down. Remember those rental stores?

Starfox is a rail shooter that takes fox and his pals Peppy, Falco, and Slippy on a quest to defeat Andross. You choose one of three paths to add some depth to the game.

Starfox mixes up the camera view, some levels have the ship in front of the camera and some levels have it as a cockpit view. You can use bombs to help clear enemies on screen.

Occasionally your companions get caught in front of an enemy where you would have to react and save them by shooting down something that’s on their tail. I really underestimated how well designed this game is. The gameplay is really exciting with hundreds of enemies and obstacles you have to navigate through.

Yes, I know the graphics don’t seem fantastic for today’s standards, but in 1993 this was revolutionary for a home console release.

I like the simple polygons. In todays day where we have almost infinite palette colors and resolutions, I find Starfox having a very simplistic approach to graphics. The development team at Nintendo really did a great job with taking a concept and giving the game a new cast of characters and theme. What I don’t like about starfox is summed up into two parts.

The first being memory limitations. The fact that enemies just pop up out of nowhere at the last second makes Starfox incredibly frustrating at times. You’ll be just flying away and  boom, enemy right in front of you.

The other would be framerate. Some bosses just bring the gameplay to a crawl. This is really frustrating for today’s standards. If there was an opportunity to get a copy of the original Starfox at 60 frames per second, on an original console, I would be all over that!

I absolutely adored Starfox when it was first released. This was my first experience to a 3d game on a home console. This is why it’s so hard for me to give it a negative review. I just cant get past it’s shortcomings. There are better experiences on the Super Nintendo for this day and age. Starfox is one of those games that just cant keep up. Starfox did however open up the door for other rail shooters to be created and put on a home console.

Starfox is also available on the Super Nintendo Classic Edition!