Okay, when there's a Star Fox topic, I need to know about it, k? I might not be a total Star Fox nut (never played Armada or Command), but I do like talking about it.
Chup topic 1: Star Fox Armada
I've stubbornly refused to play it or even admit it exists due to mixed reviews and a revolting new look to the characters. Fox and Falco just look ugly, and the idea of blasting away on foot doesn't sound right. Maybe I'm remembering how much more frustrating it was to shoot stuff in the air when in the Landmaster. I think more than anything I was disappointed that Falco still didn't look like his Smash Bros. Melee incarnation (which I think is the best he's ever looked). I didn't quite think Krystal fit as a member of the Star Fox team (Fara Phoenix fan here, all the way), but I'm starting to come around. After watching a few YouTube videos, the game doesn't look too bad.
The briefing screens I was really surprised by. They actually look good. The animated performances make it exciting. I mean, the acting could be better, but their movements and some of the intonations more than make up for it. It's a shame they tore out facial expressions due to not having time or whatever, but I honestly wouldn't notice it unless I saw the Japanese version side by side. Hard to pick favorites, but there's the Fortuna briefing for the great use of the Star Fox theme music and the Katina briefing for the awesome performance of Beltino. I guess I can also take joy in General Pepper's zombie-dog appearance and his botched pronunciation of "Katina".
Chup topic 2: Dinosaur Planet
It is a coincedence, although looking back, I never knew why Fortuna was called the dinosaur planet. I saw flora and sea dragons and two-headed chickens, but no dinosaurs. Dinosaur Planet looks a bit too different from Fortuna to be the same thing (for one thing, it's a lot more densely populated), but it'd be cool if retroactively it was Fortuna. But now we know Dinosaur Planet is Sauria.
Chup topic 3: Krystal
At first, I really liked Krystal. Partly played the game just to see her (the other part was just being able to play as Fox again), had a few dreams about her, had a cozy #3 spot on "Fictional Characters I Have a Crush On". Then I stopped caring once she became part of the team. Maybe the whole mystery of her from SFA was gone by that point. I really wouldn't care if she disappeared from future games, as I've always cared about the original team (except Slippy).
Chocobo bit: Star Fox SNES
I played the SNES version shortly before the N64 version came out. I guess it was the characters that hooked me in more than anything else. I remember liking the game, but to date it's the only videogame I get seizures from. Serious headaches after playing for a few minutes. So I played it as a ROM with 50% scanlines and that seems to help. At first I found the game to be tough as nails. I couldn't even get past the Easy path (I usually got stuck on Meteor. That darn spider boss). But with a little more practice, I started to break through and complete more levels. It's not an easy game.
I like Star Fox 64, but its easy levels really start to count against it after a while (the only real challenge is Star Wolf on Venom 2), and the levels just seem to lack the magic of the SNES's levels. It's also seriously lacking in comparison to the SNES version's music. The SNES version had the right presentation and setting and difficulty. If only there can be an upgraded version of that, I'd be happy. Another thing in the SNES version I prefer over the later games: Peppy didn't look old and he didn't sound old.
Chocobo mention: Star Fox Adventures
Love the game. Yeah it's just Zelda with Fox McCloud, but it works. Beautiful graphics even today, an actual fluid framerate (never thought I'd see that from Rare), great music, great facial expressions in cutscenes. The first time it became night on Dinosaur Planet, I just stood there in awe because of the Thorntail Hollow Night music. I haven't heard anything prettier... until the Viva Pinata soundtrack came along and blew it out of the water. But SFA does have some serious flaws. The battles are an absolute joke and were pretty abrupt. You'd be walking along and then you'd have to fight some weakling you'd have to bash five times. I just ran past them if I could help it. The shopkeeper's one of the most annoying characters I've heard in a videogame, and the best I was able to buy anything below sale price was like one scarab. I do appreciate how Rare was able to contort his face to make believable mouth movements when talking though. And some of the puzzles are unfair. I was stuck at the... oh, that place with the Red Eye dinosaur... I was stuck for hours until I discovered one small switch on the side of a tree. I must have passed by that tree 50 times, but no, I never had the camera tilted -just so-. Overall, playing as Fox and the responsive controls and pleasant experience kept me going. The final battle's a total gyp though, and it was almost too difficult for me. It shouldn't be difficult, I've done that same basic battle before, so why is it so hard all of a sudden? And yet, the ending was TOTALLY worth it. Some people call Star Fox Adventures one of Rare's weakest offerings (before Grabbed By the Ghoulies came out). I say it was one of their best. I still dig those water effects. Oh, and I can't possibly forget Chief Lightfoot. His voice intonations are some of the funniest. Lightfoot needed more screen time.
But I am still very curious on what Dinosaur Planet would have been like if it released for N64 and Fox wasn't involved. From screenshots it barely even looks like the same game. Music's different, colors and atmosphere are different, Cape Claw's unrecognizable. I appreciate they moved it to the GameCube to give it a much-needed graphics and audio lift (and for giving the world Krystal the fox instead of Krystal the cat), but I still wonder what might have been. I would have bought Dinosaur Planet for N64 if it had come out. Because I hadn't yet discovered the joy that was Banjo-Kazooie, even though it had been out for ages.
Chocobo mention: James McCloud
Not unless Nintendo chooses to revisit or retcon the original storyline. I think a cameo by James in Star Fox 64 is enough for one lifetime, given how well that sequence was pulled off. I know it won't happen, but I wish they used the storyline in the Star Fox comics. Not just for a chance at Fara being in the games, but also because it's a whole lot cooler for James to visit the team while inside an intergalactic space whale. James seems to be a good character, but not something I would have the series dwell on. I don't find there being any big mystery surrounding him. Andross and Pigma were jerks, end of story.
Chup topic 4: Voices
Fox's voice rocks. I liked Peppy's chatter in the SNES game, vastly preferred it to his old voice in the later games. The old voice isn't bad, it's just not what I expected the character to turn out to be. When I first saw N64 renders of Peppy, I thought he'd keep a young voice, but no. Didn't like Falco in the SNES game because it sounded like he was belching his lines, but SF64 was a major change for the better and established Falco as the lovable smart-aleck. Slippy is interesting. He sounded good enough in the SNES version. N64 version was pure unfiltered torture (it's amazing how close Slippy's tone of "NOOOOO!" is to Darth Vader's NOOOO). He sounds a bit better in SFA. And he's nearly tolerable in Armada. But what really surprised me was that he looks good in SFA and Armada. Whereas I hated Peppy's old look and nearly the whole cast of Armada disgusts me, Slippy has consistently looked normal. So somehow, Slippy's gotten off pretty well in voice and looks over the course of the series.
I'll write more later, maybe. This is already too long.
