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With Star Fox 64 having just got yet another remake, I've found myself thinking a lot lately about my experiences of playing the game in the late '90s, and the way in which it cast its magic over not just me, but my older brothers, and my Scottish pen pal.
Just to give you some context, I’ve always been a pretty big Star Fox fan, ever since the moment I was old enough to hold a controller. Although I was born just one year prior to the game’s original release, thanks to having three older brothers, some of my earliest memories were of playing their copy of the original PAL release of Star Wing on the SNES, constructing crude Arwing replicas out of Lego bricks, and trying to copy my older brother’s drawings of the Star Fox team (based on the puppets on the front of the game’s box).
For me, it was a series that set my childhood imagination ablaze, with the concept of cute woodland creatures flying off into space to battle intergalactic threats being the perfect fodder for a kid whose time was mostly divided between countryside walks and watching episodes of Red Dwarf at home.
Naturally, then, a few years later, when my parents decided to get one of my older brothers an N64 and its sequel, Lylat Wars (as it was called in Europe), I was already firmly aware of who Fox and the gang were, and couldn't wait to see what the new entry would have in store for the Star Fox team. I'd creep into my brother's room to watch him play through their latest adventure, trying to stay quiet so as not to throw him off his game, and would often attempt the first few levels myself, replaying Corneria and Meteo over and over and failing to emulate the flawless manoeuvres that my brother seemed to manage so seamlessly.
Skill issues aside, it was pretty much everything I could have hoped for from a Star Wing successor, and quickly became one of my favourite games on the system, sitting alongside other N64 classics such as Super Mario 64, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Banjo Kazooie, and Diddy Kong Racing.
In particular, I loved the updated graphics; the addition of the all-range mode featured on levels like the Katina; the dramatic feedback created by the Rumble Pak; and the addition of even more characters to vandalise my schoolbooks with (including Star Wolf, Bill, and Katt), whose compressed voice lines I'd often try and mimic — typically when nobody was watching ("I Am The Great Leon").
All of this is to say that the game really meant a lot to me, but that isn't necessarily why I wanted to write about it as my very first "Game Changer" for the site. Instead, I wanted to mention it because it conjures memories of a particular time and place in my life: a 2-week holiday we took to visit old family friends on the Isle of Bute, whom I've long since lost touch with.
For many "normal" people who visit Bute, the island typically evokes idyllic images of breathtaking wildlife, unforgettable landmarks (such as Rothesay Castle), and miles of beautiful coastline.
However, for me personally, being the maladjusted video game-obsessed individual that I am, some of my fondest memories I remember today were spent hunched over an N64, playing Star Fox with my pen pal (our host family's Nintendo-mad son), who just so happened to have a copy of Lylat Wars and enough controllers to take advantage of the multiplayer.
With a strict timeline in place before we had to return to England, I can remember my brothers and I cramming ourselves into his room, staying up well into the night to unlock the game’s best ending and collect as many medals as possible, while also investing a ridiculous amount of hours on the side into the game's multiplayer.
For me, it was the first time I'd really shared my love of gaming with someone outside of my own family — something I'm lucky enough to say has since become a pretty integral part of my career in games media over the last decade or so.
As mentioned, I eventually lost touch with this friend because of life getting in the way, but thanks to social media, we connected again briefly almost a decade later.
Hilariously, rather than immediately asking each other about family and what we had been up to, our first messages picked up straight from where we had left off, talking about those amazing times we spent saving the Lylat System from Andross.
With Star Fox 64 now getting another remake, it's my biggest hope that a new generation can share a somewhat similar experience, experiencing the same kind of joy that I had with the original game.