Skip to main content

E3 2011 hands-on: Star Fox 64 3D

Star Fox 64 3D(This article comes courtesy of N-Sider, a site for well-adjusted Nintendo fans. N-Sider has served the Nintendo community for more than a decade.)

Here’s another update to a game I’ve never played before (you can go ahead and insert your expressions of disbelief right… here): Star Fox 64 3D. In this context, the one thing that’s front and center in my mind is that the screenshots I’ve seen don’t do it justice. A lot of things lookreally good in this game, particularly in 3D.

On display at the show was the Score Attack mode, letting you choose one of three missions to go through, and a four-player multiplayer mode. I tried the former first, exploring various control options. The much-touted gyro controls, which let you control your ship by moving the 3DS around in space in front of you, proved to be both rather awkward and annoying as I tended to move the 3D out of focus. I eventually ended up switching the gyro off first and switching to the slide pad (which you still needed to use anyway to pull off many moves), then inverting the Y-axis, before it came together.

star-fox-64-3d-e3-2011
Image used with permission by copyright holder

What I really liked, though, was the multiplayer mode. Likely in the interests of keeping things fair, gyro mode was locked on in this game. But in the more open area of the multiplayer arena (as opposed to the largely on-rails nature of the missions), I found it worked substantially better to use the gyro to move around—far less tight quarters made for a much better experience with the motion controls.

Multiplayer has one other feature: it will use the 3DS’ internal camera to take really grainy, low-fps shots of the player as he plays the game. It proved to be really difficult to make out anything on the tiny photos that were floating around the arena as we played; only when the game took snapshots with a victory/loss event was it possible to make out any detail, and even then it was really only at the conclusion of the game that I felt I could pay enough attention to them. Not exactly a game-changer.

After playing Kid Icarus: Uprising last night with its stylus aiming, the designed-for-analog-stick aiming mechanic of Star Fox feels kind of archaic; I don’t think I’d see myself particularly interested in pursuing the single-player campaign in this game. But I wouldn’t hesitate to jump into a multiplayer game—even if I wasn’t winning. It turned out to be a lot of fun.

star-fox-64-3d-asteroids
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Matt Behrens
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Matt Behrens is a software developer based in Michigan, working on networked software on Unix and Linux. He was a longtime…
Volgarr the Viking 2 will take you back to your Ghosts ‘n Goblins days
A viking slashes a tree in Volgarr the Viking 2.

Developer Digital Eclipse is working on a surprising project: Volgarr the Viking 2. The 2D retro sequel will launch on August 6 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The news is an out of left field reveal. The first Volgarr the Viking game released in 2013 and was made as an ode to 1080s classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins. Despite being a small release, it sold over 1 million copies over the past decade. As revealed during today's Guerrilla Collective stream, the series is coming back with a new sequel by Digital Eclipse, the team behind this year's Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

Read more
3 Days of Play PS Plus games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Key art for Streets of Rage 4.

June 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty great month for PlayStation players. Not only are we coming off an entertaining State of Play showcase, but a new Days of Play initiative surrounding all the video game showcases this month is bringing a lot of new PS Plus additions with it. Many of those games hit PS Plus this week, and three in particular stand out to us.

For owners of Sony's oft-neglected PlayStation VR2, the first game is one of its rare exclusives that take full advantage of the headset's eye-tracking by seeing how often players blink. The next is a new PS Plus Essential game that's a revival of Sega's classic beat-'em-up series for the modern gaming era. Finally, the last title is an atmospheric and eerie fishing game that should entice fans of Lovecraftian horror.
Before Your Eyes

Read more
3 first-party Xbox Game Pass games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Gears 5 Kait Hero Close Up

Microsoft will hold an Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. this Sunday. These shows will provide a much better idea of what to expect from Xbox over the course of the next year or two. That's really needed right now, as Microsoft has struggled to keep online discussions around Xbox positive as it went multiplatform with some games, laid off thousands of developers, and outright shut down the developers of Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall. Based on leaks and my personal expectations for the showcase, there are three games you can play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend to prepare for the event.

The first is the latest first-person shooter in a long-running series by id Software that might be getting a medieval-set spinoff. After that, we have the fifth entry in a sci-fi Xbox series that still looks fantastic on Xbox Series X/S even though it came out in 2019. Finally, you can prepare for Avowed with the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, a satirical sci-fi game where player choice is critical.
Doom Eternal

Read more