Let’s rewind the clock back to 1995. Nintendo and western developer Argonaut Software had released the best-selling, critically acclaimed original just two years prior. Its success saw the two studios fast track a sequel for the SNES with a vastly improved processing chip: the Super FX 2. However the next generation of consoles was dawning, with the arrival of the PlayStation and Sega Saturn making the dinky old Super Nintendo seem obsolete with its primitive 3D technology. That, plus the financial costs of producing another 3D Super FX game so late, convinced Miyamoto to cancel the project and move production to the Nintendo 64. Argonaut meanwhile continued to flounder for a while until ultimately going defunct in the 2000s, with its figureheads finding work elsewhere such as at Rocksteady and Q-Games.
Nintendo took the groundwork that Argonaut laid with the two SNES games in order to build a new Star Fox title from scratch, but one that carried the DNA of its predecessors. According to Miyamoto, about 30% of Star Fox 64 came from the original, 60% from the cancelled sequel, and the remaining 10% was entirely new. The game’s promotional campaign was one of its biggest assets, with a [special VHS tape](https://youtu.be/F0i_SI63I70) being sent out to subscribers of Nintendo Power in the run-up to release. This game was and still is the golden child of the Star Fox franchise, selling over 4 million copies and becoming one of the top ten best-selling games on the Nintendo 64.
As for the game itself, Star Fox 64 was a reboot of the original Super Nintendo game, featuring revamped graphics and sound, a slightly deeper story, full voice acting for its colorful cast of characters (and becoming some of the most iconic dialogue in all of gaming), and a more elaborate branching level structure. This is one of the most replayable Nintendo games out there, as you can search out alternate paths, aim for high scores, and compete with others in local multiplayer. The game was widely acclaimed for all of these aspects and firmly planted Star Fox as a powerful Nintendo IP, one that was synonymous with quality and joy on par with the likes of Mario and Zelda.
But ever since then, Nintendo has never quite recaptured the magic of that classic in the same way, with every subsequent release selling worse and reviewing worse than its acclaimed N64 predecessor. And nowadays Star Fox as a whole is hanging by a thread, with no new game in sight and being relegated to guest appearances in the interim. It truly was a tragic fall from grace. But even though Nintendo may not know what to do with the future of the series, at least they and Q-Games remastered the N64 game for the 3DS in 2011 and offered the original to subscribers of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. So I pose the question: 25 years on, what are your fondest memories of Star Fox 64? And where does it rank among your all time favorite games, if at all?