Star Fox 64 3D is a Nintendo 3DS remake of the original Star Fox 64 from the Nintendo 64. Star Fox 64 is a beloved game by many and this 3D version effectively keeps everything about the gameplay intact and tries to improve upon a few more things. The main upgrade are the graphics in which it is not only leaps and bounds better than the original, but is also one of the prettiest and most stunning games available on the 3DS. From the very first level where you fly through grasslands, mountains, lakes and a city, it looks so good. Later on, you will fly through space, over the top of a star with plasma shooting up, it looks fantastic. Furthermore, the game runs very smoothly, even where there are large numbers of enemies on screen.
The persistent fog of the original has disappeared and the draw distance has vastly improved. The voice acting has been redone, however, they have kept the same voice actors. The dialogue is a bit repetitive at times. The music has been re-recorded but it doesn't stand out too much. The story focuses upon Fox McCloud, in which he leads the Star Fox team. He is engaged by General Pepper to head into the Lylat System and investigate. The Star Fox team ends up travelling to a few planets, battling enemies in an effort to engage the mad scientist Andross. The story is told via dialogue exchanges between characters and some very very brief cutscenes. It is actually quite amusing with how Fox's talking animations are designed. Anayway, the story is quite barebones you don't end up paying much attention to it in the end.
As you can probably tell, you take control of Fox McCloud's ship in the game, flying through planets and shooting at enemies. Star Fox 64 3D is a rail shooter most of the time, this means you don't actually get to control where you want to go, the game automatically steers you, which kinda sucks. Although this means that the game can present to you a faster paced game and some tense situations in which there are heaps of enemies onscreen and you're frantically trying to defeat them all. The gameplay is exactly the same as the original, you aim and move your ship at the same time using the Circle Pad. This means that it can sometimes get confusing and hard to manage when aiming, since your aiming reticule automatically returns to the front of the ship when you release the Circle Pad.
Mapping the movement of your ship onscreen and also the aiming of your guns means that you cannot dodge obstacles and shoot at specific enemies at the same time. Precision aiming takes some getting used to since it is hard to pinpoint a specific spot when you're constantly moving forward, and the reticule keeps moving with your ship. Your arsenal consists of lasers, which can be upgraded during a level to fire two lasers at the same time or become more powerful. You can also charge the lasers which can lock onto enemies. In each level, there are gold rings that you can collect, if you collect three, your health increases for the remainder of that level. Silver rings will occasionally be dropped by enemies which heals you.
Lastly, you have access to bombs which have a big blast radius and is more powerful than a single laser shot, but you only have a limited supply of ammo. You can perform maneuvers with your ship such as doing a barrel roll to deflect enemy attacks, perform a somersault to throw off enemies or perform a U-turn. There is a gauge which allows you to boost and brake to avoid obstacles like falling rocks or closing gates. In addition to the rail shooter element, there are also sections called All-Range Mode, where you are free to fly around in an enclosed arena. This usually happens during special events or boss fights. A level usually has a boss fight where you destroy parts of the boss to whittle down their health.
Certain levels allow you to control a tank or a submarine, just to add some variety to the gameplay. The biggest downside of Star Fox 64 3D is that it is very much an arcade oriented game. This means that your first playthrough will only take around an hour to 1.5 hours. Yes, you've read that right, you play through seven levels in one session and you'll be viewing the end credits in approximately an hour. Needless to say that it is quite shocking and disappointing. Fear not though because the game is designed for endless replays. You are not able to complete everything there is to the game in one playthrough because there are multiple pathways. Doing a certain route or performing specific requirements in a level may unlock an alternative level, which in turn may change some key events in the story.
The game encourages you to replay levels to unlock new levels. With that being said, since it doesn't hand you most of the levels in a silver platter, it can easily put off more than a few players. Playing through multiple playthroughs to play all levels at least once will give you approximately 5 hours of game time which isn't too bad in the end. Star Fox 64 3D has a multiplayer component but it is offline LAN only. There is a Battle Mode which is like what you get in Mario Kart. You can either face actual players (with the need of only one copy of the game between you all) or against CPU opponents. You try and destory each other's ships before you get destroyed.
There are four maps available in Battle Mode, and the options to toggle on/off power ups, time limits, difficulty of AI and how much health you have. Furthermore, there are two other modes (which are very similar) and they are based on obtaining the highest points which are gained from defeating other players. Overall, Star Fox 64 3D is a nice game although feels too short for its own good. Sure, you can replay the game to unlock levels but in the end, that'll be approximately 5 hours of gameplay before you are repeating levels again and again aiming for high scores and collecting medals. For a new player who has never played the original Nintendo 64 version, it fell short of expectations. For however many hours you play Star Fox 64 3D, whether it be four hours or 100 hours, it is solid gameplay and is worth a purchase.
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