Finally playing a Touhou game feels like I've crossed some kind of cursed boundary I can't recover from. I guess time will tell if I've ended up in some deep dark abyss of my own making.

What time doesn't need to tell you is that I think this game is really good! Short but sweet metroidvania, cool time stuff, baller bosses, it's one of those games that's so focused on the gameplay that I kinda end up just listing the features in it because they're all rad. Well worth whatever nonsense I was spouting above.

Definitely the best and worst video game at the same time. It's got some issues with the randomly spawning enemies, annoying bosses, and such, but ooooh the movement I love the movement. Getting to grips with the grappling hook is just so rewarding, and makes you think how much more fun the earlier levels would be. Despite my first playthrough being a bit bumpy (Field 42 is certainly something), I ended up coming out of this with a pretty positive opinion.

This game lets you overcome that challenge in not just platforming, but controlling the platforming itself, in a way that feels pretty special (maybe like Getting Over It? Haven't tried that one). For as much as I think Field 42 says a lot about our society, forcing you to really try messing around with reeling in your line while swinging shows you a whole new world of complexity. It just feels like I've scratched the surface, and that the game could get even better on repeat playthroughs.

The aesthetics are nice too, with a soft look similar to Dream Land 3, and plenty of nice locations and music. I like how the bass almost has a bit of a Genesis twang to it.

This is on the Japanese Switch Online app, which is how I tried it. It's a lot more palatable at first with rewinds (don't tell anyone I said this 🤫). Don't play it with joycons though. That was a mistake. oof ow ouch my thumbs

switch owners be like "it's portable though"

Nah for real this game's still pretty rad. I can't even pretend to represent an era in gaming where 3D graphics were impressive, but this game definitely nails the flying through space vibe. The illusion of a physical 3D space worked way better for me than I thought it would. And then besides the graphics it's a fun arcadey shooter. There's almost certainly better but my interaction with 99% of video game genres is filtered by Nintendo stuff, please understand.

i dont have a better transition so uh the music is cool, like the Corneria and Meteor themes. Really makes you think oh shit it's star fox let's go!! On the subject of smaller details, I appreciate the feeling of adventuring with your crew. I guess it makes sense the early gamer Internet would insult their poor dogfighting skills or whatever but nothing feels better than reassuring the homies that badabada ba daba at the end of every level. Especially because I heard they die in this one if their shield reaches 0??

Overall though, Star Fox is certifiably pretty cool. There's definitely parts where the bosses become a Powerpoint presentation and every input is more of a prayer you get out of the way, or a triagonal prism sucker punches you from off the camera, but it wasn't consistent enough to detract from the game too much for me. I dunno I don't feel like going "oh the 1993 3D tech demo has aged considerably and must be understood as a product of its time 🤓🤓🤓" because I really did have fun with it. Normalizing just liking an old video game cuz you're simply too epic for the haters to stop you 😎

I think this is where any normal person would just play the N64 one instead, but I don't really have a way to do that right now. Nuts.