I can see the argument for preferring the original SNES artstyle, especially when played on a CRT so the pixels diffuse and blend - but for most, I view this version as the definitive one.

Being a near 1:1 remake, it doesn't really mess with much of the formula too much, outside being able to swap party members and having new, cinematic triple move attacks. Oh, and the rematches against six bosses, I think? Less than I expected, but a few rematches were more than enough to get me stuck for an hour or so. The extra challenge there was appreciated, as the original was a bit on the easier side and I've played it to death. Honestly, for just the main story, it feels even easier than before, due to all the QoL.

But yeah, the gameplay is as good and simple as ever. Timed button presses for attack and defense, trademark Mario charm, and a brisk adventure that doesn't outstay it's welcome. In fact, even with the added stuff, I wish it was a little bit longer. They renamed a few characters too which I felt robbed a tiny bit of the charm away, but those are nitpicks at best.

My main concern is the price. It's another game where I think $40 bucks was the fairer price, but if you're a Super Mario RPG superfan and plan on replaying it many times, I can see the argument of $60, and still less expensive than an actual cart.

Everyone remembers their first love. The genesis of their journey as a gaming 'connoisseur'. The title that took you by the shoulders, gave you a firm shake, slapped you across the face, and said "This is it. This is your life now, gamer".

That game was Star Fox 64 for me. Prior to it, I've only had brief flirtations with the medium. I've played Super Mario World at a friend's house, maybe a few arcade games here and there - but at the time, they were merely novel distractions to me, as I was completely unaware that games like Zelda and Final Fantasy had been creating worlds within those little carts. To the seven year old me, games felt like fun nonsense, whereas I was much more absorbed by things that could provoke my imagination with silly stories, which is why I enjoyed things like SWAT Kats and Star Wars. You can see where this is going with those two examples.

For all the times my mother had misinterpreted my interests, she was right on the money when one birthday, Nintendo's hottest new console and Star Fox 64 fell into my lap. Anthropomorphic characters, starships, and a Lylat ... WARS? My first honest foray into gaming seemed laser-focused (hah) to my interests, and honestly, shame on the Star Fox team with permanently shackling me with an obsession to video games.

I didn't even know games could be cinematic when I popped that cart into the system, immediately greeted with an introduction of Fox McCloud, Peppy Hare, Falco Lombardi, and Slippy Toad - a quartet that remains one of my favorite teams to this day; each personality defined with the delightfully cheesy yet extremely earnest voice acting; another incredibly novel concept to me that made me slightly disappointed that full voice acting wouldn't be the norm for another generation or so. But it was enough to delight and immediately immerse me into Star Fox 64. I finally got what made video games special; they were a door into living, breathing worlds.

The game involves you liberating planets from an evil, galaxy-brained scientist named Andross, who has the Lylat system under his control after an invasion on Corneria's sovereignty after murdering Fox's ace pilot dad with the help of former Star Fox member Pigma's betrayal. The wise, sagely Peppy narrowly escapes this mortal deception and informs the up-and-coming hotshot Fox, who forms a new Star Fox group with him alongside the hot-headed Falco and quirky, genius mechanic Slippy. Now, it's time to dismantle Andross' army bit-by-bit to his stronghold on the planet Venom, while using starships known as the Arwing to blast, bomb, boost, and barrel roll your way through the game's many missions, while also occasionally getting behind the wheel with the Landmaster tank, or the submersible Blue Marine.

It helps that the gameplay is as simple as they come, while offering plenty of skill expression and a hidden amount of depth for optimizing high scores. Star Fox 64 is a rail-shooter. Being 'on-rails' means that your path is guided by the game and encounters are scripted, which rewards memorization of enemy formations, chances at the various power-ups, and objects you can manipulate for bonuses. Your Arwing is armed with standard lazers with a three-tier power progression, screen-clearing bombs, and boosts/brakes to adjust your speed - which can enable you to do maneuvers like somersaults, and in the case of the game's 'All Range Mode' - where you're placed in an arena with full 3-D control - you are also able to do U-turns. Perhaps the most well-known mechanic is the barrel roll - an acrobatic spin that not only gives you boosted maneuverability when adjusting your position on screen, but has the added bonus of deflecting shots.

However, a game like this is only as good as it's levels, and thankfully, nearly every stage has something to offer - and even the few I dislike are novel enough. Environments range from a war-ravaged metropolis on Corneria to the Asteroid Field of Meteos, to the literal polluted trash planet Zoness. There's even a level where you destroy a train car-by-car in the Landmaster tank. The lively, cheeky, and often amusing banter between the Star Fox crew and towards Andross' captains and lieutenants further enhance the non-stop forward momentum that the game keeps it's entire runtime; you definitely get the sense that the crew aren't just co-workers, they're friends.

Speaking of runtime, perhaps the game's greatest strength - and one that lends itself to high scores - is it's brevity. You can finish a playthrough of Star Fox 64 in less than an hour. For some, they might be disappointing, but for those who like to push themselves and optimize their play, as well as thoroughly charmed by the game's personality and airtight gameplay, it's an addicting thing to chase. Things like branching paths - which involves fulfilling some kind of prerequisite in a level such as certain score, or a test of your aerial acrobatics, or activating a series of locks or switches by shooting them - keep things fresh each time you play. Chasing medals, which are granted after a certain score threshold, add to this variety, which can unlock things like Expert Mode, sound test, and even different modes in the multiplayer.

The multiplayer is feels admittedly a bit tacked-on. It's a good time with four people, but for me, anything less feels like an unfulfilling game of cat-and-house. I don't really have much to say about it. There are only two maps, and one of them I do not like in the least; Sector Z. Which bares true for it's single-player counterpart as well. And while we're on the subject of levels in singleplayer, the marine planet Aquas is a chugging, laggy slog that may be an impressive showcase of the game's already excellent visuals, but isn't fun to play when stuck in that Blue Marine. The music saves that level.

And it's no surprise that a Nintendo game has excellent music all around. While many prefer the SNES original's score by Hajime Hirasawa, Koji Kondo still brought his A-game to the 64 classic. The aforementioned Aquas theme sounds straight out of a Metroid game, and when you face your rival dogfighting team Star Wolf, their eponymous theme is a sweeping, dramatic epic that instills trepidation and is an absolute banger. Area 6 has a bombastic, almost orchestral 'finishing lap' quality to it that feels like the build-up and culmination of your space-faring journey. I can't get enough of these tunes, and it's helpful to never get sick of them and hum along after my 1000th run.

I haven't even talked about things like the pack-in peripheral Rumble Pack, which when placed into the controller, would vibrate the controller with force feedback - which went a long way into further imagining myself in the cockpit of an Arwing. Honestly, I could talk all day about how much this game means to me, and how it sculpted me to take a keen interest in gaming as a hobby.

The only complaint I have is that I think 2 of the levels aren't great, and even then, I can just skip them if I really feel like it - even though I at least suffer through Aquas to get to my favorite level. Other than that, it's peak rail-shooting perfection to me and it's a shame it seems like Star Fox's lightning in a bottle as far as the franchise's concern, with every game after it living in it's shadow - despite myself finding no particular entry awful (even Zero).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to practice my charged unlock shots to wrack up extra hits with splash damage so I can get my Corneria score to 250.

-- Possible Spoilers There-in --

I have a long, storied history with Final Fantasy. Funny enough, it was the homage and swansong to the classic era of Final Fantasy where I first was introduced - Final Fantasy IX. Since then, I have experienced every mainline game prior and since. Through shifts in direction and genre, through the various drawn-out and trouble productions, I stuck it out.

That's why it wasn't bothersome to me when I heard that Final Fantasy XVI would motion into a more action-focused route. To be fair, what with Final Fantasy XV and VII: Remake's combat, it felt like a natural progression - and the only concerns I really had from then was how the game would take shape.

Knowing that Naoki Yoshida's team was the vision behind the XVI project already instilled faith in me. Though it took me until Heavensward to fully grip and immerse me, the MMO Final Fantasy XIV was his baby and wowed me with deep political theming, complex characters, and a constantly escalating, intertwined narrative, along with Masayoshi Soken's excellent score. It wasn't unlike the grittier, more Shakespearean Ivalice setting from Tactics, XII, and Vagrant Story, and all signs pointed to Final Fantasy XVI following in their footsteps. I wasn't disappointed.

The world of Valisthea in XVI is as hauntingly beautiful as it is uncompromisingly dark. Political unrest, gruesome wars, with protagonist Clive stuck in the middle via machinations of cruel fate - one that we see him buck against as he seizes his destiny and those alongside him. Unlike Yasumi Matsuno's games, like the aforementioned Ivalice titles, there is a resonant, strong emotional core there, acted out flawless with a stellar voice cast that includes the likes of Ralph Ineson, David Menkin, Susannah Fielding, Harry McEntire - and Ben Starr, who plays our lead Clive in his first major voice acting role. The vulnerability and genuine portrayal he gave absolutely floored me, and seeing him work through his trauma with a genuine, supporting cast of characters that evolved alongside him. There were some fumbles, however. There were certain characters I wish had more development or lens into their backstory, such as Jill or Cidolfus - which will hopefully manifest in the form of DLC. And there were times where the plot came to a screeching halt, be it narratively or by throwing a bunch of fetch sidequests at you. The latter were a slog to get through, but the fortunate thing about them is that all of them did add to the world-building and ended in a place that made me appreciate them, and glad that I suffered through the monotony to see them conclude.

Now that we're discussing gameplay; the combat. Similar to how I felt knowing that Yoshida had the reins on the project, I wasn't concerned about the new, fleshed-out laser focus on action combat either, knowing that DMC5 and Dragon Dogma's Ryota Suzuki was the combat director. Feeling like a fluid, glorious fusion of the aforementioned Devil May Cry and Kingdom Hearts, the adrenaline-fueling, bombastic combat deserves the highest praise I can muster - never growing old in the two playthroughs that I completed. There was so many small optimizations you can make - each move chaining into another. Buffering and priming abilities and weaving them in the tapestry of carnage Clive can deliver to foe and Eikon alike. Oh, yes. The Eikons; embodiments of past Final Fantasy summons, manifesting as either a human's powerset or a kaiju, Attack on Titan-esque monstrosity that could sunder kingdoms and act as mutually-assured destruction in this grimdark fantasy setting, one that Ifrit-infused Clive has the power to absorb into him by mysterious means. As you likely aware of, each Eikon conquered in the narrative adds to his moveset, which you can swap between three templates of in real-time while in combat, adding to Clive's arsenal of themed abilities. Some act as powerful gap-closers, empowered dodges, or unyielding block-and-counters, with a spectacle of battle-field clearing moves that I never tired of dealing out. The only flaw I could leverage against the combat itself was that I felt that mastering abilities in order to put them into other Eikon templates was a bit of a grind.

But it was easy to grind away regardless, when you have the bombastic, emotion-stirring score of Masayoshi Soken. This man is the true successor to Uematsu's mantle, able to compose gorgeous character themes with powerful leit motifs, exciting fist-pumping symphonies that harken back to operatic, classical music, and even grungy, DMC-style buttrock or dubstep that should've felt jarring and out of place, but didn't. I could blindly point at any track in the OST, and in all likelihood, it would be in the running as one of my favorite's, but Joshua's theme 'Away' or Clive's 'Find Your Flame' are two that I implore you to listen to if you haven't.

As you can tell, I had a lot to say about this game. I've been a lifelong fan of the franchise through thick and thin - and seeing FFXVI metamorphize into something with a clear vision is inspiring as the game was fun and emotionally moving, touching on hard themes that helped me become a better person through the perspective of one who could right the wrongs of the world - and did. It saddened me to see that some outlets or players view Final Fantasy as more of a box that one couldn't stray from, or that it got snubbed for Game of the Year when it had so many things going for it.

Empathetically, I cannot recommend this game enough, and while shy of perfection, what with some pacing issues and repetitive content, on a personal level, this was a masterpiece.


Also, if it doesn't win best score at the Game Awards, we riot.