You should give Sin and Punishment a shot if you like Star Fox 64, think you'd like it a lot.

@DrDelicious I've played the 64 game but not the sequel. It was definitely cool but I just love the feeling of simply controlled spaceship flight, radio chatter, single play length, and branching paths. I want another game like that, with fun colorful creature designs too!

I don't really care much about the actual shootemup aspects actually, now that I think about it. I wouldn't mind if a game had all the aspects I just listed and very infrequent or minimal combat and more emphasis on exploration or something else.

My dream game would be something like that and with fire emblem recruit and permadeath mechanics but with pilots/ships