1997 was a different time for gaming. Nintendo, Sega, and Sony dominated the industry. PC games were big, but if I remember correctly most people pirated their games so I don't think PC gaming was as profitable as cartridges which were impossible to pirate at the time. Vibrating controls were not a thing yet. In fact, Star Fox 64 came with a Nintendo Rumble Pack which would shake at appropriate times in certain games, but you had to provide it with AAA batteries and stick it into the Nintendo 64's weird controller. There were pros and cons to each system at the time, but the Nintendo 64 with its established characters and focus on fun over the newest graphics or chips made it the favored way to play. One thing I liked to do to my controllers was mix-matching their colors. I would take apart grey and black controllers then switch the top and bottom halves so they'd have two colors. This would also confirm that my controllers were mine in case there was an ownership dispute over what was usually a friend of a friend trying to swap out for a newer controller. StarFox 64 was more of a nerdier introvert choice of game that you might play with one other person. It didn't have the multi-player party culture like Mario Kart 64 or 007 GoldenEye, but it deserves a spot on the systems list of top games.
I had problems trying to play StarFox 64 on my phone in the past, but now I realize that this game is simply impossible to be played using touchscreen controls. Mario 64 works well except for the few times you need to long jump and Wave Race 64 works perfectly so I mostly play just those two games any time I have an N64 itch, but after getting a new Bluetooth controller I thought I'd give old StarFox 64 another go and I'm glad I did because I had a lot of fun. My phone is a bit old so it can't process the game smoothly, but I love it because it works like a slow-down time cheat. StarFox 64 was always too fast and difficult for me to master so I enjoyed having the extra time to think.
I had a difficult time getting screenshots because the game constantly bombards you with on-screen chatter and letting go of the controllers to push the power and volume down buttons at the same time to get the screenshot would cause me to crash, but all of the images from this post are from my gameplay on my crappy old Samsung A2.
I've tried running PSP and Nintendo DS emulators as well as even more old-school consoles, but it seems that the Nintendo 64 wins in the nostalgia and replayability department. I don't really remember seeing any significant StarFox games after this. The character Fox would show up sometimes but I don't remember a fully pledged flying game like this and that's a shame because it's a fun style of flying gaming. Maybe Nintendo has something planned for the future, but until then I'll just have to enjoy this 64-bit version.
