Play Star Fox Online
Release year: 1993 | Players: 1 player | Developed by Nintendo
Here, at My Emulator Online, you can play Star Fox for the SNES console online, directly in your browser, for free. We offer more 3D, Shoot’em up and Flight games so you can enjoy playing similar titles on our website. Why don’t you try?
Game Review
While the Star Fox series went on to champion some of the greatest rail-shooting experiences ever (I’m looking at you, Star Fox 64), its humble origins on the Super Nintendo aren’t of quite the same caliber. It’s still a pretty fun title, and it features one of the earliest and coolest attempts at 3D graphics in video games, but you’re probably better off checking this one out just to see the foundation that Nintendo had to work with when they built Star Fox 64. While it’s still got a commendable ensemble of iconic characters, a killer soundtrack, and some fun moments, time has been much harsher on Star Fox than any of its successors on other platforms.
When Star Fox came out, it was an astounding SNES exclusive. Behind the power of the famous Super FX chip, Fox and his crew showed off some colorful graphics that looked fantastic for the time. Predictably, those once regal graphics haven’t aged too well, even compared to other SNES games. At the time, these looks marked a great step forward for console gaming, but now, they’re mostly pretty underwhelming save for a few impressive scenes and backdrops. While at the time, Star Fox was an incredibly cool demonstration of what was to come, it lacks the beautiful pixel art that Nintendo’s other SNES titles espouse, instead opting to show off the magic of a fistful of polygons.
The music, however, is a different story. An epic, adventurous set of tracks fit for any quest through space, Star Fox is full of arrangements that range from the darkly foreboding sounds of an approaching enemy army to the heart-thumping, explosive sounds of a clash in the dead of space, occasionally all the way to bright and hopeful melodies that inspire the courage necessary to stand against an army.
Gameplay, of course, is the most important factor for a game like Star Fox. The core experience centers on rail-shooting combat. Players charge headfirst into massive enemy armadas, encountering huge troop carriers, dauntless enemy fighters, and huge experimental boss ships. Throughout Fox’s planet-trotting journey, you find multiple different paths of levels you can tackle. You’ll see entirely different sequences and boss fights depending on how you decide to progress through the game. The multiple routes, combined with a short overall campaign length and addicting high score system, made Star Fox very replayable back in the day.
Once again, however, this is something that hasn’t aged as well as I’d hope. If you loved Star Fox when it first came out, you’d likely still enjoy it now, There is definitely still fun to be had, but the game is simply a bit too clunky by today’s standards. The Arwing isn’t as responsive as I’d like, aiming is unintuitive, and the game in general just feels a bit sluggish. It doesn’t help that it was also almost completely surpassed by the iconic Star Fox 64. Star Fox is a cool look as a major showcase in what retro games technology could accomplish when pushed to its limits, but most of that magic is obfuscated today. It’s worth trying out, but I’d recommend diving into other rail shooters (especially Star Fox 64) once you’ve gotten your fill.
Score
6/10
