Falco, Fox and Peppy prepare for a rescue mission.James Mastromarino/Nintendohide caption

Did anyone want this? A slick remake ofStar Fox 64, minus the “64.” The same rickety rail-shooter from nearly three decades ago, glossed up with gorgeous environments and uncanny photorealistic animals. A modern game peeks through the haze of this nostalgia. But it’s not altogether worth the $50 pricetag ($60 if you want a physical cartridge).

TheStar Foxcampaign begins with a cinematic dramatization of the original game’s opening text crawl — the scene of Fox McCloud’s father betrayed by an ally into the hands of the evil Dr. Andross. Three years later, Fox commands his dad’s mercenary band against Andross. Each successive mission briefing gets reworked from its original clipped dialogue into fully animated mini-movies.

Fox McCloud navigates through an asteroid field.James Mastromarino/Nintendohide caption

But the visuals are a mixed bag. Detailed as the planets and ships might be, fans objected toFox’s unflattering appearanceafter the game’s trailer dropped. His original character designer, who wasn’t involved in the new game,admitted to preferringtheSuper Mario Galaxy Movieversion of Fox to this remake’s. For my money, the lighting is more of a problem than the models. In nearly every scene, the cockpit illuminates Fox in a gross green glow.

This campaign doesn’t take long to complete — between an hour to two hours, depending on how often you die and reload. But to reach the game’s true ending, you’ll have to restart and hunt for secret paths, easily quadrupling the runtime. You can also play cooperatively on two systems if you’re in the same room, or you can split your Joy-Cons to have one player steer and the other use mouse controls to fire lasers (an example of Nintendosacrificing ease for a new gimmick). I’d have loved this mode much more if you could have a second player aim with a joystick, as inDonkey Kong Bananza.

One of many skirmishes inStar Fox’s campaign.Nintendohide caption

來源：NPR 新聞