Woohoo!
Amazon UK has broken the street date on Star Fox 64 3D, and I have my copy right here, right now. I've just been playing it for a bit - first impressions are very good. It's a much better game than the rather broken and unpolished N64 version. You can tell that people who know what they're doing (namely, the folks at Q-Games, many of whom formerly worked for Argonaut, and made the excellent two SNES Star Fox games) were drafted in to remake it into something better-made.
The voice-acting has the same actors, but has thankfully been re-done. They're much more talented now, and the game isn't an embarrassing cringefest to listen to anymore. Ironically, some deliveries aren't as good as the original, which is a minor shame, but the acting overall is so much better that this hardly matters. :lol:
Peppy Hare's godawful "Do a barrel roll!" line is still there, and still delivered as you'd expect it to be, for anyone who was worried about that one.
The raccoon mechanic guy from training mode, who originally spoke in Bebebese (as Animal Crossing would put it) now has a voice! I won't spoil it, suffice to say that he's likely to become a meme in and of himself.
Slippy Toad is still poorly-cast, obviously, and even though the acting for him is *VASTLY* improved, it's even more jarring for me personally now (few others are likely to experience this, as you are about to see), because he sounds curiously like Tron Bonne from the MegaMan Legends series.
The rearranged music overall sounds lovely, although unfortunately some tracks actually suffer for having higher-quality samples and bits of them changed about - these few tracks have less impact, and if you played the N64 version, you will notice this as soon as they start playing. It does all sound more vivid and less muddy, though, which is a plus in the face of that minus, though.
Most astonishingly, the N64 version's focus on making a game intended primarily to be watched and listened to, but not played, has been reduced vastly. The game out and out plays and handles much better now. I also can't help but notice that the degree to which the game directs you as to how precisely you MUST play it has been reduced greatly from the N64 version - this is VERY WELCOME. I thoroughly despise games that don't let you just get on with playing, and instead practically play themselves for you, and this was always one of my biggest gripes with Star Fox 64, before.
The 3D effect works astonishingly well - it's probably the best use of it I've seen so far, and it legitimately makes a major difference to how you play - all of the guess-work in avoiding oncoming projectiles is eliminated (and along with it the need to be barrel-rolling excessively in areas of heavy fire), and your natural instincts simply do their work. It speaks a *lot* for Q-Games' abilities at their craft that it's not detrimental if you turn it off, either. Moreover, suspension of disbelief in place, it makes this universe look vivid and real (something the Star Fox 64 series has never had before, even though the original Star Fox series on the SNES did), and it really does leave an impression on you that the eye-hurtingly drab-looking N64 version never could. This should be a go-to game for anyone developing for the 3DS, in this regard - anyone can enjoy it either way, and this is how it should be done.
There are neat little touches of polish all over the place, and I quite like what they did with the title screen. It's much less horrible and awkward-looking, now. The diorama shown on the 3DS' menu is pretty cool, too.
Overall, I'm impressed. Hopefully this will be a new beginning for the series (and then hopefully they will go back to the superior original version of the universe,
if the series is reborn as they say it will be if sales are good).
All in all, I've got to highly recommend this one. And you know it's a high recommendation, because I've been quite outspoken in the past about how bad a game I feel Star Fox 64 to be - this remake thankfully finally improves that situation.
EDIT: Oh! And check the paper insert in the sleeve!
(And look behind the spine.)
