I write this on the eve of the release of the remake of Star Fox 64. A game that is near to my heart amongst a few others.

I originally never planned on buying the Nintendo Switch 2 a year ago, but because something bugged me to, I did. Needless to say, I have no regrets, since I’ve been back to playing Pokémon games every since David was born. But now that Star Fox, and now Ocarina of Time are being remade and released for the Switch 2, I’m even more so happy.

Star Fox to me began with a day I was sick at home when the original Star Fox 64 came out. I didn’t go to school. I stayed home with my dad and at some point I said to him, can we go to Toys’r’us to see about this game. Back in the old days of walking down the isle and having to pull a piece of paper with a bar code on it and pay for it at the check out and then bring the paper to the guy at the front of the store, who would go and find the game you were purchasing. I remember going home, putting the Rumble Pak in the controller for the first time and turning on the N64. I beat the ‘easy way’ within an hour because I was just laying on the couch, and my dad walks in and sees that I beat it, and said something along the lines of that was a quick game and I guess we should return it.

As time went on, my buddy Dave had the game guide and told me how to beat certain levels to go to the harder version of the game. And then of course you also had the ever amazing GameShark that did alot of the work too by making you invincible and max kills without having to do anything.

Because this game was our absolute favorite at the time, Dave and I created our own fictional Star Fox inspired teams. Frankly I couldn’t tell you mine simply because its been so long, but Dave’s had one that stuck. Myles Bandit, who was a racoon. If anyone remembers, Bandit was my first dog who was a very brown German Shorthaired Pointer fit the description very well. And then my second dog was named Myles to complete the name. But it fit him well in the end simply because he could run for miles and miles and until he died continued to act like a puppy.

My hopes for this game are simple. Be as good as the original and allow my core memories to transfer to my kids.