DoctorSpuds Reviews Things - Star Fox (Mythicon)

[RSS Bot]

It’s time to finish off the unholy trinity. I’ve really been dreading reviewing this one, mainly because I view this as amongst the worst games ever created. Star Fox by Mythicon is an absolute train wreck, and yes it is one you can look away from. Star Fox was the third and final game from infamous publisher Mythicon before they went belly up in 1983. While the games that preceded it, Sorcerer and Fire Fly, are virtually identical to each other, Star Fox is actually an original game, much to my dismay. I’ll admit that when I first heard there was a Star Fox for the 2600, this was after I’d played Star Fox on SNES, I was intrigued and excited, and when a copy of the game showed up at my local game store I snapped it up as fast as I could, along with the other two Mythicon masterpieces. When I finally played the game though I realized what a mistake I’d made, I immediately removed the game from my 2600 and put it on the shelf to molder in obscurity for the rest of time, but since I’ve reviewed everything else from Mythicon, including the boxes AND warranty slips, it seems the time has come for me to cleanse this game from my subconscious and review it.

This is an incredibly bland looking game; much of the playfield is a dull grey color with the ground being brown with a decent gradient and the sky being a rather deep blue, also with a decent gradient. In the background there are tiny black structures that are either supposed to be oil drills of some kind or just plain buildings, it’s very hard to tell. Your ship is viewed from a side angle giving it the impression of a flying saucer while your enemies look like squashed black circles with a hole punched out of it. The only thing left to look at apart from the score and game type information, y’know the smiley face that flips you off; there is only the flashing pixel that is resting in the brown part of the screen, we’ll get to that sunnuvabitch later.

CHRIST! What the hell is wrong with this games sounds!?! It’s just a constant dissonant scream only interrupted by the shooting noise and the sound of an enemy being hit; otherwise it’s just a constant keening wail that will puncture to the deepest innermost parts of your soul. Mute this game immediately, if you ever dare to play it, please just mute it.

This game is similar to the others from Mythicon, despite not being a direct copy of the others there are some elements lifted from them, and a few others oddly enough. The main goal of this game is to blast enemies and collect that flashing pixel at the bottom of the screen, but as those who’ve already played this game before will know, you cannot steer in the brown part of the screen, it is explained away in the manual but I know it’s simply to play off a programming error of some kind. You have to guess where the pixel is going to move to then drop down in an attempt to get it, but you will always overshoot it since you still maintain some momentum so you have to predict where you’re gonna land and if it will be on the pixel or not. All of this is taking place while you’re dealing with some of the most erratic AI I’ve ever seen, one moment it’s trying to fly away from you, the next it’s trying to kamikaze into you. The only point progression system is back, once you gain enough points the game gets harder, in Star Fox’s case another enemy ship will appear to harass you, I believe it gets up to three ships at once. Strangely enough this game begins to feel an awful lot like Sea Hawk (Sancho/Froggo/Panda), except far worse.

I don’t think I really need to tell you this but STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS PIECE OF SHIT AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE! The bland visuals coupled with the uninspired and broken gameplay with a dash of headache causing auditory flatulence create one of the most unpleasant gaming experiences out there. If you MUST know loose copies of this game are around 10$ on Ebay, I don’t have a CIB price since I haven’t actually seen one yet. I’d say this game is approaching ‘Skeet Shoot’ levels of bullshit so I’ll just put Star Fox right next to it in the flaming inferno of the Collector’s Zone.

http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15190-star-fox-mythicon/