Best Star Fox Games Of All Time

How is Star Fox Guard at 10 and below Zero?!?!?!?

Amazing how even the worse star Fox games where given 8/10 by Nintendo life.

Rose tinted spectacles.

Adventures is so high, Guard is so low...goodness. You guys are brutal 😂

Last week people were trying to convince others that star fox zero was a good game and that people were just lazy to not get over the controls.

I’m glad there are polls to shut up vocal minorities.

Star Fox Zero should be 1st or 2nd

Star Fox Guard is a legitimately fun and frantic game. I liked the online support for it.

I’m very curious how many people played and beat Star Fox 2. I couldn’t really find much entertainment by it.

In my opinion some of these numbers are too low for the impact some of these games had. Especially star fox (SNES).

64 and 64 3D being two different entries is weird... even weirder is that 3D is better.

Star Fox Guard is so low

1. Star Fox 64 3D
2. Star Fox 64
3. Star Fox SNES
4. Starlink
5. Star Fox Zero

1. Star Fox 64
2. Star Fox Zero
3. Star Fox (SNES)

Maybe a daft question, but… does the SNES original run better on an actual SNES than on Switch online? Because I found it almost unplayable…

It seems like the moral of the story is they should stop farming out development for it. Nintendo's semi-recent announcement that they will be hiring more in house developers is promising. Hopefully before too long this list will have a "Star Fox Zero Deluxe" with a more normal control scheme.

@Nintendo4Sonic it is first or second. First or second LAST

@sixrings yeah sadly, the world was truly too stupid to play this game. It was brilliant.

@gaga64 No, it was always that low. You may want to check if you are in PAL 50hz or NTSC 60hz mode to speed it up 17% if you are on the former, but either way, it was always like 15fps max, and variable going down to much lower.

Back then it was nowhere near as noticable as it is today, frankly for the time it was really impressive for a sub $150 console, and we were used to simple polygonal games on older hardware having much lower framerates, if you can believe that.

Of course, things were moving very quickly as far as 3d tech goes. In just under 2 years the Playstation launched! But each step along the way felt like a huge leap - things like the 32x, 3do, Jaguar etc all being these incredible huge state of the art leaps... but then completely obsolete 6 months later.

@sixrings yeah… because it’s a game nobody played and people like ***** on. Nobody owned a WiiU. Wait until it comes to Switch and see it go up high in the rankings.

It will prove two things…. That it was a good game and that people were indeed lazy to get in on the controls. 👍

Absolute rubbish list.

half the games on here are soft remakes of 64 while others like Star Link aren't even Star Fox games and also Star Fox Guard is on here for some reason.

Why put Adventures over Assault, where is even any content in that game?

There's no multiplayer or actually anything of interest that game that you could find better in a Zelda game.

Oh, of course. Criticisms are not welcome here only positivity.

Now let's do a best Kid Icarus games of all time list... oh wait.

Lists like this make me realise how consistantly the Star Fox franchise has missed the mark after Lylat Wars (SF64.) I don't regard any game after those to be amazing, I'm afraid. Sorry.

This ranking shows that the person who made it doesn’t understand what’s the core concept of a Star Fox game—an Arcade shooter! Whoever ranked Starlink above Zero must be out of their minds because the only good thing about Starlink is the graphics, nothing else. Unless a great Starfox game by new standards meant brainless boring fetch quests and boring combat got trendy! Zero in its core is Starfox 64 with some wonky missions that’s could be cut out, but it’s a solid game. Starlink is a THRASH Starfox game! It’s mediocre space shooter at best.

Interesting results for sure! There are some definite weird results.

Starfox (SNES) seems way too high (nostalgia?), and Starfox Adventures seems very odd above Starlink Battle for Atlas. I get that neither is a "mainline" game, but Starlink seems like it pushed Starfox's space and planetary combat into the modern age of open world games much better, whereas Adventures was mostly an adventure game spin off.

I'm going to assume the only reason Adventures ranked higher is a combination of nostalgia and Krystal lmao.

Outside of that, everything about this list makes sense.

Man, Star Fox just has a rough go of it. I'll enjoy the first game and 64 occasionally for the nostalgia, but they're heavily aged. The rest of the series barely rises above mediocre at its best. Love the characters, settings, & music though. At least we have Smash Bros.

@GrailUK It's sentiments like these that Nintendo only listen too while they keep trying to remake 64 over a dozen times because people won't shut up about 64 all these years later and it creates this positive feedback loop where no one criticizes that game nor mentions the other Star Fox games that could have better potential for the basis of a new Star Fox game like Assault that could've built on the ground work that it already set up. But no, nostalgia is the loud majority in this case.

So yeah, thanks for that.

And if you want to play a better game than Star Fox 64, go play Kid Icarus Uprising. There's no crappy submarine section in it.

@sixrings Minority or not, it doesn't change the fact the majority of people are in fact lazy and will find anything to complain about rather than try to enjoy what life offers so they can discredit an entire product. Zero and Adventures should be swapped.

@Kage_M You might want to reread the article entirely (before the actual list) before making judgement because no single "person" made this list, lol.

I'd have put Zero above some of these others because it nailed "STAR FOX" even if the controls were a bit.... demanding.
My personal favorite is 64 but realize that 64 3D is also a remastered and better version of it. Though I do understand that they are technically 2 different games, I don't understand how 64 got higher than the better 64 3D.

ANYWAY, this would be my top:
4. Zero
3. Command
2. 64
1. 64 3D

DISCLAIMER: I never played Assault, never put in the disc for Guard even though I had it, and find the frame rate for Starfox and Starfox 2 (SNES) unenjoyable, almost unplayable, despite firing them up from time to time to retry it again (my life-curse).

My main problem with Zero was switching the views to fire the first person guns. Every time I had to do that, it took me completely out of the moment. It felt like I was switching from an awesome action movie to some channel with an argument between 2 men about types of paper.
I loved the environments and graphics on the game and then periodically being forced to look at it all through that little screen really worked against it for me. I tried avoiding the mechanic altogether, and I beat the game, but let's face it: Star Fox has always been about getting as high a score as possible and there was no way to do that without the first person mode.
In an alternate reality, Star Fox Zero would've released without those controls and Wii U would've sold millions... Maybe someday they'll take another crack at it all and i'll be first in line for that.

For me, the list goes:
10. Guard (never got around to playing)
9. Starlink (never got around to playing)
8. Adventures
7. Command
6. 2
5. Assault
4. OG
3. 64
2. Zero
1. 64 3D

Top 3 are more or less tied, 64 isn't next to 64 3D because of stereoscopic 3D, graphics and no more N64 controller.

@ChromaticDracula Out of curiosity, did you grow up with the SNES games or only get to them recently?

Star Fox 64 3D improves on the controls and visuals of the original. Yeah, some of the replaced dialogue isn't as good as the N64 version, but I think it's the best way to play the best Star Fox.

@Kilroy I was born in '86 so I grew up on Atari, Gameboy (Color), NES, Genesis, and then 64. My first Star Fox game was 64...
I'm not one to complain about frame rates or graphics, especially when it's a hardware limitation, believe me, but I think starting with Starfox 64 and then going back to SNES StarFox was a bit jarring. I got to about level 3 or 4 before I felt like I was getting hit and dying because of the frame rate.

Starfox 64 (or how they called it here in Europe, LYLAT WARS lol) was arguably the only really good entry in the whole series.
Starfox on the SNES was amazing for the time and definitely not a bad game. But SF54 was the one where they really pulled it off and everything worked quite fine.

Pretty much all other entries were just mediocre attempts to use that quite strong brand to create something that would ride on the SF64 train. SF Adventures felt very odd back on the cube, like a weird SF skin on that Dinosaur Planet game (which it basically was), SF Assault was said to be pretty good....for one mission. SF Zero looked very promising but of some reason they had to just risk too much. By now, SF64 didn't necessarily age so well that its impossible to just create a SF game that just is SF again. Like SF64 didn't add some weird mechanic just to stand out next to SF but just improved on visuals, controls, possibilities, storytelling and so on. Nintendo doesn't usually like to "just" do a sequel. But thats exactly what they should do here. Just a sequel where you fly around, do barell rolls and shoot stuff. No wicked camera-mechanics, no weird action adventure and all the other attempts to force something fresh into the recipe. That dish smelled fine enough 25 yrs ago.

@russell-marlow It's not nostalgia speaking. More appreciation for the different genres (I mean, come on, Assault's foot slogging sections were awful!) I enjoyed Adventures to be fair but it was a little uninspired. Star Foz Zero was clunky, maybe over thought. But yeah, no, it's not nostalgia, it's just personal preference. But you're welcome (Man, imagine if Nintendo actually listened to what I said lol. The fools!)

Star Fox 64 isn’t just the best game in the series, it’s the best game on N64 in my opinion.

So many great quotable double entendres.

“Andross won’t have his way with me.”

“The enemy is coming up from behind.”

“It’s too hot, I can’t take it anymore!”

In all seriousness, it’s just a great game in general. Plus fantastic multiplayer.

I could live without being told to do a barrel roll immediately after doing one, though.

Eh, don't know about this list. Starlink should've probably ranked #1 but I guess it didn't because Star Fox isn't in the title. This is actually the direction Star Fox should go in the future. There's no beating Star Fox 64 3D if the series remains exclusively on rails. We need RPG elements, ship/weapon/pilot customization, a little strategy and open ended gameplay to expand the series

The original Star Fox is a product of its time and doesn't hold up anymore so it should be toward the back of the list along with Adventures.

@YoshiF2 @Kilroy @Nintendo4Sonic yes the majority of Nintendo players who played it are either stupid or lazy.

You three are real gamers who can look past and dedicate yourselves to cumbersome controls for the sake of being different. The rest of us are idiots.

@Kilroy I think that’s not the point at all. General indirect speech…

Nintendo Life in Push Square blue was not something I expected to see today

@sixrings let a Switch port do the talking and eventually put your money where your mouth is

Wario Ware Smooth Moves had an endgame Star Fox level where you use the wiimote to control and it is absolute perfection

Okay, you will make me boot 64 3D again on my 11 years old 3DS. Thanks, guys, it was time for some Star Fox.

@MJF

I remember that stage - it was actually pretty fun

Did a bunch of furries come out of the woodwork to vote Star Fox Adventure above Star Fox Assault? Adventure kind of sucks, honestly. Assault is a fantastic hidden gem. I played this game to death as a teenager. I think there are some things Assault does that's even better than Star Fox 64. And that soundtrack. Ooooooo, that soundtrack. Effing best music in the entire series. I was playing Assault through Dolphin a couple of weeks ago and it still holds up insanely well.

@ChromaticDracula Dude, you NEED to play Assault. Boot it up on Dolphin and prepare to have your mind blown. It's not as charming as SF 64, but it a lot of ways it's an even better game.

@Turbo857 Yeah, Starlink is how I envisioned the series should/could proceed especially with Starfox Adventures being the first SF game to leave the Lylat system. If they married open world (open solar system?) to story driven on rails sections... I feel it would be the Starfox we never knew we needed.

@GrailUK "Assault's foot slogging sections were awful!"

What, no evidence to support if they were truly as awful as you said, just another unoriginal bad take in a sea of opinions of confirmation bias on the game that are about as dated as Star Fox Zero's controls.

I sometimes wonder how anybody can legitimately say the ground sections are awful if they have vehicles along with diverse weapons and a more customizable control scheme? Yet everyone thinks the shallow arwing gameplay is what the entire game should've been?

If anything, the on-foot sections are almost like all range mode but with more terrain to traverse. And maybe, I don't know, you having too put more effort into doing anything besides being on-rails half of the game.

I, and I imagine everyone else, would rather prefer Assault's ground/landmaster combat compared too Zero's awkward walker gameplay. Because we can at least fine tune the controls for modern 3rd person gameplay.

@russell-marlow I dunno man, it's just my opinion. I wouldn't take it to heart If you like it then fine. I'm not gonna be all dramtical and wonder how you can like it lol. People like different stuff. It's not rocket science. If you want an Assault 2, I'll be happy for you if you get one. It's no biggy I'll tell ya what though, seems there is demand for a Rogue Squadron game, and Star Fox would be a good ip to do it with. No need for the SW licence either!

I just bought a really good quality copy of Star Fox Assault for 48 pounds on eBay and as soon as i get a gamecube, I'll be playing it right away.

@GrailUK I'm just annoyed about the general opinion of some of the Star Fox games. Thankfully, opinions have started to sort of shift in recent years. Though, there's no telling what Nintendo thinks of those other entries compared to the popular ones, the ones that saw the most profit, mainly just 64 released twice and the other 64 game that failed (Zero).

All I can say is, when it comes to taking in fan feedback, Nintendo is very tone-deaf when it comes to taking in criticism and they more than likely just look at sales and popularity to determine what game series gets a new game. It's how Star Fox Zero was made, and it's how the Star Fox series went on permanent hiatus. Because Nintendo doesn't know how to actually "innovate" outside of controller gimmicks.

I swear, if Nintendo were any other company, then they would build upon from prior entries and provide more meaningful gameplay content. Hence, building upward as opposed to remaining stagnant.

I'll never understand why, after Star Fox 64, they didn't stick to the spirit of the franchise that obviously worked. It's an on rails, auto strolling shooter... Not a Zelda, or a strategy game, etc. It's like Zelda 2...not necessarily an awful game... But not really Zelda.

@russell-marlow Well, it's easy to focus too much one one franchise. Hollistically they are anything but stagnant.

@YoshiF2 any port will be significantly changed to support more traditional controls. I bought the game. I liked the music. I liked the art. I hated the controls. If you out it and change the controls and people like it that DOES NOT mean the Wii U game was a good game. At best it means it had good ideas terribly implemented. I say that as someone who wishes for a port and will buy it instantly if the reports are that it includes more traditional controls.

@sixrings then it means it was a good game with terrible controls. If you port it exactly the same to another platform with another control scheme, it still remains the very same good game.

Now… the “terrible controls” is an opinion.
I did like the controls when I mastered them. I like the challenge just like W101 and Bayonetta.

When it clicks, it clicks.

It goes without saying, but Star Fox Zero got done dirty.

@sixrings I don't give a crap about StarFox Zero, but this is one of the most ignorant and backward things I've every seen on here. If someone likes a game you hate, it doesn't mean they're wrong, they just have different tastes. Grow up, you self-centered immature troll.

@Maulbert the problem is that the ones defending the game are going around telling everyone else they are wrong and that they are too lazy to put the energy in to appreciate it.

I have no problem people liking different games. These things are subjective. But collectively the people have spoken and they hate the forced control scheme. The fact that most nintendo gamers give nintendo a pass on so many things but at the same time dislike this control scheme shows that it isnt as trivial as some are making it out to be.

Thanks for inserting yourself in here though. Hope that clarified my self-centered perspective

@YoshiF2 I think were talking semantics. I think controls are part of a game being good. Yet I can see how one can seperate that and just judge the graphics, audio, story sort of thing. But if I hate the controls nothing is going to make up that for me.

i have no problem with challenging games. zelda 2 is my favourite zelda of all time. However I do not appreciate different control schemes just for the sake of being different. I mean I bought it. I tried to like it. But it was painful so just moved onto other things. great that it clicked for you but it needs to click for the majority.

If the majority is "lazy" as some put it then it is still Nintendos job to incorporate them. They dont need to do anything they dont want to of course. At the same time they shouldnt expect the same people to say much nice about the game., yet alone buy it or future iterations.

@GrailUK You think that a series mainly known for remaking the first game, the SNES one, over and over with the same plot isn't stagnant?

Don't forget the SNES games, 64/3DS, and Zero were for the most part internally developed at Nintendo.

Adventures and Assault were both developed by two separate developers, one of which, didn't intend for the game too be a Star Fox game in the first place but was chosen at the last moment because it caught Miyamoto's attention and it was settled that it would be changed into a Star Fox game in order for it to be a launch game for the then upcoming Gamecube.

Assault was originally planned as an arcade game but then focused on being a multiplayer-focused Star Fox game that also happened to expand upon the gameplay of 64 and it's multiplayer components. And surprisingly, it also had a fresh new narrative that continued after Adventures while building upon established lore it set up in that game. For a Star Fox game at that time, that was a unique change of pace compared to what Star Fox games usually do. So it did sort of break new ground. Yet a shame since Zero went back to that same all-too-familiar structure that has plagued the series up until this point already, tell me how that isn't in essence stagnation?

Adventures and the original being over Assault is kind of insane to me. Honestly I might put Assault over 64.

Sorry, there's no way Star Fox 64 3D on 3DS is lower than Star Fox 64 on N64. The 3DS version took the N64 game, made it look much nicer, added the 3D (which works really well), and added the Score Attack modes that allowed you to repeat any level any time. Personally, the game even plays a bit better.

For me, most of the Star Fox games are average once you're past the top echelon. That top echelon would be:
Star Fox 64 (3DS or N64)
Star Fox (SNES)
Star Fox Command (DS)

It's worth noting Command has an excellent online and local multiplayer option

Then I would rate:
Star Fox 2 (SNES)
Starlink (Switch)

Of course, both of those are spurious editions since one was never officially released as an individual game and the other is a separate game uses Star Fox characters. Mind you, whenever you hear that Star Fox music in Starlink, the adrenaline really rises!

The only other game I'll talk about is Star Fox Assault. I call it Star Fox Insult because those foot levels were so bad that it stopped me continuing the game. They were a total insult to everything that Star Fox is about.

Never played Guard. That said, my personal rankings which is probably WAY different than everyone's ranking:
9) Zero
8) Adventures
7) 64
6) 64 3D
5) Assault
4) 2
3) Starlink
2) Command
1) Star Fox

Thanks for the look back. As a kid, I remember loving the SNES original and the N64 entry, which I still play to death. I dug the music in the original StarFox and would love to see some of those themes make a return. Really, at this point, if they just took the Starfox 64 3DS title as a template and created a new batch of stages every few years, I'd pick it up. Use bombs wisely!

Heathens all of you.
1.2
2.64
3.Assault
4.Zero
5. Command
6. 1
7. Adventures

64 3D unranked because it is a remake.
Starlink unranked because it isn't Star Fox.
Guard unranked because it is completely unlike everything else, (and a great Tower Defense game certainly worth your time).
Star Fox Zero controls superbly, the only major annoyances I have with it are the final boss, and the lack of alternate objectives on one's first playthrough. Had it been structured more like 64, it would have been the top of my list.
Star Fox 2 does something rarely attempted, the three difficulty modes are entirely different games, with unique settings and bosses.
Command borrows neat ideas from 2, but I find the execution lacking, and it certainly gets the 'worst controls' award for the series.
Assault is ranked above Zero, because it commits to the linear path, and save for the on-foot missions, is quite solid throughout. It never teases you with alternate routes like Zero.
I recently spun up Adventures again, and it was a rought time. I applaud Rare for the visuals and the lack of load screens, but every action is tedious. I feel no sense of accomplishment for doing things.
The original game, like 2, has fully separate games as it's three difficulties, and is certainly a quality experience, but has aged very poorly contrasted with 2.

@Kage_M Ooof, brutal, I kinda liked starlink, not just for the graphics tho, it was pretty good in my opinion, your right about its downsides tho, it was kinda trash in some parts

@russell-marlow You seem to be argumentative. I didn't read after your first sentence because you obviously didn't grasp my last comment. So. Let's not and both have a lovely day

Best Star Fox game? Galaxy Force 2

@sixrings what are you talking. Zero was brilliant! It was just a new way of playing it, it took a little time to learn how to play and after adepting that, it was so awesome

@Murkyelm I was trying to be really open with Starlink but I feel removing the on rail shooting completely takes away the precision we need and challenge along with time pressure and limited time for noticing details where to find hidden paths. Open world games become often just a playground to waste time and I felt it didn’t suit SF. Ubisoft was probably the worst company that could do it. Platinum is actually the best company( in terms of gameplay focus) to do the next Star Fox game. Even though Star Fox 64 3D is probably the best one, I would still love to see Zero- they should just add more planets and more shortcuts-it also missed the underwater level from SF64 which I really liked.

Here's my personal top 5 with ratings:

1) Lylat Wars (9/10)
2) Starwing (8.5/10)
3) Star Fox Adventures (8/10)
4) Star Fox 2 (7.5/10)
5) Star Fox Zero (7/10)

Zero isn't as bad as people made out but the controls are strange no doubt. Also I count the 3DS and N64 games as the same - but it does play better on the N64 with a proper analog stick!

Hey Nintendo, see how well Kirby & Metroid are doing now in this here Switch thingy you got going on? How about giving Star Fox another chance hé?
While you're at, might look into F-Zero as well.

@Nintendo4Sonic I grew up on 2 button games. Then we went to six buttons. Then eight buttons and an analogue stick. Then two sticks and eight buttons. Star fox then included two screens on top of that. Surely there has to be a limit for some people how much they can manage to do at one time.

I think Starlink looks initially fun, Zero was fun to control at times, but there were a couple missions where the objective felt impossible (Wolfen space battle, Drone sneaking), and others where the multitasking gave me motion sickness. Pilots need training to actually fly, how do you expect me not to get sick with the gamepad. Guard I haven't really seen beyond the occult gamexplain vid. Assualt, Adventure, and 3D 64 just aren't my cup of tea, for reasons like (Performing perfectly in missions is ultra difficult, [Zero gets a pass because I liked the gamepad better for the on rails segments than the free range chicken segments], or Krystal's outfit makes me uncomfortable, she doesn't seem like the type to OWN that outfit, why the heck would she buy it or make it, and put it in her closet.)

@sixrings All Range, Free Range Flying Chicken, Drone, and Wolfen battles were all headaches to deal with, The on rails segments though... It's a shame they're locked behind the other ways to play.

@Nintendo4Sonic Came to the comments to say just that. Zero is imo the best in the franchise (yes, I've played through all of them). Possibly a tie with SF643D. Great game once the controls start to stick, although, to be critical, that takes quite a while.

@TheSaneInsanity I’m not a big all range mode guy to begin with. I like the simplicity of the kn rails and I am confused why people say that you can’t make a modern game all on rails when there are so many 2d shootemups released each year. My game of 2021 was a rerelease of raiden though so that may explain how I tend to like my games. The simpler the better. I stopped playing sports games when it felt that you needed to memorize a book as thick as a dictionary to be good. Maybe that’s lazy. I think that’s sanity. Anyways yes the all range mode combined with the dual screen set up was where this game fully lost me. Far too much going on for what I always thought was a simple arcade like franchise.

@Turbo857 star fox in 60fps with motion controls

what more do you need?

I picked up Zero for $5. I haven't played it yet, because I already had a switch at that point. I will get around to it one day.

@NicolausCamp that's right. It took me a few a few hours back then to understand it. And than I had a blast. The whole game was so impressive and the graphics, atmosphere and soundtrack are fantastic.

@gord352 Starwing on 2nd place? 😁
It was impressive for SNES technical, but I think this is far from enjoyable today

@Nintendo4Sonic I think you’re asking a lot from people to spend a few hours to figure out controls. That sounds far from intuitive and much more cumbersome then it ought to be.

@sixrings no, the game was just innovative. People were to lazy for that

Star fox zero time to beat five hours. https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=26780&s=reviews&sb=score

Star fox zero according to you to learn how to use the controls. “A few hours”.

Sounds like a a good return on investment

@GrailUK Well I can't take you or your comments seriously if you're being so passive aggressive about it. I'm arguing from a point of objectivity while being critical because I'm upset this series has pretty much dug it's own grave.

Meanwhile, I don't think your even trying to have a legit discussion. You genuinely don't seem very passionate about the subject.

@russell-marlow And I agreed with you lol hence being surprised by your retort.

@MJF

Lol, I love my 60fps. And truth be told Star Fox Zero is ranked like #2 for me after Starlink.

@GrailUK Okay?

@russell-marlow okay

@Nintendo4Sonic Mmm close between that and Starfox Adventures maybe but i'd put it higher based on it being a more traditional starfox game. I also think it still plays ok (despite the dodgy framerate).

I will never be able to understand the hype surrounding StarFox 64. And I grew up with the friggin game and never played the rest of the series until years later.

It's not even in my top 3 anymore. That's how indifferent I am to 64.

My rankings:
1. 64 3D
2. Adventures
3. 64
4. Starlink
5. Assault
6. Star Fox (the original)
7. Command
8. SF2
9. Zero
10. Guard

@jump I think it's because Star Fox fans (myself included) tend to prefer action games, no matter flawed the control scheme, over tower defense and puzzles.

Plus, there are some people who actually could figure out Zero's convoluted control scheme and as such really like the game.

@YoshiF2 It's not that players are too lazy to understand Zero's control scheme. It's that only a minority of players have their brains wired the right way to ever be able to figure it out at an enjoyable level, basically those who excel at simultaneous multitasking.

As insulting as it is, @Nintendo4Sonic actually kind of has a point about the world being too stupid to play it, although really it's only a certain aspect of minor multitasking intelligence that we're dealing with here.

@russell-marlow We're not comparing "Adventures" to Zelda games. We're comparing it to the other Star Fox games. While it is harder to compare across such different genres, "Adventures" is still a really good game without any major flaws, which is not true of everything below it save for "Starlink."

@jump I agree that those new vehicles suck, but that's because like with the rest of the game I couldn't wrap my head around the multi-dimensional controls. I'd imagine that those who could adapt to the controls also found those vehicles at least decently fun to play.

As for the level design, you could very well be right, as I've only played the game's demo. Still, poor level design alone isn't enough reason to call a game rubbish.

@jump I got to try playing the walker and gyrowing as part of the demo, and as far as I can see the only reason they suck is due to the same issues with the controls that aren't an issue for the minority of players who can understand them, so those complaints don't count when saying the game is rubbish even after figuring out the controls.

As such, you only had one reason left as to why the game was rubbish for players who can figure out the control scheme, and that alone isn't enough to make any game rubbish. Now you've added two additional complaints that add to your argument (boring missions, rehashed story), but you should've mentioned them before with your other complaints. Although, the rehashed story isn't a problem when judging the game on its own merits.

@sixrings all range mode could take some inspiration from command and let you draw your own rails and let the player deviate infinitely vertically and limited to the camera horizontally. the wii u gamepad was a perfect opportunity to try something like this. I don't think they thought of anything like this.

@BulbasaurusRex Only thing I can say about that game as a major flaw is how "incomplete" the game feels. Other than that, it feels like baby's first action-adventure game.

Star Fox Zero is too low. Top 3 are Star Fox, 64/3D and Zero.

This list puts into perspective that Star Fox is ultimately an extremely meh franchise that only has one truly stand-out game that the company then proceeded to milk for all it's worth.

A shame because, imo, Star Fox has the potential to be one of Nintendo's most grand franchises if they actually put in the effort to flesh out the setting and allow the narrative to venture outside of "andross is back, go stop him" territory.

The original star fox/starwing is the best. star fox 64/lylat wars is a very close runner up.

Yeah, I traded in SF Zero and Guard, which is something I rarely do. The controls really hampered the experience for me. Also, it was yet another remake of the first game for some reason.

It's been awhile, but I do recall enjoying Assault quite a bit. The gameplay felt close to SF64, and it was at least a true sequel that pushed the story forward.

I HATE that nintendo thinks with each instalment in recent star fox entries there needs to be some gimmick in order to make the game appeal - for instance the totally ridiculous control scheme of ZERO. or giving the game to third party devs to ruin.

I enjoyed star fox adventures because it at least tried to expand and explore the universe of star fox, rather than present gimmicks. it was a great game in its own right.

To me, starfox (snes) and starfox 64 are the only worthwhile games in the franchise, and the original game is one of my most treasured gaming experiences.

You can’t be serious! Every fan of the original SF64 would rank Star Fox Zero far above Starlink! Zero had its faults, but it was a far more enjoyable experience than the cheap Ubisoft take on the series which wasn’t originally even a main Starfox game to begin with-Starlink lacks the fun gameplay elements of Starfox and fills the world with boring side quests! Platinum maintained the Arcady feel of the original and some additions were hit of miss but overall far better!

@Nintendo4Sonic exactly, most people were just lazy to learn new controls! Plus Starlink just looked pretty, included space travel but lacked the soul of the series! Any fan knows that learning the railroad levels and finding hidden paths through the galaxy was the best part of it and I loved playing through the game different ways each time. Starlink is a boring fetch quest game that shouldn’t be even considered Star Fox just because it has the character in it.

My top Star Fox games:
5. Star Fox Assault
4. Star Fox
3. Star Fox 2
2. Star Fox Zero
1. Star Fox 64

Dishonorable mention: Star Fox Adventures. This gae¡me just sucks, is terrible. No wonder why Nintendo got rid of Rare, the talent was gone.

@Fuecoco finally people who understand the series! Starlink is just a boring mess. I saw a ton of people comparing StarLink and Zero, and after experiencing both, most people would admit that ZERO was more fun, if they weren’t lazy to learn the controls! Plus it was made by Platinum! Come on!

@sixrings I bet you could t learn the controls, because if you could, you would be able to appreciate how precise it was, plus the cockpit view could be easily swapped in a press of a buttton any second. I respect your opinion and understand that not every gamer has the skills to master some controls, but it’s not fair since some people(and I don’t mean you) just lack any patience and just discredit a game because they can’t play it? If someone can’t play FPS or Mario, doesn’t mean the games are bad, these people should just play the games that suit them.

@piecez I personally don’t think it’s too late for Nintendo to hand the franchise’s next potential entry off to someone who knows a lot about the franchise’s history and how a new entry would work. Look at Mercury Steam. 2D metroid was dead for 15 years. Then Mercury did the Metroid II remake. It was pretty good, but since they were slightly building upon a already finished game from 28 years ago at that point, so they were more limited as to what they could add to it. When they were approached about Metroid Dread, they felt they could do so much more because of their understanding of what made the franchise so special. They also gave it a nice little upgrade so it felt more smooth and modern. If Star Fox was given to a veteran or even new, upcoming dev company, I feel there would be a chance for one of those companies to make some SF magic again.

Is there even a question about what Star Fox is best? This might not be a popular opinion, but I'd take a reboot of Star Fox or F Zero over another Splatoon or Pikmin any day. Dont let these series die.

I have four Star Fox games:
Star Fox Adventures
Star Fox Assault
Star Fox Zero
Star Fox Guard

But I rarely to play them as they felt quite difficult for me and I still have very low hype with this franchise.
I might like to collect some of them but have less desire to play the games since from the genre itself, they are not really my cup of tea.

@Znake funny thing. I bought Starlink a few weeks ago. That starter box with game, the Arwing, figures and stuff. It only came 5€ and I didn't open it yet. And I'm not sure I will.
I saw that this got 9/10 on this site. But what I saw in videos looks pretty boring.

@Anti-Matter that's a very good selection. Both the Gamecube games are great and Zero is a gem.

@TheBigBlue 100%…

In a perfect world, you’d splice together the best bits of Starfox 64 with Starlink BFA… incorporate ship building/crafting alongside epic space dogfights and bosses.
There is potential to make a really excellent game here, whilst remaining true to the IP.
You could have a mix of ‘on-rails’ levels and challenges as well, alongside some kind of central hub.

@Kilroy Star Fox Zero was some of the best multiplayer fun on the Wii U. The asymmetric multiplayer function of someone being the pilot while the other the gunner was a fantastic idea (and will probably never be possible again with the death of the gamepad). I never felt so much like I was reliving the escape from the Death Star from "A New Hope" more than playing that game! Even compared to other Star Wars games!

SUPER FUN MULTIPLAYER! Though for single player content... it was a bit hard to wrap my head around. I think the more simple flying and shooting of 64 is hard to top.

@Nintendo4Sonic
I was very lucky to able getting two Star Fox Gamecube games from my country without importing from Ebay (look at the inflated price of Gamecube games on Ebay).
But I personally have very low hype with Star Fox franchise after I played them for a while as the genre might be not my cup of tea after I dared myself to get into never before played games and I felt the gameplay from Star Fox games are not really engaging for me.
I still keep them as I know they are very rare games in the market but I have less desire to play them.

@Anti-Matter OK. The game I really started with was Lylat Wars on N64 and that impressed me pretty much back then.
The controls and feel and soundtrack of that game was awesome.
The game wasn't very long, but it was one I always like to come back for and there were hidden routes and stuff.
Starting with Lylat Wars made me enjoy there future games of that series.

The title should be "Best Star Fox 64 Games Of All Time."

@Wexter @Kilroy I had no idea they had that asymmetrical multiplayer function! That actually sounds like loads of fun. I did enjoy Zero but I do feel the controls ultimately hurt it rather than help it.
If they re-release Zero for Switch, and boy do I hope they do, I will absolutely buy it regardless if they controls remain the same or if they change them.
I wonder if they can do a thing where they offer two campaign modes like the "Classic Campaign" where you don't have gunner controls and just fly and shoot (more like 64) and also the "Zero Campaign" where everything is like it was on Wii U. They did something similar with the Star Fox 64 3D on 3DS.

There are definitely some big changes that would have to be made to the game itself to do this but it'd be worth it. Folks love Star Fox and we need a new entry!

Starlink being on here just to pad it out. I actually really rate Zero, the controls didn't bother me much at all

Assault is not bad, but is overall short. It would have been a much better game If, after completing the story, there was a arwing-only Falco mode

Starlink's a bit of an odd duck here. If this makes the list, then so should Astrodogs.

Despite the aging tech, Star Fox (SNES) is basically the only one I truly rate.

I’m a majority handheld gamer, so there’s no way I’d rank the 64 over the 3ds version. It’s just way better, and the 3D effect was great.

That said, it would indeed be a hard sell to someone who bought and retained the 64 copy, and it’s much more locked to a specific device to get the most of it, as opposed to all the things the data of the og will run on…..

the 3ds version is the best I think, 3d works nicely so it improves on the 64 game , but guard is fun, a different game but fun....

I would put Starfox 2 much much higher, i like it really much.

@valcoholic Maybe I am missing a Pun here (as a non native-English speaker), but to my Dutch ears Lylat Wars sounds far more exciting than simply SF64. But every time the game is mentioned someone is complaining about it, why is that?

Guard is so underrated. A really unique and interesting tower defense game that no one will ever play because it’s associated with one of Nintendo’s most controversial games of all time. Speaking of Zero, it’s alright. I feel like the level design can be a bit wonky at times, but the control works for the most part, once you get the hang of it, and the story isn’t a direct copy of 64, so it’s an alright game. I’ve also played 64 3D, and I definitely get the hype. A phenomenal game that has cursed the franchise from the day 64 came out.

It’s a shame Nintendo hasn’t announced anything special for star fox on its anniversary. I’m not the biggest fan of the series but star fox 64 I do adore. I’d love to see a new game in the series since it’s been forever since we had another attempt, I just would hope it controlled nice. Fhe star fox characters are a lot of fun and I want them to stay alive.

1) 64
2)COMMAND
3)Star Fox

If you asked me on the spot to guess how many Star Fox games were made, I would have never guessed over 5. Crazy hearing of all these different versions.

@John_Deacon

Starlink should be where the series is headed. Transforming to a Walker would've been great during ground combat especially. I hope Nintendo does something open world with Star Fox

Star fox 64! So memorable, do a barrel roll everyone. I thought Starlink is its own game with a Star fox add-on. Is this true or is it an actual Star fox game?

I don't know how the N64 version of Star Fox 64 is above the 3DS one, when the 3DS one is clearly superior. Better graphics, the controls are as good or better, plus you can replay missions at any time and go for medals. I'd have done Katina, the one inspired by Independence Day, hundreds of times. Elsewhere, destroying the Star Wolf team over and over is so satisfying. The only loss is the rumble pak, which isn't a great loss anyway. How many of us really used it on the N64 beyond the initial novelty and curiosity phase? Of course, being the original Star Fox 64, it had that wow moment at the time, and that nostalgia remains.

My second favourite is obviously Star Fox on SNES. It's still so good.

Star Fox Command on DS is next. Very underrated, and the multiplayer, both online and locally, was really good.

Star Fox Assault was more like Star Fox Insult for me. Once it went off the rails, it really went off the rails. For any confused American readers, that's "went off of the rails". I had high hopes that Zero would be really good and I'd finally buy a Wii U. Clearly it was a dud and suggests Shigs was eating too many mushrooms. Adventures is an adventure game, so I exclude it totally.

To me there's only 5 worthy Star Fox games, plus a game not mentioned, and I rank them as such:
1 Star Fox 64 3DS / 64
2 Star Fox
3 Star Fox Command
4 Star Fox 2
5 Starlink
6 Super Smash Bros Ultimate

That Star Fox 2 (never officially release at the time) and Starlink (not a Star Fox game) are there, really shows the poor service given to this great franchise. Now, if you really want to see Fox in action outside an Arwing, you can't go past SSBU!

@HolyGeez03 It's not. Star Fox 64 was designed with the N64 controller in mind. the Z Button makes you feel like you are in the Arwing cockpit. 3DS game is a nice port but no where near as replayable as the OG due to button layout.

@Nintendo4Sonic I feel like the scores for Starlink were made purely out of hype. The combat is just super boring. Starfox is about time pressure and high score, multiple paths and finding secrets paths in levels to make each playthrough unique and finding the paths where you can cumulate the highest score. It’s sad that Starlink just created a lot of hype only because it borrowed No Man Sky’s real time interplanetary travel-which doesn’t suit the arcade style gameplay which is essential for Star Fox. SF64 3D and 64ver was overall the best experience. Assault wasn’t bad but clunky at times. I would say Zero could be the best, but they added some missions that were not super fun, otherwise it’s a better version of SF64. I liked how you could follow an enemy and if you chase him long enough, you will find a new passage to another planet for example. I also struggled with the controls at first, but once I learned it, it just clicked and became absolute marvel to play. Some people also complained about the cockpit view, but I don’t get it-you could just press a button at any time and switch the view at any time to your preference. Zero has its share of a few not so fun missions-but luckily just a few. Starlink is utter trash SF game- no real fan of Starfox would ever rate that game high, and everyone I know who bought it out of excitement and for love of SF64 just started, and stopped playing after a while because it’s just not a fun game.

Lots of star fox snobs in the comments.

Many of us enjoy the later games.

@romanista
Maybe its just a matter of getting used to it, i don't know. As that Lylat system isn't pointed out enough for me to have such a carrying role, it just feels weird. A bit like calling a Mainline Zelda game HYRULE WARS.
I can understand that Starfox 64 especially today feels way dumber, but back in the 90ies, having all those franchises with a 64 at the end felt like the consistent thing to do, at least in the console's first days.
Lylat just never sounded very elegant to me and you never have any relationship to that name. And knowing they just couldn't call it Starfox due to legal rights didn't help.

@Stocksy
I never cared that much about the entire franchise, BUT as someone who remembers the hype of SF64 and the impact it had, I totally get why some people would love to see Nintendo putting such a focus on that franchise once again like they do with Mario and Zelda.
Ever since they most of the time came up with comparably mediocre, outsources projects. Playing No Man's Sky on the Switch, it still feels like there would be room to create something special here. And no I don't mean NMS with Star Fox, just saying that playing a spacegame on a portable system feels so awesome and today's engines allow you to fly from planets surface into space to another planet. Stuff like that must be interesting for a game like Starfox, right?

But well, I'm also to this day shocked that of all studios, Platinum didn't manage to create that one overkill Starfox game. But I'd love to try Zero out one day.

Zero underrated, as always. Shame the (unnecessary but otherwise fine) controls put people off of giving it a fair shake.

Star Fox SNES shouldn’t be higher, but it should have a higher average than 7.71.

For those complaining about frame rate, go emulate SF with the speed patch and there you go.

Strangely enough I played Star Fox Zero for the first time on the weekend and I thought it was great. The most epic Star Fox has been.

@B_Lindz I (finally) took your advice and WOW.. the game is amazing! I’m ashamed I didn’t play this sooner!! Star Fox Assault deserves to be played by everyone, especially the 64 fans. So cool to see the evolution/progress from 64 to Assault <333

@ChromaticDracula I'm thrilled that you liked it! Once you play Assault, it is genuinely hard to understand why so few SF fans have actually played it. I can't imagine what SF would have become if Nintendo had continued with Assault's trajectory instead of flushing the franchise in the toilet with the sub-par handheld games and SF Zero.

@John_Deacon Since I originally commented here almost a year ago (I'm back because someone tagged me), I did try out Starlink and ironically, the controls are what made me almost immediately put the game down. I don't recall how exactly they're set up, but you cannot change them and to my 38 year old brain, I can't adjust. I've played a few flight shooters like Ace Combat before and never had an issue, but something is different about Starlink that makes it feel really weird.

Vs Zero's motion controls that can be almost entirely shut down just by not moving your hands (in case anyone wanted to argue that I stopped playing a game due to controls)

@Wexter I didn't have anyone to play multiplayer with, so completely forgot it had that. Glad it made your day!

I question why Starlink is featured and 64 3d is in a separate position. Same game with better graphics and portability. All that said not bad a list. I’d put Assault and Starfox 2 over Adventures and Starlink.

Would love to see a new Starfox game modernized. One that takes inspiration from either Assault, Starlink, or 2. The 64 way can still be there but can’t be the backbone but maybe a side mode. Things are different now In the 20s. Just please don’t rehash lylat wars again.