The main goals in Star Fox 64 are
to make your way from Corneria to Venom, defeat
Andross, and save the galaxy. Simple, right? You bet.
But like most Miyamoto epics, Star Fox 64 has much
more to it than that. After you beat it the easy way,
you'll want to try to beat it the hard way. After you
beat it the hard way, you'll want to try to earn
medals on each stage. Once you've got all the medals,
you'll want to try to beat it in the expert mode. Then
it's time to go after the medals in extra
mode…and so on and so forth.
The key to gaining a medal on any
given stage is to do extremely well (by amassing a
preset number of hits on each stage), and to make
sure each of your wingmen is alive and well when you
blow away the boss at the end of the stage. It's not
as easy as it sounds, and unless you practice your
techniques, you're going to be replaying stages more
often than not.
The most important technique you'll
need to master in Star Fox 64 is that of locking on
to enemy ships. You can blast ships the old-fashioned
way by repeatedly pounding on the buttons until your
fingers are ready to fall off, but that will only get
you so far. True masters will want to go for the
medals, and to collect enough hits to earn them,
they'll have to know when to lock on to enemy groups
for the most hit potential. Here's an example: Very
early on in Corneria (before you even reach the
shore), you'll come to a part where three ships come
in from the west and two from the east. If you lock
on to the lower left ship coming from the west, wait
for the five ships converge, and let out your blast,
you'll take out all five ships for a sweet hit+4
bonus. These types of attacks are critical to
building hits, and if you keep your eyes open for
potential extra hit opportunities, it will really pay
off.
