The key to my success in the game was memorization, plain and simple. Thankfully, he had never been able to top it. In the end, my best score was an impressive 1760. I even fell into a annoying tendency to restart a run if my score in the first few levels didn’t meet my expectations, causing it to take several hours to actually finish an “acceptable” run. I would continue to play at least one run per day (at least, when I didn’t have another new game to play), on a neverending quest for higher scores. I made sure to take the top score back (and immediately informed him that I did so, and what initials I used), and proceeded to wipe out all of his remaining scores from the top 10, which effectively removed any traces that he had ever played. However, I made the mistake of putting the initials “HAH” for my high score instead of my initials, so a few weeks after I returned the game to him, he claimed that he was the one that got that score! Filled with rage, I borrowed the game again, and became even more of an expert at it. I first aimed to beat his high score, which took me several weeks. That was when I became obsessed with the game, playing several runs in a day, continually perfecting my skills and memorizing enemy patterns. A few years after the game came out, I convinced him to let me borrow it for a while. Luckily, I would often wake up early in the morning after a birthday party or sleepover, so I would get to play through the entire game, although it was with the sound muted. My schoolmate Chris was actually the one who owned the game, and I tried to play single-player at his house whenever I had the chance. Star Fox 64 was different in one crucial way: I had a rival. I didn’t really have much experience playing Shmups either (which are similar in terms of being focused on memorization, patterns and high scores), nor had I ever tried to “master” a game. I had never really cared about high scores, and, actually, I still don’t care now (with Bayonetta being the only exception, where I got obsessed with “perfect” high-combo, never-hit-once runs). The quote up there will hopefully become relevant by the end of the article, though I would disagree with the second sentence: Expertise at a game only comes from fully understanding the game’s design, and games that keep you enthralled after this point are truly the best.
It’s a tale that involves rivalry, memorization, and almost extreme obsession. In this article, I intend to look at Star Fox 64, a game in which I feel like I’ve gotten the closest to becoming a “master” at.
Once these are learnt, the game’s interest typically fades.” (Bella Dicks, “Culture on Display: The Production of Contemporary Visitability,” (2003), 179)
Star fox 64 sector z full#
“The gamer feels in control of a malleable universe full of surprises, but succeeding at the game actually involves discovering the rules of the program.
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