Rumor: Starfox 64 update restores historically accurate slowdown?

by JC Fletcher { Apr 30th 2007 at 9:00PM }

No word if this is a real issue or a NeoGAF freakout, but if the perfect beauty of one of your Virtual Console games is in danger, it's our solemn duty to report on it. What is known is that Nintendo has issued an updated version of StarFox 64. What isn't known is what it does.

NeoGAFfer Nuclear Muffin (judging by the name, a level-headed character) reported that after downloading the update this morning, he found the game slowing down in the same way the original Nintendo 64 version. Again, no idea if this is true, or if it's a delusion created by someone trying to find an effect of this update, but it's terrifying if true.

Normally, we're all about accurate presentation of emulated games, but we have no problem with Nintendo fixing the resolution and speed of N64 games, because they totally need it. We really hope they haven't decided to unfix it.

Tags: emulation, fox, nintendo, nintendo wii, NintendoWii, patch, patches, rare, slowdown, star, starfox, starfox 64, Starfox64, updates, vc, virtualconsole, wii

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

theLoneYoshi @ Apr 30th 2007 10:09PM

I actually like the original slowdown... The credits scene is completely off with the music (funny how Koji Kondo and Hajime Wakai took the slowdown into account when composing the credits theme), and the Macbeth fuel bunker explosion is so much more dramatic with the slowdown... As for the other levels... the slowdown doesn't really affect the game that much.

That's just me...

xdrewfacex @ Apr 30th 2007 10:43PM

i'd like to see all of the games taking advantage of the better hardware and getting rid of slowdown. gunstar heroes is one game that i personally feel would be much better if the slowdown were removed.

xdrewfacex @ Apr 30th 2007 10:44PM

sorry for the double post, but i forgot to mention gunstar is a fantastic game (one of my all time favorites) and i didn't mean to imply it wasn't good by saying it would be better without slowdown.

Just_a_guy @ Apr 30th 2007 10:52PM

can anyone conferm this update?

sergei @ Apr 30th 2007 11:09PM

Not sure if anyone else noticed it - but during multiplayer - when an opposing ship came at your windshield straight-on and incredibly closely stars seemed to appear around the ship - there appeared to be slow down - almost like a snapshot for you to see this model....HAs anyone else notcied this? or is it just nostalgia of far too many multi-player sessions with this game ?

Steve @ Apr 30th 2007 11:35PM

This should be possible to confirm. Just save the original StarSchmuck 64 to an SD card then download the update. Play a few scenes with slowdown (posssibly by ignoring enemies so that it can be reproduced) and then play the same version with the original download. Make sure both versions were recorded and then compare.

It's too much trouble for me, but certainly some nerdy type out there has the spare time to do this.

Andrew @ May 1st 2007 1:11AM

Here's a horror story:
We actually (against all odds) get Perfect Dark, yet it still lags with 4p multiplayer.

In other news, my friend and I played through Contra3 and that lags something awful for no reason whatsoever.

soulbreather @ May 1st 2007 2:51AM

kirby lagged AND some tiles were different colours for me

Grey Acumen @ May 1st 2007 8:16AM

I'm willing to bet I know what it does, or at least what it BETTER do.

When I was playing through aquas as the blue marine, in the N64 version I can fire just as fast if not faster than as an arwing, however when I tried to do the same on the Wii, I found I was only getting about 1/3 the shots off I was supposed to be getting. Here's hoping the fix works.

MR FLORIDA @ May 1st 2007 8:36AM

WHEN WILL THEY RELEASE TECMO SUPER BOWL FOR THE VIRTUAL CONSOLE? that is the ONLY game im waiting for!

Tim @ May 1st 2007 3:27PM

I just tried the updated star fox and the slow down has been added back. When I used the turbo button on my gamecube controller before it would always fire normal shots but now it fires charged shots whenever there is an explosion or lots of enemies. I kinda like the historical accuracy of the game especially since the games were designed around such hardware delays.