Star Fox 64: All 16 Levels, Ranked Worst to Best

My personal ranking of all 16 missions in Star Fox 64, from worst to best.

[the_real_cytn]

Fox: All-Range mode!
Boss: Ah, so this is Star Fox?
Slippy: Enemy shield ana-
Boss: My emperor... I've failed you!

[nickk]

Every level in this game is at least good, which is really impressive and is a testament to the quality of Star Fox 64!

[FredThePhoenix]

Area 6 is definitely my favorite! They throw everything at you! An armada to invade a planet to stop four fighters and they're panicking because it's not working and Venom gets bigger and bigger as you progress. And the music is awesome!

Katina is probably second!

[nelsonw]

Can confirm for the hidden ending for Katina there is no penalty if Peppy shoots down an ally. You'll still get it as long as you don't register a friendly fire death.

[NerdilyDone]

I gotta go with Macbeth. It's the best combination of story and gameplay pretty much ever.

[jamesf]

Slippy’s line after Mission Accomplished on Macbeth was always my favorite line of the game.

“I can see the look on their stupid faces…”

[SnipeMD]

This video taught me three things about Star Fox 64, a game that I thought I had every secret memorized beforehand:

· The secret no-fighters lost Katina run (the dialogue between Fox and Bill later being used in Zero).

· The hidden searchlight that spawns more enemies for a higher score in Zoness.

· The kill-cap for Area 6 on certain game cartriges.

But you forgot one *_very_* important secret when you are on Macbeth.

If you choose to skip hitting the 8 switches and let the boss fight play out, if you take way to long to kill the boss and the train makes it past the supply depot, the conductor will yell out, *_"You're too slow, time to end this!", _* and the Mechbeth glider will do a suicide ram attack, killing you instantly.

I thought I knew everything about this game, but even now there is still so much to learn...but you've earned a subscription from me, just so you know.

[ngobleus]

First time I played Venom's 'Easy' path, I didn't realize those were stone columns coming out of the ground, I thought Andross was digging his fingers through the planet's surface.

[YXTongvaLand]

"Andross is insane..." One of the best lines in the game. It doesn't even sound like Falco's heartbeat changes at all. It's just a flat, stunned, almost-driven-to-speechless response to how far Andross is willing to go.

The responses to Spybot aren't literal, as in they can't make out the words. They're wondering what he's talking about. They find it creepy or eerie, like the statements are foreboding or existential. It's a robot wondering about it's existence and creation.

[matthewbenoit]

Definitely not a bad level! All are absolutely fun to play. Surprised people don’t like the Aqua level. It was different and fun to do.

[johanericsson]

Area 6 and Zoness are definitely my favorites, so much action and a ton of points to pick up, not to mention the music and atmosphere.

[EclipseHedgehog]

Bill's my favorite character in the entire starfox saga. he's such a bro.

[solierafromtheultrareconsquad]

This is my list, if anyone cares for some reason (WARNING! OPINIONS AHEAD!)

16: Aquas
One of the few popular opinions I have for this entire franchise. It's dark, the Blue Marine is slower than molasses, and there's not much to do other than spam torpedos and occasionally brake. It's honestly the only level in the game that I can say I truly dislike; as a matter of fact, it's occasionally even painful to play. It just.... doesn't feel like Star Fox because of how sluggish and mindless it is.

15: Zoness
I'm just not a Hard path person, am I? Fortunately, the other ones are really fun to me. I don't even know why I don't really like this level, other than I just find it boring, but even that I can't explain. Plus all the stuff that gets tossed in front of the searchlights and enemies make the level feel more like a cheap hard rather than a skillful hard, which is funny, because I can breeze through this game without issue, but this level in particular just makes me feel like I'm gonna mess up, even though I don't very often, which, like Aquas, can actually make it physically hurt me to play.

14: Bolse
" Oh no! "
- Slippy, Bolse

13: Venom 1
Another level that just bores me sometimes, probably because of how short it feels because of all the branching paths with completely different enemies in them, which SHOULD make it more interesting, but it just doesn't do it for me. The Golemech is just awkward to fight (I don't think they ever explain why he runs away from you), too. Speaking of which, why is there a temple on Venom? It's just hilariously out of place, and if Andross wanted that built, I no longer take him seriously.

12: Venom 2
" You're good, but I'm better! "
- Wolf every 2 seconds on this planet

11: Corneria
Trying to hit every single enemy (which I have actually successfully done) is the only really fun thing about this level, in my opinion, otherwise it's a bore, especially because you play it every route and there's no variety up until the very end near the bosses, making it overstay its welcome. In addition, it's pathetically easy because it's the first level so it plays out like it's a tutorial, and that just makes me mad since I always hate having instructions shoved in my face even though I've been playing for an eternity and know the game inside-out because it makes it look like the game thinks I'm an idiot. It's more interesting in Expert mode, for sure.

10: Fichina
Winter is my favorite season and the only one that doesn't always give me unending weather anxiety (it storms here in Ohio all Spring, and I have a huge fear of tornadoes, which pop up in my area annually, often even more than once), so this level is rather soothing both aesthetically and for personal reasons. I also love absolutely mauling Star Wolf here since overpowering your enemies without contest is always something I enjoy doing.

9: Titania
One big thing that all my favorite levels have is lots of stuff to shoot at. Titania has lots of stuff to shoot at. 'Tis a shame most of it comes way too quickly and the biggest points are missed because of background objects that absorb your hits, forcing you to use bombs instead, which is unsatisfying because I know I could've gotten way more points if my charged shots just landed on the enemy ships instead of the pillars.

8: Solar
Not the most interesting level, but it makes me feel good for being able to consistently obliterate everything without issue, especially with its unique gimmick of draining your shield gauge constantly, more severely so the lower you're flying. The boss is pretty sweet, too, and his attack patterns are fun.

7: Sector Y
Sector Y is basically Area 6 Jr., with lots of stuff to shoot at, featuring you and your wingmen blasting through a giant wall of enemies. And, like Area 6, I think the first half is more fun than the second, because I guess once you've realized you're mostly done, you start to feel less powerful when there's less enemies to potentially get in your way. I like the slight replayability in the up/down segment (although why would you ever not go up if you want points). I'll admit the boss can be a bit boring, although his quotes are really fun, but your wingmen complaining when they're hit just irks me.... how do they think I feel, huh?

6: Katina
This is THE level if you want that sweet army vs. army goodness, it feels awesome to have a bunch of allies alongside you (useless as they may be) shooting down the enemy together at the same time, and the mothership, granted a reference and an overused Sci-Fi trope, is just downright iconic. Also. most I've talked to found getting 200+ points on this level very simple and can't get Sector Y's hit medal to save their lives, when for me it's the other way around, so that's pretty funny.

5: Macbeth
Chasing down a slow-moving train in a tank is shooter brilliance. Slowly but surely destroying the train bit by bit is very satisfying (especially if you can actually destroy every car), and the enemies constantly coming at you in groups for your charged shots to have a field day and rack up extra points just adds to that. Unfortunately, once you get to the switch section, it becomes less fun. I want more enemies, game! I also love it when the train drops down boulders in front of you, because spamming charge shots on them gives you a bunch of points. Sadly, I've overplayed this level so many times that it's mostly lost its value for me, but that won't change the sheer bliss this level gave when I was a rookie player.

4: Sector Z
Bet you thought this level would be lower, eh? Well, ironic to the situation in the level, I actually find this stage very relaxing. Making a loop and shooting all of the crates is good fun, and then just obliterating enemies during the breaks from the missiles makes me feel like a god. Not to mention, for some reason, I almost always get this level's hit medal, even if I lose a missile to one of my comrades. When that doesn't happen, I'm usually netting 110+ points. Considering most others seem to struggle with this level's hit medal, it makes me feel top tier at the game (even though I'm still not awesome at it).

3: Area 6
Yep. Blasting through an entire enemy force is good fun, especially if you feel like getting hand surgery later. As I said earlier, though, I think the first half is much more fun than the second. The boss also isn't that interesting, frankly.

2: Meteo
Blasting through a bunch of rocks and through a load of enemies is awesome; man, it makes it feel like you've got two different threats at the same time (which you do, I guess). The music is just an icon of the series (love the Zero version the most), and the fact that BOTH exits are an absolute blast is legendary; shooting through both real and robotic enemy rocks as well as regular enemies or racking up points like you've never seen in the warp to Katina are both tons of fun to do.

1: Sector X
This is THE Star Fox level for me. The incredible music, all the stuff to shoot at (unless you went for the left path to the Sector Z warp, in which case, I'm so sorry), and just the idea of invading a construction base with a defense force to get rid of the enemy's secret weapon that your force knows next to nothing about making it all the more scary only to find out that said secret weapon is destroying its own birthplace is just amazing. The Spyborg itself is downright iconic, and the fact that there are THREE exits, with all of the finishers present, being the warp, the victory, and the unfortunate failure, makes the level feel all the more special. The three exits combined with the only way you're forced to go to Sector X being through critical failures, either at Fichina or Katina, gives the vibe that this is simultaneously the most depressing and the most hopeful level, in my opinion, and to top it all off, I can easily net 300+ points every single time I play this stage, and since I can't get 300 points in Zoness to save my life, this level is crucial in my point runs, and yet it never bores me.

[lemmyyt]

Solar is probably my favorite because of the Atmosphere alone, it was so crazy difficult as a kid that Vulcan even gave me nightmares so bad I pissed myself.

[jessepeterson]

I'll agree that Aquas wasn't my personal favorite but for a different reason, when I was younger I had a desperate fear of game water during the n64 age mainly cause of Banjo-kazooie (screw you Treasure Trove Cove and screw you Snacker in particular) so Aquas was a bit scary for me but I thought I could handle it... UNTIL I GOT TO THE BOSS! (Freaking worms, they had scary, nightmare inducing faces when I was a kid)

[gcook]

Fun fact about the v1.0 carts that don't limit your hits, if you go past 511 hits then it will cause it to overflow when calculating your total score. A score of 512 will actually subtract 256 from your total score instead of adding 512 to it.

You won't be able to start adding again until your hit counter goes past 767, at which point it will start counting from 1 hit to add to your total score lol.

The v1.1 revision fixed this by simply capping your hits to 511, so that it doesn't cause the overflow issue when calculating your total score. This was probably easier than trying to find more room to assign more bytes to the hit when it can only really happen in a few certain circumstances.

[kennykim.]

As much as I absolutely love the way Bolse-Venom1 and Area6-Venom2 routes are separated for each of its plot, I wish there was an alternate version where I could go through some of the best/most hectic levels in a row. For example, or reallly any route that the player wants to take

[KaijuRider]

honestly aquas is my favorite level. it may not be as fun to control and it being almost pitch black at points is annoying, but it’s so much more atmospheric and tense than the other levels; it feels the most like a real explorable location to me out of all the levels

[leekirschman]

Can't get enough of you Bill, become too personal to your content and I'm so thankful I've found your stuff. I hope this finds you on the perfect day

[charlesg]

For me, MacBeth (and the trains final section specifically) were the coolest and most fun sections in the entire game. That’s the only star Fox 64 level I’d still enjoy playing even today, with better graphics out there. That plus the final boss with the brain and the tunnels being my #2