Twenty-five years ago today, Star Fox 64 was released in America. It surpassed its SNES predecessor, Star Fox , in every way. Star Fox 64 is an on-rails shooter. "On rails" means that your ship always moves forward along a pre-determined path, like a roller coaster. Within this path you can move around on the screen using the d-pad. You can speed up briefly by holding ←C or slow down with ↓C (the N64 controller has a C button in each orthogonal direction). Speeding up uses a boost meter, which needs a few seconds to refresh before you can boost again. The main gameplay element is shooting enemy ships with your laser (press A). Holding the button down for a second charges the laser. Charging has the added advantage of locking onto an enemy and doing splash damage to those next to it. The game records how many ships you destroy on each level and uses the total to create an arcade-style ranking, where you input your name for eternal glory (my best score so far is an unimpressive...

TwinBee is a Famicom port of a 1985 arcade game that never left Japan. It was Konami's answer to Namco's Xevious . As with many early arcade titles, the NES only got the sequel, Burning TwinBee, renamed  Stinger . TwinBee is a vertical-scrolling shoot-'em-up. It uses a cutesy style ("cute-'em-up"), so the enemies are things like kitchenware and flowers. The game's main gimmick is that power-ups are gained through color-changing bells. When you shoot certain clouds, a yellow bell flies out. If you catch it, at first you get a mere 100 points, but their value increases progressively to 10,000. If it falls through the bottom of the screen, the count resets to 100 points. You can juggle the bells by shooting them. Four shots turns a bell blue. A blue bell, instead of awarding points, speeds up your ship (called the TwinBee). If you shoot the bell again, it reverts to yellow, but every five shots brings out a new color: white gives you a second gun; a flashing ...