TOP Track #17 - "Corneria"

• Track: "Corneria"
• Composer: Hirasawa Hajime
• Game: Star Fox
• System: Super Nintendo
• Release: March 1993

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I'm not a big fan of rail-shooters. I'm not a huge fan of flight/space simulators - though I've been known to favor one or two. It's unclear what got me interested in this game, but if I had to guess I'd put the blame on Nintendo Power that I subscribed to from its inauguration until ... 200 issues, at least. I had a huge stack of those things in my bedroom. My mom was always trying to get me to throw them away, but I liked paging through them from time to time. It was the beginning of my video game "collecting" (aka hoarding). At any rate, I bought Star Fox and it was amazing. I really love Star Fox 64 as well, but no game in this series captured my attention as much as the original.

I was amazing at this game. I don't often brag about my skill in video games because overall I believe I'm an "average" player. Mostly due to the fact that I play a wide variety of games and I only play them for a few weeks before I move on to my next game. I rarely devote the time to a game to be truly excellent at it. This wasn't true back in the 90s, particularly the SNES era. I was a legitimate master of many of the SNES games, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Link to the Past, and I proudly admit Star Fox. I was unbelievably good at this game. I fly an Arwing like a boss. I was doing loops, flips, flybys and of course barrel rolls. I was getting perfect kills without taking any damage. I was beating the game with 1-laser (no upgrades) and no wings (I'd break them off on the Corneria stage and never fix them). When I was a young teen, I only got one or two games a year (birthday & Christmas!) so I would make the absolute most of them. It was my Golden Age.

Sometimes I miss those simpler times.

- TOP
@TOPGamingBlog

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Between the ages of 6 and 8, it was given that my best friend and I would play Super Nintendo every weekend. Like clockwork, we mashed the buttons in his small room until his mother threw us outside or our eyes could no longer stay open. Star Fox was a staple; we were obsessed with it. At school, we would doodle simplistic Arwings and come up with ideas for new levels. Those crude drawings may have been my first attempts at fanart!

Like many games we've been discussing this month, Star Foxwas a game that I couldn't put down despite my severe lack of ability. I loved playing through Corneria over and over again. It was one of the only levels I could actually beat! Luckily for me, I was treated to one of the most excellent video game songs in history. You could put it on repeat 24/7 and it would never get old.

In 9th grade, I got a new computer with a CD burner in it (Sweet!). Of course, the first mix I ever put together had this song included. During a long field trip to New York City, I rocked out. When "Corneria" came on, I lost it. Head banging, fist pumping, air shredding, and general chaos ensued. A girl (who would go on to be my girlfriend) called me a freak, but I didn't care. It marked an early instance where I wasn't ashamed of being a young gamer. We all know that music can stir any emotion in you. "Corneria" made me feel so good that I was able to ignore my pubescent urge to hide my true, geeky nature.

- Deez
@Deezer509

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