Star Fox should have been one of the greatest gaming franchises of all time, and some may argue that it still is, but really, when you think about it, it really isn’t. Instead, it’s an example of something that is often fondly remembered, but has had more average to bad games that universally loved ones.
First, in the early 1990s, there was Star Fox (Star Wing in the UK) for the Super Nintendo, and then there was Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars in the UK) for the Nintendo 64, and both were great games. Between the two there was almost Star Fox 2, but this was scrapped last minute as by the time it was ready for release, the PlayStation and Saturn would have shown up what was possible with the Super Nintendo’s SuperFX2 chip and made the game look bad…at least according to Nintendo’s logic. I’m sure most players would have just enjoyed the game and only PlayStation and Sega fanboys would have cried that it doesn’t look as shiny as Ridge Racer or 3D Lemmings!
But Star Fox didn’t release and Lylat Wars (as I’d call it in the UK) did release and people thought it was awesome. Everything else that has come since Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars can be seen as a misstep after misstep for the franchise which have ruined Fox from standing as proudly alongside Mario as a Nintendo mascot as he once did…well until he did so in a big way in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
The third released Star Fox game was developed by Rare, and was Star Fox Adventures, but despite being an alright game is a massive black spot on both Fox’s and Rare’s records. Rare’s final game for a Nintendo home console before being sold off to Microsoft for decades of near obscurity, started life as the Nintendo 64 game, Dinosaur Planet. It was then moved over to the GameCube and given Fox as its lead character. Unfortunately, Dinosaur Planet was always intended to be a Zelda like game and that took Fox out of his comfort zone, which as we all know is in an Arwing, fighting giant monkey heads in space.
Star Fox Adventures only received a lukewarm reception and many speculated that it was rushed to completion before Rare moved over to Microsoft. True or not, the game wasn’t what it should have been, and fans didn’t get their full space shooting Star Fox.
After this, Nintendo turned to Namco to develop the next instalment. Star Fox Assault was a greater return to the skies for Fox, but retained some ground elements with Fox McCloud on foot. It wasn’t amazing and did little to bring back to his glory days of the N64. That glory wouldn’t return until Fox went hand held…well kinda.
After Star Fox Assault, came Star Fox Command on the Nintendo DS. This mixed up the style of play once again in the series, and whilst it was better received, it was the third Star Fox game in a row which gained most of its attention because of its name value rather than its individual merits. As a Nintendo DS game it looked worse than even the N64 game, and with stylus based play, it wasn’t the arcade shooter that people wanted. I mean, come on. Star Fox is just Space Invaders in 3D. You fly, you shoot, you do a barrel roll. How hard is that to get right? And why did they insist on deviating away from that for game after game??
So where is the return to glory I mentioned? On the 3DS of course.
Star Fox 64 3D is a greatly improved version of Fox’s best adventure which has improved graphics and gyro controls. The potential this game showed for a new 3DS or Wii U instalment mades you want to give Nintendo a slap for not doing it earlier.
And then there was the Wii U games….in the words of Homer Simpson…Doh!
Star Fox actually had two Wii U releases and one was a Slappy Toad focussed camera game which people compared to Night Trap.
The other was Star Fox Zero, which storyline wise, was a retelling of the original game…which to be honest if you know the history of Star Fox is a bit of head scratching move. Star Fox already was reimagined as Star Fox 64, which was then released as Starfox 64 3D and then remade again as Star Fox Zero. So, four of the major releases were all the same story effectively.
The gameplay of Star Fox Zero tried to force usage of the Wii U Gamepad by giving you a cockpit view inside the Arwing and was the best way to get precise aiming. Which just artificially made watching the action on the TV screen more difficult to aim with…because obviously on the previous games, aiming on the tv had worked just fine.
And then that was it for many years until Fox would pop up in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which is where we are at the time of writing. I’ll update this article if the rumoured Star Fox Movie or a new game gets announced, unless of course, I forget. Which if you’re reading this and a new game or movie has come out, I evidentially did.
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