Enough With The Star Fox Reboots, Already! - DetroitOtaku Rants
It's been a while since I did another one of these articles on here, hasn't it?
World building is a constant thing in almost all of Nintendo's major franchises. You see it in Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero, Mother/EarthBound, Famicom Detective Club, Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, and even Mario. These franchises have added new characters, new stories, and new lore with every new entry.
However, there's one franchise where Nintendo hasn't even attempted to do any world building with. Every few years they scrap everything after a couple new entries and start over from scratch. It's a shame, because this is a franchise that really could benefit from world building.
That franchise is, of course, Star Fox.
Ever since it's debut in 1993, Star Fox has been rebooted by Nintendo THREE times. The first time was with the release of Star Fox 64 in 1997, then it was rebooted again in 2016 with Star Fox Zero, a remake of Star Fox 64, and then it was rebooted YET AGAIN with Star Fox in 2026 on the Switch 2, which is, you guessed it - ANOTHER REMAKE OF STAR FOX 64.
I really don't get it. Is Nintendo just allergic to world building with Star Fox? Or is it a problem with the fanbase not wanting to pursue world building with Star Fox? In any case, Star Fox seems to be the lone exception for world building when it comes to Nintendo franchises. Nintendo tried to expand the Star Fox lore during the 2000s, but because the sequels weren't Star Fox 64 2.0 and 3.0, Nintendo of course went back to the drawing board and rebooted the franchise again.
The first time Nintendo attempted to world build with Star Fox was with Star Fox 2, which was originally slated for release in August 1995, but was cancelled out of fear that it would compare poorly with the newer 3D games released on the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
Star Fox 2 takes place shortly after the events of the first Star Fox, and features the Star Fox team once again battling Andross, who is out for revenge and launches an all-out attack on the Lylat System. General Pepper once again calls on the Star Fox team to stop Andross from conquering the galaxy.
Star Fox 2 utilized real time strategy mixed in with the space shooter gameplay of the first game. It introduced multiple new planets, and two new characters to the Star Fox team - Fay and Miyu.
It was also the first game where all members of the Star Fox team were playable characters, and you didn't have to be stuck playing only as Fox. Each character's Arwing had unique performance characteristics and special abilities.
Star Fox 2 was also the first game in the series to have ground missions, where your Arwing could turn into a Star Wars AT-ST-like walker and destroy Andross' forces and bases on planets that he had taken over. Star Fox 2 expanded the Star Fox formula in a way that would not be seen again until Star Fox: Assault in 2005.
However, Nintendo cancelled Star Fox 2, and it was not officially released until 2017 when it was included on the SNES Classic.
Instead, for the second Star Fox game, Nintendo decided to remake the first Star Fox game, and gave us what is still the best game in the series - 1997's Star Fox 64.
Star Fox 64 was the second game in the series, and it was a retelling of the first Star Fox. Considering that Star Fox 2 was scrapped and that the only other game before this was Star Fox four years prior, rebooting here is at least understandable. The first Star Fox on the Super NES was a glorified tech demo for this console to show off the Super FX chip, and to show that the Super NES could do 3D just fine without any Sega CD-style console add-ons. Which is why starting from scratch with Star Fox 64 worked very well in the end. The gameplay and story are timeless, and it has held up tremendously well today.
Star Fox 64 is also significant in that it marked the only time in which Nintendo attempted to do any serious world building with Star Fox in general.
The first true Star Fox sequel that we got came in 2002, which was Star Fox Adventures.
Star Fox Adventures was the last Rare-developed game for a Nintendo platform before the Microsoft buyout. It originally started out as a platformer called Dinosaur Planet, which was set to be released on the Nintendo 64, but after Shigeru Miyamoto viewed the gameplay and story elements closer, he convinced Rare to turn it into the next Star Fox game before E3 2000. Miyamoto wanted Star Fox to move away from the spaceship rail shooter gameplay of the first two Star Fox games, and towards more of a sci-fi and space exploration action adventure series similar to that of anime series that focused on space exploration, such as Dirty Pair and Cowboy Bebop. So Nintendo and Rare worked on merging Star Fox and Dinosaur Planet together, by bringing the Star Fox team into the game and also creating a story to fit into the Star Fox canon.
Star Fox Adventures takes place eight years after the events of Star Fox 64 on Dinosaur Planet (also known as Sauria in later entries) and introduces us to future Star Fox team member Krystal, a fox who is investigating the destruction of her home planet Cerinia, and the death of her parents. She receives a distress signal from the Krazoa Palace, which was attacked by General Scales and the SharpClaw army. Krystal is instructed by the EarthWalker tribe to collect the Krazoa Spirits and return them to the palace, which would supposedly tilt the war in the dinosaurs' favour and stop Scales and the SharpClaws. After returning the first spirit, a mysterious being sends Krystal into the spirit's path, trapping her in a floating crystal atop the palace, which cannot be broken until all the spirits are returned.
The gameplay moved away from the space dogfights of the first two Star Fox games, and towards the action-adventure platformer genre, with some Arwing segments mixed in for good measure. As mentioned previously, the game also introduced a new member to the Star Fox team - the fan favorite Krystal, and introduced a new planet to the Lylat System - Dinosaur Planet, later renamed Sauria in Star Fox: Assault. It was also the first game in the series to have a save system.
The experiment actually paid off for Nintendo and Rare. Star Fox Adventures was well received by critics when it came out in 2002, and even among a good chunk of the fanbase. Though the fans and critics were seeking more, and felt that the series should return to space for the next entry.
Which brings us to the third Star Fox sequel, and the last time Nintendo actually tried to do something different with the series - Star Fox: Assault.
After Rare was taken over by Microsoft, Nintendo once again decided to outsource development for the next Star Fox game, and this time they went to Namco for help. The gameplay of Assault is very unique, and in my opinion, is the direction the series should have went in for all future entries.
Star Fox: Assault take place a year after the events of Star Fox Adventures, and once again follows the Star Fox team as they battle a new deadly adversary. The game starts off with the Star Fox team going after the nephew of Andross, Andrew Oikonny, who was kicked out of Star Wolf, assumed leadership of the planet Venom's remaining troops after Andross' death, and begins a rebellion. General Pepper orders an attack on Oikonny's forces, and has hired the Star Fox team to assist the Cornerian army in taking him out. Fox and his team defeat Oikonny, but he refuses to give up. Just as Fox and his team are about to finish him off, Oikonny is killed by an insectoid creature, which then attacks Fox and his team. Fox destroys the creature, and recovers its damaged Core Memory unit and turns it over to be researched. They discover that it belongs to a race of robotic insectoids called Aparoids, which had previously done battle with Cornerian forces seventeen years earlier. Fox and his team are then assigned to find an undamaged Core Memory so that they can find a way to stop the Aparoids, as Corneria fears an invasion of the Lylat System.
Star Fox: Assault was Nintendo and Namco trying their hand at a space exploration-third person shooter hybrid, which is a difficult genre they mostly succeeded at. The gameplay is divided into three different types: flying segments with the Arwing which include linear and all-range stages, driving the Landmaster tank, and on-foot combat. In the ground missions, you can also switch between the Landmaster and the Arwing at will.
Fox can use all sorts of different weapons aside from his blaster to take out enemies and complete mission objectives, such as multiple machine guns, a sniper rifle, and even a rocket launcher. It was a fresh change of pace and something the series should have tried more of.
Star Fox: Assault was the first game of the series to not have Andross as the main villain. As mentioned earlier, a new enemy known as the Aparoids were introduced as the main enemy. It brought back the Star Wolf team, and even introduced a new member - Panther, who replaced Pigma and Andrew after Wolf kicked both of them off the team. It also introduced new planets such as Fichina and the Aparoid homeworld. This game was the first true attempt to do massive world building with Star Fox. Unfortunately, fan and critic reception would ultimately cause Nintendo to reverse course.
When it came out, Assault received average reviews from critics. Praise was directed at the soundtrack, graphics, Arwing and Landmaster gameplay, the story, and the new gameplay concepts introduced, but was criticized for the on-foot controls being clunky, the short length of the game, and once again deviating from the traditional gameplay formula of the first two games. The more elitist sects of the Star Fox fanbase hated it, specifically because they felt that Fox "only belongs in an Arwing." The Star Fox 64 purists really did not like it one bit.
Yes, Assault does have it's flaws. I think the controls needed more polish and I feel the game also could have used 15-20 more missions at least, because it was very short for a Star Fox game. However I did enjoy it back then, and I still enjoy it today. The story was solid, the cast of characters were all excellent, the level design was great and unique, the soundtrack was amazing, and the new gameplay types was fresh and unique.
I would love to see a new Star Fox game with the kind of gameplay Assault had in the future, because a game like Assault CAN work for this franchise if everything works property. It's why I feel Assault's development was rushed, and I feel that it needed an extra year of development. I feel it should have been a launch title for the Wii in 2006, and launched simultaneously on both the GameCube and Wii like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was. Had it been delayed another year for the Wii's launch, I think Assault would have been received much better by critics and fans.
However, with Star Fox having one of the most unbearable and entitled fanbases this side of Sonic the Hedgehog, I doubt we'll ever get a game like Assault in the Star Fox universe anytime soon.
After that, Nintendo decided to reboot Star Fox not once, but TWICE. First with the disaster that was Star Fox Zero, and then with Star Fox on Switch 2, which I hear is alright.
(No, do not ask me to talk about Star Fox Command. That game doesn't exist. There is no "Star Fox Command". We do not speak of it over here, and for good reason.)
That one brief period from 1997-2005 is the only time Nintendo attempted any serious world building with Star Fox. But due to the Star Fox 64 elitists of the Star Fox fanbase, it's unlikely that it will happen again.
The SF64 elitists are wrong about Star Fox though. Anyone who sees Star Fox as solely a rail shooter are misunderstanding the game's implied genre cognitively. It was always meant to be a space exploration-action adventure series in the style of popular space exploration anime of the era such as Dirty Pair and Cowboy Bebop, as the Star Fox comic series from 1993 depicts the Star Fox team taking on missions outside of the Arwing:
The Star Fox series needed to evolve past being an Arwing-only series, and keeping it as one will hurt it in the long run.
Adventures and Assault got way too much hate from the SF64 purists. It was quite clear that none of their criticism came in good faith, as they never tried to understand those games, analyze them, or even pay attention to them. They just wanted to moan about not getting Star Fox 64 2.0. All the things that the purists say that Adventures and Assault should have done, are the exact things Star Fox Zero did do, and they sucked.
The SF64 purists were essentially mad that Adventures and Assault weren't even worse.
It's time for Nintendo to go back to world building with Star Fox, and ignore all the purists who want 64 2.0 and 3.0. Maybe then we'll get interesting experimental games in the series like Adventures and Assault again.