Star Fox Muppets are eternal...

[Dark Jaguar]

Nintendo's getting a lot of mileage out of that trip to Jim Henson Studios. They're using the Star Fox team muppets in the commercial for Zero:



I love these muppets. First thing is I hope they retool the current Muppet Show to more closely resemble the "variety" acts of the 70's show. I mean, at LEAST set those old guys up in the balcony again. (They also need to make the muppets a little less horrible to each other.) Secondly, let's get some sketches with the Star Fox team in there. It could be the new "Pigs in Spaaaaace"!

[A Black Falcon]

Silly ad... but yeah, I know there's some criticism of it out there, but Star Fox Zero looks pretty good to me, like the sequel to Star Fox 64 I always wanted but we hadn't gotten before. SF64 is still one of, or the, best rail shooters ever, after all...

[Dark Jaguar]

That goes for the original Star Fox as well. Star Fox 64 improved on it in every way I'm forced to admit, but I love playing through the original every now and then. I'd say at this point the flat monotone low-poly look of Star Fox has aged pretty well. It's a pretty distinct "retro style" at this point which games like Race The Sun have emulated.



This is the first Star Fox since those two that has Miyamoto back at the helm, which explains why it just seems so much more fun than recent Star Fox games. I love the "retro mode" walker straight out of the unreleased Star Fox 2. Here's hoping they decide to go ahead and release that game, since we now know the leaked beta cart, already seemingly a complete game, was only partway through development and in-house Nintendo had added so much more before they canned it.

[A Black Falcon]

As Star Fox 64 was the first game in the series I played much of I've never had much of an attachment for the actual gameplay of the original; sure, it looked cool and I'm sure it was good for the time, but the framerate is terrible and I really dislike that you rarely have a targeting cursor. I did buy it years ago, but haven't played it all that much, I wasn't having all that much fun. But Star Fox 64, I of course really love that game, it's one of the best games ever of its kind... so it was quite sad to see the series fall apart after that.

As for Race the Sun, though, I guess it sort of has that aesthetic, but the gameplay is entirely different of course, sort of racing-meets-endless-runner. Pretty cool game, it's a lot of fun for a while until it gets repetitive because of limited variety. I do think the game looks great though, very nice stylized look there. And it plays well, too.

This is the first Star Fox since those two that has Miyamoto back at the helm, which explains why it just seems so much more fun than recent Star Fox games. I love the "retro mode" walker straight out of the unreleased Star Fox 2.

Good point, having Miyamoto is definitely going to make a huge difference.

Here's hoping they decide to go ahead and release that game, since we now know the leaked beta cart, already seemingly a complete game, was only partway through development and in-house Nintendo had added so much more before they canned it.

I'd love to see that too and I guess it's not impossible (NES Earthbound!) but haven't they STILL not bothered to make a working Super FX emulator? And they also have never sold a previously cancelled-everywhere game, though that would be a great way to start.

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah I was only commenting on the similar aesthetic, not the gameplay, but it still looks pretty nice.

I believe the reason they have avoided emulating the Super FX chip is due to fear of a lawsuit from Argonaut. Fact is, Nintendo betrayed them pretty bad in that original deal, and the Argonaut people never really forgave them for it. The sad truth is that Nintendo has betrayed a LOT of people over the years, and it's something they need to eventually tackle and work to atone if they intend on mending those relationships.

[A Black Falcon]

So, to promote the game Nintendo had a 15-minute Star Fox anime made. It's CG, not drawn, but still, it's pretty cool stuff. They're going all-in on the Star Fox 64 nostalgia, that's for sure! And for me at least, that works. It's a good short.

As for the game, it's apparently a lot like Star Fox 64, but that sounds great to me, given how fantastic the original is. But like Sin & Punishment 2, even if it's a good or great rail shooter they sadly still aren't popular again, and I have seen criticism of this game basically because it's a rail shooter and similar to Star Fox 64 ('it's short, is that kind of game worth full price, etc'), so I don't know how well the game will do. Hopefully well, but we'll see.

(Oh, and choosing to make it a more 'serious' game and not something really easy, as Miyamoto was apparently first thinking, seems like a good move. There is an invincible mode for people who just want to finish it and that's fine, but make it challenging for those who want that.)