Fun Club Star Fox Zero Deserves a Directors Cut

[Miraj]

I don't think it's fair to blame Command for the state of the franchise. I was around in the fandom when Assault was in development and released. That game had a huge budget with fancy pre rendered cutscenes and brilliant fully orchestrated music, but a lot of people just weren't interested in the game and it underperformed. Even major fan sites like Arwing Landing were pretty ho-hum about the game. Assault marked the point where Star Fox clearly wasn't going to be a major IP in Nintendo's catalogue, and later games were directly influenced by that.

I think the way to turn the franchise around is putting greater focus on the characters. People like the characters, so take a page from Fire Emblem and put them front and center. The cast straddles the line between being cool and cute, so there's appeal for a wide range of consumers. Also, add some women to the team. It's ridiculous for a game to have no women in the primary cast in 2016, let alone 2021.

You're 100% right. Despite what some may say about how it should be Arwing-focused, the series is really notable for its lovable and endearing cast of characters. Women especially love the characters. Putting a focus on the cast and reintroducing that group of female leads that were ditched post-Command would be great.

They have a lot of female characters they could potentially expand the team with. Krystal, Katt, Fay, Miyu, Lucy, Amanda, and even Fara if they're so bold, but they seem to be content just keeping it to the original four male leads much of the time. Honestly my interest in a new Star Fox would be diminished greatly if it were just the 99% male SF64 cast yet again, when there's a much bigger roster they could reintroduce.

Heck they could reintroduce Krystal by having her be a new Star Wolf member that could potentially defect to your team depending on how you progress through the story (Just don't let Miyamoto near her or he'd damsel role her again, lol). Miyu always gave me a rouge-ish vibe, so she could potentially be an outlaw or space pirate that you can recruit. Fay could be a Cornerian science officer or something that you rescue from a planet and she joins your team afterwards. There's so much potential to reincorporate characters, especially if Nintendo truly considers the slate wiped clean after Zero.

 

[TreIII]

I don't think it's fair to blame Command for the state of the franchise. I was around in the fandom when Assault was in development and released. That game had a huge budget with fancy pre rendered cutscenes and brilliant fully orchestrated music, but a lot of people just weren't interested in the game and it underperformed. Even major fan sites like Arwing Landing were pretty ho-hum about the game. Assault marked the point where Star Fox clearly wasn't going to be a major IP in Nintendo's catalogue, and later games were directly influenced by that.

Even as a guy who didn't like Assault all that much, I think you have to be fairer to it: the game had similar issues facing it as Metroid Prime 2 (who released only a few months early). By 2004-2005, it was more than clear that the GameCube was going to struggle with growth compared to its competitors, and no amount of trying to make Star Fox or Metroid more appealing to a larger audience (by adopting a few "Halo-isms" along the way) was going to change that.

And there is definitely something to be said about how that entire "era" created a schism in the fanbase of Nintendo's own design. Between Adventures, Assault and Command, we had three wildly different takes on the franchise and each had their own fans (yes, even Command). Not to mention those who've been waiting for a true successor to 64's legacy, didn't get it, and largely sat out this era, as a result.

The sooner Nintendo finds that "bold, new standard" for the brand, the better, I say. Even Zero's misguided attempt at replicating 64 isn't going to cut it.

 

[Miraj]

Even as a guy who didn't like Assault all that much, I think you have to be fairer to it: the game had similar issues facing it as Metroid Prime 2 (who released only a few months early). By 2004-2005, it was more than clear that the GameCube was going to struggle with growth compared to its competitors, and no amount of trying to make Star Fox or Metroid more appealing to a larger audience (by adopting a few "Halo-isms" along the way) was going to change that.

And there is definitely something to be said about how that entire "era" created a schism in the fanbase of Nintendo's own design. Between Adventures, Assault and Command, we had three wildly different takes on the franchise and each had their own fans (yes, even Command). Not to mention those who've been waiting for a true successor to 64's legacy, didn't get it, and largely sat out this era, as a result.

The sooner Nintendo finds that "bold, new standard" for the brand, the better, I say. Even Zero's misguided attempt at replicating 64 isn't going to cut it.

The 00s era of Star Fox titles sure seems cursed in one way or the other.

Adventures had the misfortune of people believing Rare's original idea for Dinosaur Planet was maligned for Adventures, when in fact a lot of Adventures is very close to the original game, even the General Scales fakeout. The biggest loss was Krystal being relegated to a damsel in distress for 90% of the game.

Assault had a very rocky development and was poorly received for its ground controls (which are fine if you just change them to the other control option), but that was also because it was that awkward period where twin stick shooter controls weren't as widely adopted yet. Ironically Argonaut themselves made the first twin stick FPS game with Alien Resurrection, and critics hated it at the time for the controls. Assault also released when the Gamecube was selling at bargain bin prices and Nintendo was in a fairly worrisome outlook.

Command was received pretty warmly by critics, but the fanbase was put off by it. Command definitely has its fans, and the strategic elements are a nice SF2 callback, and I'm sure people who disliked the on-foot combat of prior titles were happy it was flight-based, but I'd say it has the worst legacy of the three games.

 

[Brock Reiher]

it's miyamoto's baby, don't know if this is a joke thread or not because of the tag

 

[storres]

Nah. The game deserves to die

 

[Brock Reiher]

You're 100% right. Despite what some may say about how it should be Arwing-focused, the series is really notable for its lovable and endearing cast of characters. Women especially love the characters. Putting a focus on the cast and reintroducing that group of female leads that were ditched post-Command would be great.

They have a lot of female characters they could potentially expand the team with. Krystal, Katt, Fay, Miyu, Lucy, Amanda, and even Fara if they're so bold, but they seem to be content just keeping it to the original four male leads much of the time. Honestly my interest in a new Star Fox would be diminished greatly if it were just the 99% male SF64 cast yet again, when there's a much bigger roster they could reintroduce.

Heck they could reintroduce Krystal by having her be a new Star Wolf member that could potentially defect to your team depending on how you progress through the story (Just don't let Miyamoto near her or he'd damsel role her again, lol). Miyu always gave me a rouge-ish vibe, so she could potentially be an outlaw or space pirate that you can recruit. Fay could be a Cornerian science officer or something that you rescue from a planet and she joins your team afterwards. There's so much potential to reincorporate characters, especially if Nintendo truly considers the slate wiped clean after Zero.

This is why it's a shame that people trash Command so much. It did so many exciting and bizarre things with the story and any of the dozen or so of them could have been a great jumping off point for the next game.

 

[xghost777]

I’d certainly take a Star Fox Zero Switch port with regular aiming with rebalancing to make it work. I’m sure my thoughts on the game would radically improve, but I’m also ready to see whatever is next. As aside it’s forever weird to see Platinum get dragged through the mud for this game considering they mostly did asset creation while Nintendo did all the design decisions.

Since others are doing it, what I’d love to see from a new Star Fox is basically taking a little bit of everything. First forget the hard canon. Instead do a comic book like thing where broad strokes of past adventures happened and by playing through the game you learn more about the characters and past events. Like Command, at the start of the game Fox is alone with the whole galaxy in chaos (Andross is seemingly back with no reason given), and after clearing missions or by clearing specific objectives you choose which planet to fly to next. It’s telegraphed ahead of time that each mission past the first one is attached to various characters and by helping them you’ll convince/begin to convince them to join your crew. All of the pilots from past games and maybe some new ones are available here to recruit. There’d be two modes here with different canon, one where you can mostly do everything and another more arcade-y branching path structure with multiple endings (like ten of them). There’s a straightish path right to Andross or whoever the big bad actually is that consists solely of Arwing levels and hidden expert paths that lead to a true/best ending (with an extra tough finale) where you at least recruit Falco, Slippy, Peppy, Wolf, and Krystal. While those main levels are super tight and arcadey, the other paths/planets see more variety like your landmaster and submarine levels. There would be some on foot levels like Assault outside the critical path as well with a fun suite of weapons mostly pulled from Assault. In between levels there’s a completely optional mode where you can explore the inside of the Great Fox to hang out, play minigames, and do social links / dating sim stuff. Beyond the story mode you get a full suite of local multiplayer like Assault and new online modes including a co-op horde mode. Nintendo having to make all of this content is why none of this will ever happen, but hey it’s a dream version and all.

 

[Miraj]

I’d certainly take a Star Fox Zero Switch port with regular aiming with rebalancing to make it work. I’m sure my thoughts on the game would radically improve, but I’m also ready to see whatever is next. As aside it’s forever weird to see Platinum get dragged through the mud for this game considering they mostly did asset creation while Nintendo did all the design decisions.

Since others are doing it, what I’d love to see from a new Star Fox is basically taking a little bit of everything. First forget the hard canon. Instead do a comic book like thing where broad strokes of past adventures happened and by playing through the game you learn more about the characters and past events. Like Command, at the start of the game Fox is alone with the whole galaxy in chaos (Andross is seemingly back with no reason given), and after clearing missions or by clearing specific objectives you choose which planet to fly to next. It’s telegraphed ahead of time that each mission past the first one is attached to various characters and by helping them you’ll convince/begin to convince them to join your crew. All of the pilots from past games and maybe some new ones are available here to recruit. There’d be two modes here with different canon, one where you can mostly do everything and another more arcade-y branching path structure with multiple endings (like ten of them). There’s a straightish path right to Andross or whoever the big bad actually is that consists solely of Arwing levels and hidden expert paths that lead to a true/best ending (with an extra tough finale) where you at least recruit Falco, Slippy, Peppy, Wolf, and Krystal. While those main levels are super tight and arcadey, the other paths/planets see more variety like your landmaster and submarine levels. There would be some on foot levels like Assault outside the critical path as well with a fun suite of weapons mostly pulled from Assault. In between levels there’s a completely optional mode where you can explore the inside of the Great Fox to hang out, play minigames, and do social links / dating sim stuff. Beyond the story mode you get a full suite of local multiplayer like Assault and new online modes including a co-op horde mode. Nintendo having to make all of this content is why none of this will ever happen, but hey it’s a dream version and all.

This is brilliant.

 

[Terrell]

Honestly, they could just give what a lot of players would actually want: online and local multiplayer dogfighting. Multiplayer is the one feature of SF64 that received so much praise from critics and fans and kept people coming back to it, and online multiplayer with traditional Star Fox game mechanics/controls in particular has been begged for since Assault didn’t have it (and Command’s control scheme was… polarizing). Characters have unique traits like Command (and at this point, there’s a lot of potential characters to pick from), story mode is there but not the major highlight of the game (see: Splatoon).
Focusing on the multiplayer first could keep the franchise alive, while still allowing for rail-shooter single player story modes to introduce new characters and such (it also helps that replay value through multiplayer would stifle critique about how short the single-player campaign can be).

This feels like the best way to keep the series going, to double down on one of the most universally-praised features from its best-selling franchise entry.

 

[Brock Reiher]

This feels like the best way to keep the series going, to double down on one of the most universally-praised features from its best-selling franchise entry

This is interesting, because it's the first time I've heard somebody say they were particularly fond of the multi-player in 64

Unlocking characters for Assault and Command multi-player was really fun back in the day tho, so you may be onto something.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Honestly, they could just give what a lot of players would actually want: online and local multiplayer dogfighting. Multiplayer is the one feature of SF64 that received so much praise from critics and fans and kept people coming back to it, and online multiplayer with traditional Star Fox game mechanics/controls in particular has been begged for since Assault didn’t have it (and Command’s control scheme was… polarizing). Characters have unique traits like Command (and at this point, there’s a lot of potential characters to pick from), story mode is there but not the major highlight of the game (see: Splatoon).
Focusing on the multiplayer first could keep the franchise alive, while still allowing for rail-shooter single player story modes to introduce new characters and such (it also helps that replay value through multiplayer would stifle critique about how short the single-player campaign can be).

This feels like the best way to keep the series going, to double down on one of the most universally-praised features from its best-selling franchise entry.

Agreed (I even made a thread on this on Era more than three years ago). A railshooter by itself is a hard sell.

 

[xghost777]

Honestly, they could just give what a lot of players would actually want: online and local multiplayer dogfighting. Multiplayer is the one feature of SF64 that received so much praise from critics and fans and kept people coming back to it, and online multiplayer with traditional Star Fox game mechanics/controls in particular has been begged for since Assault didn’t have it (and Command’s control scheme was… polarizing). Characters have unique traits like Command (and at this point, there’s a lot of potential characters to pick from), story mode is there but not the major highlight of the game (see: Splatoon).
Focusing on the multiplayer first could keep the franchise alive, while still allowing for rail-shooter single player story modes to introduce new characters and such (it also helps that replay value through multiplayer would stifle critique about how short the single-player campaign can be).

This feels like the best way to keep the series going, to double down on one of the most universally-praised features from its best-selling franchise entry.

Star Fox multiplayer is excellent and you are right it kept me and many others coming back whether it was 64 or Assault, though I wonder exactly how much enthusiasm is there. I think you need both a strong single player and a strong multiplayer (local and online, versus and co-op) to really sell Star Fox and both modes need to be fleshed out more than ever before. Nintendo needs to bite the bullet and go all in, but I don’t think they have both the confidence and the will since it is very un-Nintendo-like. It resembles a Splatoon like commitment at a glance, but while I imagine it is easier in some ways, it is probably way harder in most if they want to get it right.

 

[EAD Ninja]

I don't think there should be a concern over Miyamoto involving himself in future Star Fox titles, especially if you are worried that his involvement means that Star Fox is permanently affixed to conceptual ideas. Miyamoto has stepped away from managing the game development groups as of 2016, and we've seen Takahashi do a respectable job of identifying and supporting the many IPs in Nintendo's vast portfolio.

The question is, who is going to produce the series moving forward? Takaya Imamura retiring from Nintendo really creates a void in the universes he created for Star Fox and F-Zero. The director of Star Fox 64, Takao Shimizu, seems to now work on less gamey related products at this late state of his career. Katsuya Eguchi is still around as an assistant EPD GM, and will likely place the franchise in a younger producer's hands at Nintendo.

As far as Star Fox Zero being remastered/reworked by Nintendo, I wouldn't totally oppose the idea but it seems like a lot of work for something that fans may not know how to receive.

 

[PlatinumClover]

Zero is the best Star Fox game after 64. If Platinum can make Wonderful 101 work without a Gamepad, I'd be even silly to think they could not retool it as a single screen game. Of course it could be done.

 

[fguzramm]

A thousand times yes.... I need a new starfox game... but I'd love a port of SFZ if they fixed the whole double camera thing..

 

[Brawlz]

With how the reception was with Zero, It would most likely be in Nintendo's better interest to just create a brand new Star Fox.

 

[EAD Ninja]

Zero is the best Star Fox game after 64. If Platinum can make Wonderful 101 work without a Gamepad, I'd be even silly to think they could not retool it as a single screen game. Of course it could be done.

Platinum Games didn't program Zero, Nintendo did. But even though I think the people who programmed the original have the best shot of retooling it - Nintendo would probably contract one of their budget port studios to do it.

 

[fguzramm]

Zero is the best Star Fox game after 64. If Platinum can make Wonderful 101 work without a Gamepad, I'd be even silly to think they could not retool it as a single screen game. Of course it could be done.

I think Zero had some great ideas...it's just the double camera thing that "ruined" it... if they could reprogram the game to work without that...it would be easily be one of the best StarFox games....after 64 of course....

 

[Brock Reiher]

The thing that would worry me about multi-player focused title is you would probably need a lot of all range mode. That's always been the weakest aspect of the series imo

 

[TreIII]

The question is, who is going to produce the series moving forward? Takaya Imamura retiring from Nintendo really creates a void in the universes he created for Star Fox and F-Zero. The director of Star Fox 64, Takao Shimizu, seems to now work on less gamey related products at this late state of his career. Katsuya Eguchi is still around as an assistant EPD GM, and will likely place the franchise in a younger producer's hands at Nintendo.

My vote would be Tanabe, honestly. He's already helming one (half) of Nintendo's ongoing "sci fi epic" series, what's adding one more to his plate?

But in all seriousness: One thing that seems to be in Tanabe's favor when it comes to the likes of Metroid Prime is that it seems to be one venue where he and his chosen team get to really delve into serialized storytelling with some stakes, dynamic characters, worldbuilding and lore. The very kind of thing that would be more beneficial to something like Star Fox, more than it would a Mario subseries.

He was also the project manager of Star Fox Assault, so at least he has some "high-level production experience" with the brand.

 

[Brock Reiher]

My vote would be Tanabe, honestly. He's already helming one (half) of Nintendo's ongoing "sci fi epic" series, what's adding one more to his plate?

But in all seriousness: One thing that seems to be in Tanabe's favor when it comes to the likes of Metroid Prime is that it seems to be one venue where he and his chosen team get to really delve into serialized storytelling with some stakes, dynamic characters, worldbuilding and lore. The very kind of thing that would be more beneficial to something like Star Fox, more than it would a Mario subseries.

He was also the project manager of Star Fox Assault, so at least he has some "high-level production experience" with the brand.

honestly Prime 3's story would have made more sense if it was Admiral Pepper instead of Admiral Dane lol

 

[LoneRanger]

Let people vote of what idea they want for next SF game:

1) Rails shooter with different routes, vehicles and such. SF64-2
2) Mass Furry Effect: Mixes elements from different WRPGs like Mass Effect, Outer Worlds with SF aesthetic and gameplay. Its a mix of on foot and vehicles.
3) BOTW style game, open space where you can freely roam and explore different planets like No Man’s Sky
4) battle royale star fox game: 32 or 64 airwings/landmaster battling each other.

IDK what to expect honestly.

 

[Brock Reiher]

Furry Mass Effect is where I would take the series, yeah. We already have Star Fox 64

 

[TreIII]

honestly Prime 3's story would have made more sense if it was Admiral Pepper instead of Admiral Dane lol

And honestly, I've been saying something like Federation Force would've been much better suited with Star Fox in mind. If not Zero, than SF2 and 64 already established mecha as being a "logical" place for Star Fox to go.

Let people vote of what idea they want for next SF game:

1) Rails shooter with different routes, vehicles and such. SF64-2
2) Mass Furry Effect: Mixes elements from different WRPGs like Mass Effect, Outer Worlds with SF aesthetic and gameplay. Its a mix of on foot and vehicles.
3) BOTW style game, open space where you can freely roam and explore different planets like No Man’s Sky
4) battle royale star fox game: 32 or 64 airwings/landmaster battling each other.

IDK what to expect honestly.

Or there's always what I would personally prefer: Look at Ace Combat. Especially the most recent game, that effectively saved the series.

Arcade-style flight action series (not on rails) that has awesome music, nice world-building and a story that has more in common with mecha anime.

Just put it out in outer space and make the main characters all an arrange of cute, funny, awesome, stylish furries. That's all I think would be necessary!

 

[Miraj]

The next Star Fox absolutely has to have some form of multiplayer. Doesn't have to be as robust as Splatoon, but at least some local + online 4-player dogfighting. If Nintendo could handle more, great, but they have an inconsistent online track record.

Regardless, the characters and space opera spectacle are big appeals for Star Fox. SF64 and Assault especially were notable for their cinematic elements. Therefore the next Star Fox definitely should also include a single player mode as well. A debate could be had whether the multiplayer should be a side feature to the story mode (like in SF64 and Command) or a major feature alongside the story mode (like in Assault).

Wanting just Star Fox 64 multiplayer online is easy. Get an NSO account. I'd say there's more to be done beyond a dogfight mode from 1997, though.

Let people vote of what idea they want for next SF game:

1) Rails shooter with different routes, vehicles and such. SF64-2
2) Mass Furry Effect: Mixes elements from different WRPGs like Mass Effect, Outer Worlds with SF aesthetic and gameplay. Its a mix of on foot and vehicles.
3) BOTW style game, open space where you can freely roam and explore different planets like No Man’s Sky
4) battle royale star fox game: 32 or 64 airwings/landmaster battling each other.

IDK what to expect honestly.

Furry Mass Effect is a running joke of sorts, but it's kind of true. Some aspects I've seen people suggest on various sites is:

1) Story/character focus
2) Have the Great Fox be a hub where you have downtime/social links/dating sim elements, whatever
3) More freedom to explore or hop around to different planets at your own pace
4) Some element of on-foot third person shooting/melee combat, in combination with flight or on its own

Which would work with a Mass Effect kind of structure of going on missions and also having downtime with your crew. Fire Emblem and Xenoblade do this, so why not?

Ideally Nintendo would do a twofer and release a smaller e-shop throwback title like a SNES-style Star Fox 3 or Star Fox 64.2 for traditionalists, while also doing a bigger budgeted Furry Mass Effect or whatnot for a full-priced major release. Best of both worlds, and a good way to test the waters for where to go in the future.

 

[Terrell]

The next Star Fox absolutely has to have some form of multiplayer. Doesn't have to be as robust as Splatoon, but at least some local + online 4-player dogfighting. If Nintendo could handle more, great, but they have an inconsistent online track record.

Regardless, the characters and space opera spectacle are big appeals for Star Fox. SF64 and Assault especially were notable for their cinematic elements. Therefore the next Star Fox definitely should also include a single player mode as well. A debate could be had whether the multiplayer should be a side feature to the story mode (like in SF64 and Command) or a major feature alongside the story mode (like in Assault).

I agree with you that there’s more than JUST the multiplayer from 64 that should be done. But I think there’s a lot of things they could do with Star Fox multiplayer. Like having competitive rail-shooting with swarms of enemies, where the player with the most downed enemy craft is the winner of the match. They could try again to have on-foot segments for when your aircraft is downed, but polish the hell out of those instead of what Assault did. Team attack where you squad up against another set of players. And this is just top-of-my-head stuff, I’m sure there’s lots more options.

I would draw the line at going full GaaS like Splatoon did with the timed events and such. But lots of different modes could be a lot of fun. And yeah, multiplayer as the centrepiece with story mode there to offer a single-player experience is the direction I’d consider the best option.

I don't think there should be a concern over Miyamoto involving himself in future Star Fox titles, especially if you are worried that his involvement means that Star Fox is permanently affixed to conceptual ideas. Miyamoto has stepped away from managing the game development groups as of 2016, and we've seen Takahashi do a respectable job of identifying and supporting the many IPs in Nintendo's vast portfolio.

The question is, who is going to produce the series moving forward? Takaya Imamura retiring from Nintendo really creates a void in the universes he created for Star Fox and F-Zero. The director of Star Fox 64, Takao Shimizu, seems to now work on less gamey related products at this late state of his career. Katsuya Eguchi is still around as an assistant EPD GM, and will likely place the franchise in a younger producer's hands at Nintendo.

Well, there’s a lot of emergent talent in EPD now, all it will take is one of them to want to make this kind of game. So yeah, perhaps Nintendo promotes a new producer role as part of its planned expansion?

 

[Vanillalite]

They won’t do it, but they could just make a really solid single player game for the eShop and charge like $30.

 

[Miraj]

I agree with you that there’s more than JUST the multiplayer from 64 that should be done. But I think there’s a lot of things they could do with Star Fox multiplayer. Like having competitive rail-shooting with swarms of enemies, where the player with the most downed enemy craft is the winner of the match. They could try again to have on-foot segments for when your aircraft is downed, but polish the hell out of those instead of what Assault did. Team attack where you squad up against another set of players. And this is just top-of-my-head stuff, I’m sure there’s lots more options.

I would draw the line at going full GaaS like Splatoon did with the timed events and such. But lots of different modes could be a lot of fun. And yeah, multiplayer as the centrepiece with story mode there to offer a single-player experience is the direction I’d consider the best option.

Well, there’s a lot of emergent talent in EPD now, all it will take is one of them to want to make this kind of game. So yeah, perhaps Nintendo promotes a new producer role as part of its planned expansion?

One of the intriguing things about Star Fox GP was that supposedly it had players compete not only by acing, but also downing enemy craft, taking down bosses, etc. It was a pretty neat concept doing a competitive score system like that. I don't know if it's enough to sustain a whole multiplayer game, but it'd be a neat mode among others like a dogfight mode, capture point mode or whatnot.

Yeah I don't think Star Fox needs to be a GaaS or Battle Royale. F-Zero would work better as a racing battle royale given the sheer number of characters.

Also I'm glad someone else agrees that Hajime Hirasawa is the GOAT Star Fox composer. I was so thrilled when they brought his themes back for Starlink!

 

[Miraj]

I don't think there should be a concern over Miyamoto involving himself in future Star Fox titles, especially if you are worried that his involvement means that Star Fox is permanently affixed to conceptual ideas. Miyamoto has stepped away from managing the game development groups as of 2016, and we've seen Takahashi do a respectable job of identifying and supporting the many IPs in Nintendo's vast portfolio.

The question is, who is going to produce the series moving forward? Takaya Imamura retiring from Nintendo really creates a void in the universes he created for Star Fox and F-Zero. The director of Star Fox 64, Takao Shimizu, seems to now work on less gamey related products at this late state of his career. Katsuya Eguchi is still around as an assistant EPD GM, and will likely place the franchise in a younger producer's hands at Nintendo.

As far as Star Fox Zero being remastered/reworked by Nintendo, I wouldn't totally oppose the idea but it seems like a lot of work for something that fans may not know how to receive.

Reportedly that EPD Donkey Kong game is being made by younger staff who grew up playing the DKC games. Even if that pans out to not be true, I'm sure there's got to be some producer or group of devs at Nintendo who grew up playing Star Fox and wants to put their own spin on it.

 

[Miraj]

Speaking of Star Fox:

 

[MondoMega]

I really don't think Furry Mass Effect is a good route for Star Fox; at all. There are so few actively ongoing rail-shooter series (from Nintendo or otherwise), i'd hate to see Star Fox give up that identity when Nintendo aren't putting out anything else like it.

MAYBE if Sin & Punishment 3 happened i'd be able to overlook Star Fox doing something else for a game or two; maybe.

 

[deep_dish]

Honestly, I think the best thing that could have happened to Star Fox is if the Retro Grand Prix game was real.

 

[Mercury_Sagit]

I got into SF and SF2 recently via NSO, and I like them a lot for their fast paced combat and a concise story, despite choppy fps and what not. What I felt from them is a sense of emergency where everything is at stake. Space opera SF is not really my taste, since such genre requires a lot of investment into setting the world and the characters, which I fear SF will fall short and drag me out midway.
I'd prefer if the next SF entry focuses on just 1 campaign with straightforward paths, little to no cutscene and short but varied level designs. And yes, please add multiplayer, where the arcade dogfight genre shines the brightest imo.

 

[Twinsen]

Sure why not.

 

[tender]

the secret is that it is a really good game that just takes some getting used to.

maybe not as good as, but reminds me of kid icarus uprising.

 

[Christo750]

Yeahhh idk. I think what Zero does is cool, and conversion to Switch would likely lose too much of its DNA. Mostly because Target View is amazing and I don't think it works if it's not on Wii U. What Zero needs is a more powerful dual-screen console so that the game isn't so obviously hampered by its dual-rendered cockpit views, which obviously isn't happening.

Star Fox needs to be a Saturday morning cartoon in the form of a game. It's the only Nintendo franchise I think an episodic release structure would work in its favor. One two-hour campaign is just not enough, even with varying paths.

 

[Beanstar40]

Could the game work with traditional controls? It was one I skipped on wii u, but have been curious about since it released, especially after revisiting starfox 64 3d recently.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Could the game work with traditional controls? It was one I skipped on wii u, but have been curious about since it released, especially after revisiting starfox 64 3d recently.

Not without some adjustments. Many of the encounters are built around the two screen gameplay and would have to be rebalanced accordingly. I've seen people compare it to The Wonderful 101 but that game you were always able to play using a regular controller.

It wouldn't be a huge amount of work but you can't just slap it on Switch and call it a day.

 

[Beanstar40]

Not without some adjustments. Many of the encounters are built around the two screen gameplay and would have to be rebalanced accordingly. I've seen people compare it to The Wonderful 101 but that game you were always able to play using a regular controller.

It wouldn't be a huge amount of work but you can't just slap it on Switch and call it a day.

Ah, so Similar to kirby and the rainbow curse, it seems like its reliance on the game pad makes it almost unportable without a little creativity.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Ah, so Similar to kirby and the rainbow curse, it seems like its reliance on the game pad makes it almost unportable without a little creativity.

Yeah, the problem is mainly that you can probably play it using one screen but getting gold or even silver medals absolutely requires the second screen to be quick enough. Many encounters are built around the control scheme because the game expects you to aim independently from where you're flying unlike other Star Fox games. If you slow down some enemies, change their movement patterns and weak points etc. you could probably make it playable on a traditional controller.

I think the bigger barrier is probably that the game has relatively low-fidelity assets. If they brought it back as is it would come off as extremely cheap. But maybe they don't care. Pikmin 3 Deluxe also got criticized because of its graphics.

 

[Hidden04]

Star Fox Zero was not bad, but I think it would honestly bomb if they ported it because most people don't know what Star Fox even is. I think the series needs a reboot.

 

[Beanstar40]

Star Fox Zero was not bad, but I think it would honestly bomb if they ported it because most people don't know what Star Fox even is. I think the series needs a reboot.

Assault is still my favorite. I actually really enjoyed the ground missions, even if the controls were wonky af

 

[Terrell]

Assault is still my favorite. I actually really enjoyed the ground missions, even if the controls were wonky af

A good idea is still a good idea, even when it's poorly executed.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

This hasn't been posted yet but I think it does a good job to show the issues with the control scheme. I sort of agree with Mark that the game doesn't have many parts where you actually have to use the second screen. And when you do, it's not that well implemented and can be quite disorienting. However, at least based on my time with SF0, I think the game absolutely expects you to get to grips with it to play it efficiently. The dog fights in particular are a great example of this as they have an entirely different dynamic compared to other games of its ilk.

 

[Miraj]

I hope Next Level Games does a Star Fox title, because I would love to see their designs for the characters. I'm not a fan of the realistic-furred, whiskered Fox and would rather see something closer to Adventures' design where he's a bit more "cute". Overall I'd rather see a more Disney/Pixar-style approach like what NLG accomplished with Luigi's Mansion. The series has bigger appeal in the west, so why not take from western cartoon influences?

Another thing about NLG is that they're really good at visually-impressive worlds set in more confined zones, so I could see them do something similar with on-rails flight segments or corridor areas if they choose to do on-foot missions.

I think even if Zero did get its controls reworked into a single screen, gamepad-focused style, the visuals themselves are very utilitarian because they were compensating for rendering the game on two screens at roughly 60 fps. Zero would require a lot of work to make it worth a second look after its poor reception. That Matt McMuscles video was onto something when he said it should be bundled with remasters of the rest of the series (or at least the non-NSO ones). That would make it a no-brainer purchase.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

Personally I don't really get when people want efforts to be put into porting an ill-received entry during a series' time of need, or when people want a franchise saved by porting over a largely poorly-received entry in a series. Regardless of whether the game would be better or not, a Star Fox Zero port surely wouldn't do much to move the needle, in fact it would probably put the franchise even further in limbo, no?

 

[Vito]

Personally I don't really get when people want efforts to be put into porting an ill-received entry during a series' time of need, or when people want a franchise saved by porting over a largely poorly-received entry in a series. Regardless of whether the game would be better or not, a Star Fox Zero port surely wouldn't do much to move the needle, in fact it would probably put the franchise even further in limbo, no?

Agreed.

Just do a new game. Hopefully without stupid gimmicks.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Personally I don't really get when people want efforts to be put into porting an ill-received entry during a series' time of need, or when people want a franchise saved by porting over a largely poorly-received entry in a series. Regardless of whether the game would be better or not, a Star Fox Zero port surely wouldn't do much to move the needle, in fact it would probably put the franchise even further in limbo, no?

I don't think a significant number of people would prefer a port of Star Fox Zero over a completely new game with decent amount of effort put into it if they saw the latter as realistic.

 

[Hentz]

Nah, it really doesn’t. That game should stay on the Wii U. What Star Fox deserves is a brand new game.

 

[Marow]

I did enjoy my time with the game, but as many others have said, I'm not really sure a rework would do much good. It's yet another rethread after all, for most part. And it's not very much a "Zero" (starting point) in terms of introducing the setting either, so it doesn't really add much on its own compared to e.g. 64.

I'm not really sure what Star Fox would need, but I think at the very least we need a better understanding of the world and characters. I really enjoyed the short little animated animation that was released online before release. I think any future Star Fox game would need that. You got this whacky setting and cool animal characters - use them!

... I wouldn't say no to Star Fox Guard 2, though. But that's not feasible anymore.