, known as ''Starwing'' in
PAL region
The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Europe and Africa, alongside parts of Asia, South America and Oceania. It is named PAL because of the PAL (Phase Alternating Line) television standard traditionally used in ...
s, is a 3D
rail shooter game developed by
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
and
Argonaut Software
Argonaut Games PLC was a British video game developer founded in 1982, most notable for the development of the Super NES video game ''Star Fox'' and its supporting Super FX hardware, as well as for developing '' Croc: Legend of the Gobbos'' and ...
for the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Eur ...
. The first game in the ''
Star Fox
is an arcade style rail shooter and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto, produced and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic animals, led by chief protagoni ...
'' series, the story follows
Fox McCloud
is a fictional character and the chief protagonist of Nintendo's ''Star Fox'' series. He is an anthropomorphic fox created and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takaya Imamura. He was introduced as a player character in the original 1993 video ga ...
and the rest of the
Star Fox team
''Star Fox'' is a series of spaceship shooter games published by Nintendo. The main protagonist and player character of the series is Fox McCloud, the leader of a team of anthropomorphic animals in the Lylat planetary system called Star Fox. Game ...
defending their homeworld of Corneria against the invading forces of
Andross
''Star Fox'' is a series of spaceship shooter games published by Nintendo. The main protagonist and player character of the series is Fox McCloud, the leader of a team of anthropomorphic animals in the Lylat planetary system called Star Fox. Game ...
.
''Star Fox'' was the second 3D Nintendo game after ''
X'' for the
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same ...
in 1992, and the first Nintendo game to use
polygonal
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two tog ...
graphics, achieved with the
Super FX
The Super FX is a coprocessor on the Graphics Support Unit (GSU) added to select Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) video game cartridges, primarily to facilitate advanced 2D and 3D graphics. The Super FX chip was designed by Argonaut G ...
graphics chip included in the cartridge. The complex display of three-dimensional models with polygons was uncommon in console games.
''Star Fox'' received critical acclaim and is often considered one of the
greatest video games
This is a list of video games that multiple reputable video game journalists or magazines have considered to be among the best of all time. The games listed here are included on at least six separate "best/greatest of all time" lists from differ ...
. It sold more than four million copies and established the ''Star Fox'' series as a flagship Nintendo franchise. The next-released game in the series, ''
Star Fox 64
known as ''Lylat Wars'' in the PAL regions, is a 3D rail shooter video game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the second installment in the ''Star Fox'' series and a reboot of the original ''Star Fox'' for the Super Nintendo Ente ...
'', was a 1997 reboot for the
Nintendo 64
The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...
.
Nintendo re-released ''Star Fox'' worldwide for the first time in September 2017 as part of the
Super NES Classic Edition
The Super NES Classic Edition is a dedicated home video game console released by Nintendo, which emulates the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The console, a successor to the NES Classic Edition, comes with twenty-one Super NES titles pr ...
. In September 2019, ''Star Fox'' was made available on the
Nintendo Switch
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
for subscribers of the
Nintendo Switch Online
Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) is an online subscription service for the Nintendo Switch video game console. Nintendo Switch Online features include online multiplayer, cloud saving, voice chat via a smartphone app, access to a library of Ninten ...
service.
Gameplay
''Star Fox'' is a
rail shooter
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...
in a third-person and first-person
3D perspective. The player must navigate Fox's spacecraft, an
Arwing
is an arcade style rail shooter and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto, produced and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic animals, led by chief protagoni ...
, through environments while various enemies (spaceships, robots, creatures, etc.) attack them. Along the way, various
power-up
In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...
s are placed in the stage to help the player. The player receives a score at the end of each level based on how many enemies have been destroyed and how well the player has defended their teammates. At the end of each
level
Level or levels may refer to:
Engineering
*Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights
*Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical
*Canal pound or level
*Regr ...
there is a
boss
Boss may refer to:
Occupations
* Supervisor, often referred to as boss
* Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier
* Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization
* Fire boss, a ...
that the player must defeat before progressing to the next level.
Control of the Arwing includes thrusters and retro-rockets on the Arwing allowing the player to temporarily speed up or slow down. These can be used to maneuver around enemy attacks and other obstacles. Damage is incurred incrementally via loss of shield energy before the destruction of the craft. The game also has a small degree of locational damage detection: if the ship's wings clip against obstacles or the ground too much, they will break off, adversely affecting the craft's handling and removing the ability to upgrade weapons.
The difficulty in ''Star Fox'' is also set in a unique way. Most scrolling shooters, if they have selectable
difficulty level
Game balance is a branch of game design that is described as a mathematical-algorithmic model of a game’s numbers, game mechanics, and relations between the two. Game balance consists of adjusting values to create a certain user experience. Play ...
s, allow the player to set the difficulty by choosing an option (e.g. "Easy", "Normal", and "Hard") at the beginning of the game. This option usually affects variables such as the number of lives a player has, the number of enemies encountered in the game, the speed of enemies, and so on. By contrast, at the beginning of ''Star Fox'', the player is given a choice of one of three routes to take through the Lylat system. Each of these routes corresponds with a certain level of difficulty, but each route has its own series of unique levels. This gives ''Star Fox'' somewhat more
replay value
Replay may refer to:
* Replay (sports), a replayed match between two sport teams Technology
* Game replay, a recording of a game session.
* Instant replay, in motion pictures and television, a showing again of part of a film
* Replay Professional, ...
than other scrolling shooters that have a fixed series of levels each time the game is played. The three game paths all contain the planet Corneria (the first level) and Venom (the last level), but they each have different versions depending on the path taken.
In each level, the player is accompanied by three computer-controlled wingmen:
Peppy Hare
''Star Fox'' is a series of spaceship shooter games published by Nintendo. The main protagonist and player character of the series is Fox McCloud, the leader of a team of anthropomorphic animals in the Lylat planetary system called Star Fox. ...
,
Slippy Toad
is a fictional character from the ''Star Fox'' series of video games published by Nintendo. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto along with Takaya Imamura, who also designed the character, and was based on the assistant director of the original ' ...
and
Falco Lombardi
is a fictional anthropomorphic bird from the ''Star Fox'' series of video games. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and designed by Takaya Imamura. Falco acts as the wingman and best friend of the titular Fox McCloud for the majority of the se ...
. At certain pre-scripted points, one will fly into the player's view, often either chasing an enemy or being chased and asking for assistance. Ignoring a wingman's pleas will result in him taking damage, or even being shot down. They cannot be damaged by the player's own lasers (although they will complain if hit). Regardless of their survival, wingmen are not present during boss battles but rejoin the player before the next stage. A player may choose to help their wingmen when they ask for assistance, as doing so will allow them to engage some of the enemies not destroyed by the player, helping the player to succeed and additionally making it easier to achieve maximum score in a given level. Additional points are also granted at the end of each level depending on the health of each wingman. If a wingman gets shot down, he will not return for the rest of the game.
Plot
This game takes place in a fictional planetary system called the Lylat system, which is inhabited by
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
animal species such as foxes, frogs, birds, rabbits, and apes. It contains the planets Corneria and Venom, representing good and evil, respectively.
Andross
''Star Fox'' is a series of spaceship shooter games published by Nintendo. The main protagonist and player character of the series is Fox McCloud, the leader of a team of anthropomorphic animals in the Lylat planetary system called Star Fox. Game ...
, an evil scientist, fled to the planet Venom after being banished from Corneria, and declared war on the latter, unleashing an enormous army to wreak havoc on the Lylat System.
General Pepper, the commanding officer of Corneria's defense force, dispatches a prototype high-performance fighter aircraft called the "Arwing". However, lacking in time to train pilots for the new aircraft, he summons the elite mercenary team Star Fox to defeat Andross.
Fox McCloud
is a fictional character and the chief protagonist of Nintendo's ''Star Fox'' series. He is an anthropomorphic fox created and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takaya Imamura. He was introduced as a player character in the original 1993 video ga ...
, the leader of the team, is accompanied by his teammates,
Falco Lombardi
is a fictional anthropomorphic bird from the ''Star Fox'' series of video games. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and designed by Takaya Imamura. Falco acts as the wingman and best friend of the titular Fox McCloud for the majority of the se ...
,
Peppy Hare
''Star Fox'' is a series of spaceship shooter games published by Nintendo. The main protagonist and player character of the series is Fox McCloud, the leader of a team of anthropomorphic animals in the Lylat planetary system called Star Fox. ...
, and
Slippy Toad
is a fictional character from the ''Star Fox'' series of video games published by Nintendo. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto along with Takaya Imamura, who also designed the character, and was based on the assistant director of the original ' ...
.
Development and release
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
worked closely with
Argonaut Software
Argonaut Games PLC was a British video game developer founded in 1982, most notable for the development of the Super NES video game ''Star Fox'' and its supporting Super FX hardware, as well as for developing '' Croc: Legend of the Gobbos'' and ...
during the early years of the NES and Super NES.
They developed a prototype on the NES, initially codenamed "NESGlider", which was inspired by their earlier 8-bit game ''
Starglider
''Starglider'' is a 3D video game published in 1986 by Rainbird. It was developed by Jez San under his company name Argonaut Software. The game is a fast-moving, first-person combat flight simulator, rendered with colourful wireframe vector g ...
'', and ported this prototype to the Super NES (the polygonal style used ended up having a strong resemblance to ''
Starglider 2
''Starglider 2'' is a 3D space combat simulator published in 1988 by Rainbird as the sequel to 1986's ''Starglider''. It was released for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Macintosh, and ZX Spectrum. Instead of the wireframe graphics of the original, ...
''). Programmer
Jez San
Jeremy Elliott "Jez" San OBE (born 29 March 1966) is an English game programmer and entrepreneur who founded Argonaut Software as a teenager in the 1980s. He is best known for the 1986 Atari ST game ''Starglider'' and helping to design the Super ...
told Nintendo that this was as good as it could get unless they were allowed to design custom hardware to make the Super NES better at processing 3D. Nintendo assented to this, and San hired chip designers to make the
Super FX
The Super FX is a coprocessor on the Graphics Support Unit (GSU) added to select Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) video game cartridges, primarily to facilitate advanced 2D and 3D graphics. The Super FX chip was designed by Argonaut G ...
chip, the first 3D graphics accelerator in a consumer product. The Super FX was so much more powerful than the Super NES's standard processor that the development team joked that the Super NES was just a box to hold the chip. Argonaut did much of the base programming for the game's engine, while the character designs and artwork were mainly done in-house by Nintendo. The main game design was done by
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he is ...
and
Katsuya Eguchi
is a Japanese game designer, director and producer, most known for being a creator of the ''Animal Crossing'' series.
He was born in 1965 in Tokyo, Japan and grew up in Chiba Prefecture. He began work at Nintendo in 1986 and spent some time do ...
. Characters were designed by
Takaya Imamura
commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department (abbreviated as Nintendo R&D4), was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. It was pr ...
, and music was composed by Hajime Hirasawa.
Nintendo suggested the "arcade-style shooting" element of the game and Argonaut brought the idea of using spaceships.
Miyamoto cited the X-Wings from ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' were an inspiration for the Arwings. He frequently visited the
Fushimi Inari-taisha
is the head shrine of the ''kami'' Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines ...
shrine, about a fifteen-minute walk from the
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
corporate headquarters, and the Senbon Torii gates there inspired the idea of gates that the player would need to pilot the ship through. Miyamoto stated that he wanted the ''Star Fox'' series to star animal characters since he was not interested in making a series with conventional science fiction stories with humans, robots, monsters, and superheroes. He decided to use a fox as a main character since it reminded him of Fushimi Inari-taisha. Miyamoto explained that he had always planned to use the English word "fox" instead of the
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
word .
Imamura used
Japanese folklore
Japanese folklore encompasses the informally learned folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people as expressed in its oral traditions, customs, and material culture.
In Japanese, the term is used to describe folklore. The academic study ...
as an inspiration to add a bird and a hare as two other protagonists. He also added a toad; the inspiration came from a staff member of
Nintendo EAD
commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department (abbreviated as Nintendo R&D4), was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. It was pr ...
who used a toad as his personal mascot. Imamura populated the Cornerian army with dogs and the enemy army with monkeys, and made General Pepper a dog and Andross a monkey, since there is a Japanese expression about fighting like dogs and monkeys. Miyamoto created several puppets and photographed them to use as artwork for the cover of the ''Star Fox'' game; Miyamoto was a fan of British puppet dramas, such as ''
Thunderbirds'', so he wanted the game cover to feature puppets.
[Fushimi Inari Taisha and Fox]
. Nintendo. Retrieved on 17 August 2011. The game was released under the title ''Starwing'' in Europe due to the similarity of the title ''Star Fox'' to the name of the German company StarVox.
In documentary named ''
High Score
In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points (except in game shows, where scores often are instead measured in units of currency), and events in the ...
'', Dylan Cuthbert and Giles Goddard discussed how when they moved to Kyoto to work in the Nintendo office, they were put in a room remotely located from the rest of Nintendo because due to the two of them not being full-time Nintendo employees, Nintendo did not want them to have access to confidential and secret projects they were working on at the time. They also discussed how Miyamoto would come visit them frequently, providing advice and feedback in between puffs of a cigarette, as Miyamoto was a notorious chain smoker at the time.
The game debuted at the
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
(CES) held at
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
in January 1993.
On the weekend of April 30 to May 2, 1993, the "Super Star Fox Weekend Competition" took place at approximately 2,000 retail locations within the United States. Competitors received a limited edition ''Star Fox'' pin, and those who accumulated a particularly high score received ''Star Fox'' T-shirts as prizes. The competitors who achieved the highest score at their respective locations were entered into a randomized grand prize drawing for a choice between an all-expenses-paid trip for four to a choice of
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, or
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, or a lump sum of $15,000. The grand prize was won by Trevor Petersma of
Garland, Texas
Garland is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located northeast of Dallas and is a part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is located within Dallas County except for small portions located in Collin and Rockwall Counties. At the ...
, who opted for the cash prize. In the United Kingdom, the competition was known as the ''Starwing Challenge'' and was held in gaming shops across the country on May 29. Nintendo Netherlands held the ''Starwing'' competition at various game-selling stores in early 1993; the winner of each day won a large ''Starwing'' poster. Annual ''Starwing'' competitions were held during the Dutch Nintendo Championships, held in October, from 1993 to 1996. After the original competition, a limited number of the game cartridges created and used for the competition were sold through the ''Nintendo Power'' magazine, listed in the Spring 1994 "Super Power Supplies" catalogue that was mailed to subscribers, with an original list price of $45. The cartridges feature a time-limited single-player mode on modified stages, as well as an exclusive bonus level. The altered start-up screen displays "Official Competition Cartridge".
According to Peter Main, Nintendo's vice president of marketing at the time, ''Star Fox'' had a marketing budget of $15 million.
Reception
''Star Fox'' was a commercial success upon release. It topped the Japanese ''
Famitsu
formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
'' sales charts from
February to March 1993,
selling 325,000 units in Japan by December 1993.
Nintendo sold more than 1.7 million units in Japan and the United States by the end of March 1993, becoming the
fastest-selling video game launch in North America up until then. It also topped the UK sales chart in June 1993. It went on to sell over four million copies worldwide by 1998.
''Star Fox'' received generally positive reviews. It holds an aggregate score of 88% at
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
, based on an average of seven reviews.
[ The gameplay was generally praised, with many reviewers comparing it favorably to '']Space Harrier
is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but techni ...
'' (1985) and ''After Burner
is an Arcade video game, arcade vehicular combat game developed and released by Sega in 1987. The player assumes control of an American Grumman F-14 Tomcat, F-14 Tomcat fighter jet, and must clear each of the game's eighteen unique stages by des ...
'' (1987). It also received a 34 out of 40 from ''Famitsu
formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
'' magazine,[ and a 4.125 out of 5 from '']Nintendo Power
''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...
'' Magazine. The game’s groundbreaking use of 3D polygon graphics were universally lauded. ''Next Gen Magazine'' pointed out Star Fox as helping pioneer the use of 3D video game graphics. The game has been used as an example of how, even with a fully polygon design, the game was still very similar to older games in that there was a set path to travel through each level.
''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' gave the game an A and wrote that "the first game to incorporate Nintendo's 'Super FX' computer chip, this pseudo-3D space shooter moves so fast that it practically qualifies as virtual reality. Unlike most games of this genre, though, ''Star Fox'' (''Nintendo of America, for Super NES'') shows some heart behind the hardware — rarely have such powerful spacecrafts been piloted by so adorable an array of frogs, birds, and bunnies".
Accolades
''Star Fox'' was awarded Best Shooter of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly
''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews.
History
The m ...
. The game took the No. 115 spot on ''EGM''s "The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time", and 82nd best game made on a Nintendo System in ''Nintendo Power
''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...
''s Top 200 Games list. In 1995, Total!
''Total!'' was a video game magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future plc. It was published monthly for 58 issues, beginning in December 1991 (cover-dated January 1992), with the last issue bearing the cover-date October 1996. A "1993 A ...
rated Star Fox 10th on their Top 100 SNES Games and wrote that because of the Super FX Chip the game's graphics and gameplay are unlike any other SNES shooter. In 2009, ''Official Nintendo Magazine
''Official Nintendo Magazine'', or ''ONM'', was a British video game magazine that ran from 2006 to 2014 that covered the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, and Wii U video game consoles released by Nintendo.
Originally published by EMAP as ''N ...
'' ranked the game 28th on a list of greatest Nintendo games. In 2018, Complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
ranked Star Fox 24th in their "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time".
Legacy
''Star Fox'' has become an established Nintendo franchise, with six more installments and numerous appearances by its characters in other media such as the '' Super Smash Bros.'' series and '' Starlink: Battle for Atlas''. A direct sequel titled ''Star Fox 2
is a shooter game developed by Nintendo and Argonaut Software for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was completed in 1995 but did not see an official release until 2017 on the Super NES Classic Edition.
Like the original ''Sta ...
'' was developed for the Super NES but never released, although programmer Dylan Cuthbert says that the game was actually completely finished. Although ''Star Fox 2'' was cancelled, some of the ideas and gameplay were salvaged for 1997's ''Star Fox 64
known as ''Lylat Wars'' in the PAL regions, is a 3D rail shooter video game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the second installment in the ''Star Fox'' series and a reboot of the original ''Star Fox'' for the Super Nintendo Ente ...
'' (released in Europe under the title ''Lylat Wars'') for the Nintendo 64
The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...
. Eventually, a handful of beta ROMs of ''Star Fox 2'' at various stages of its development were leaked onto the internet, and a fan-made translation of ''Star Fox 2'' from Japanese to English was released in the form of a patch
Patch or Patches may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Patch Johnson, a fictional character from ''Days of Our Lives''
* Patch (''My Little Pony''), a toy
* "Patches" (Dickey Lee song), 1962
* "Patches" (Chairmen of the Board song) ...
that could be applied to one of the leaked ROMs. A finalized version of the game, obtained from a complete ROM located in Nintendo's archives, was released on the Super NES Classic Edition
The Super NES Classic Edition is a dedicated home video game console released by Nintendo, which emulates the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The console, a successor to the NES Classic Edition, comes with twenty-one Super NES titles pr ...
in September 2017.
In 2002, Rare's ''Star Fox Adventures
''Star Fox Adventures'' is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo. The game had a long development cycle starting in 1997. Originally developed as ''Dinosaur Planet'' with Rare-created characters as the prota ...
'' was released for Nintendo GameCube
The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...
. ''Adventures'' was the first ''Star Fox'' game to incorporate action-adventure
The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres.
Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...
elements, where the player acts as Fox McCloud
is a fictional character and the chief protagonist of Nintendo's ''Star Fox'' series. He is an anthropomorphic fox created and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takaya Imamura. He was introduced as a player character in the original 1993 video ga ...
on the world of Sauria, also known as Dinosaur Planet. In 2005, '' Star Fox: Assault'' was released for the GameCube, this time developed by Namco
was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...
and specifically the same core team that handled the ''Ace Combat
is an arcade-style combat flight simulation video game franchise published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. Debuting in 1995 with ''Air Combat'' for the PlayStation, the series includes eight mainline installments, multiple spin- ...
'' series. It incorporates third-person shooter
Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...
elements into the game with grounded combat. ''Star Fox Command
is a shoot 'em up video game, the fifth game in the ''Star Fox'' series, published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS in 2006 in video gaming, 2006 and 2007 in video gaming, 2007. ''Star Fox Command'' was announced at the E3 (Electronic Entertainme ...
'', developed by Q-Games
Q-Games, Limited is a video game developer based in Nakagyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan which works closely with both Nintendo and Sony.
Foundation
Q-Games was founded by Dylan Cuthbert, who previously worked at Argonaut Software and helped create ''Sta ...
released for the Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
in 2006, is the first game in the series on a portable system and the first to feature online multiplayer. It uses many features from the unreleased ''Star Fox 2'', chiefly the real-time map and mission layout. ''Star Fox Zero
is a 3D rail shooter video game developed by Nintendo and PlatinumGames for the Wii U. It is the sixth installment in the ''Star Fox'' series. Formally announced at E3 2015, the game was released in April 2016 to mixed critical reception, w ...
'', co-developed by Nintendo and PlatinumGames
PlatinumGames Inc. is a Japanese video game developer that was founded in October 2007 as result of a merger between two companies, Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya founded Seeds Inc. after the closure of ...
, was released in 2016 and returns to the storyline of the original game and ''Star Fox 64'', while incorporating new elements such as the scrapped Walker transformation from ''Star Fox 2'' and a new Gyrowing vehicle.
During the game's release, Nintendo teamed up with Kellogg's
The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toaste ...
and Nelsonic to develop and release a promotional ''Star Fox'' LCD game watch to those who bought a box of corn flakes
Corn flakes, or cornflakes, are a breakfast cereal made from toasting flakes of corn (maize). The cereal, originally made with wheat, was created by Will Kellogg in 1894 for patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium where he worked with his broth ...
and sent the order form to Kellogg's to receive the ''Star Fox'' game watch for free. In the game watch, there are four levels and the object is to fly towards an attack carrier and destroy it while dodging plasma balls and falling structures. The game watch also includes a pair of earphone
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an au ...
s and a headphone jack due to the game watch missing a volume control. Nelsonic later released it in stores in a different watch appearance.
Notes
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External links
Official website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Star Fox (Video Game)
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