First a frog was piloting and now there's a chameleon too?! Everything is allowed these days, next you are going to tell me that a pig piloted as we-- OH GODDAMMIT, PIGMA!
If the original Star Fox left a mark in gaming history for what it was, Star Fox 2 did the same for what it wasn't, or rather for what it couldn't be. A lot of factors, like N64 nearing its release and the incredibly high costs, resulted in the game just... never releasing. It was stated by several developers that the game was indeed fully finished, but never saw the light of day, and was left to wither inside the cold and agonizing walls of the Nintendo archives... or so we thought!
In 2017 it was finally officially released, being included in the SNES Mini as the special 21th game, and it was treated as an HUGE event both by fans and Nintendo itself, one that would be repeated some years later when it released on the NSO, and how not to? The game that never could was finally given the chance to spread its (ar)wings and fly into glory, and after playing it, man, I really got to say that...
...it sure is Star Fox again!... kinda...
Ok, I wanna preface by saying that, taking into account this was set to release 3 years after the original, it really shows it sequel status right off the bat. The game beings with a much more impressive cinematic and in general has more spectacular sequences, the pixel art on the characters is honestly amazing, and above else, the fact it breaks free from the pre-fixated routes and now basically lets you explore the whole Lylat system, selecting the objective you please and having some possible random battles against missiles and the enemy Star Wolf gang in space is a direction I didn't know I needed, but it feels like the natural progression for the series and it has so much potential... and that’s the problem: it has potential, but lets most of it untapped.
Star Fox 2 is flashier and it has bigger ideas, yes, but, just as the progression itself, its surprisingly directionless. Most of the magic and originality the previous iteration had is not only lost and doesn’t have the same kind of impact, but it also completely set aside most of the personality and identity that made it so unique. The almost abstract feeling is scrapped in favor of the redundancy of the asteroid filled space and the boring, samey giant space ships and planetary bases; they repeat over and over, adding enemies yes, but instead of going for original and interesting designs, they just stick to normal space-craft or one similar to animals which, not gonna lie, the enemy robot scorpion is rad as hell, but still. At first, with the whole preventing Corneria from getting to damaged by enemy weapons thing, it really feels like a war is taking place in the system, but five minutes in, it loses all the impact it had and becomes routine, and not a cruel and harsh routine, just a boring one. There are efforts here and there that clearly show they wanted to sell this idea of a conflict at a bigger scale, but it get dragged down by how it all the repetition and the loss of identity of the planets (you don’t get to spend much time on the planets themselves, but in the little while you do, they have little to none identity, like, in this one Venom looks exactly like Corneria did in the original game, which…huh?), and I don’t know about you fellas, but when a game that lasts less than an hour feels repetitive, something might be wrong over here.
I belive that the biggest example of what was lost from game to game is Andross: in the first game his presence is minimal, yet is always present at the same time, he’s incredibly menacing and his fight leaves a huge impact… while in 2 he appears just as the game starts, he says the word ‘’awesome’’ and his final fight is not as impressive or spectacular, in fact is even easier and more tedious… just goes to show that the Ape cube can’t save it all…
And I mean the gameplay is… fine? Is more Star Fox, and the introduction of the combat on ground with the new ship (which I’ve called Duckwing and I believe that’s the best name I’ve come up with in my entire life), how surprisingly hectic and fun it is considering it has tank controls and being able to change the form of the ship anytime you want is a really cool mechanic that makes encounters interesting. Combine that with the better (not by much) framerate and it honestly the combat alone could carry the game!... Too bad the space battles suCK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I don’t know who was the madman that thought that making all space counters in first person was a good idea, but that, combined with the already mentioned repetition, even in the Star Wolf encounters, and that they make most of the bulk of the game and we are left with the recipe for a good ol’ snore. It isn’t fun, it doesn’t tell anything, it basically pads the experience and its even frustrating… and I don’t know why it had to be like this.
Taking into account its flaws and its short duration I… it’s honestly hard to believe that this game was truly finished. I couldn’t call it bad since there’s still a bunch of cool stuff, but that’s all it feels like, just cool ideas, and instead of them improving on the core idea of the first game, they just left some incredibly good stuff behind, and it honestly just feels like Star Fox because it has the name of the series and Slippy is it, and while I’m glad it exists and it’s ideas went on to inspire other entries in the series, as it stands on its own is… a cool history piece, something which already was, and could have gone beyond that, but just didn’t…
…But the worst thing about is once again tHE COMPANIONS MOTHERFUCKER I KNOW THAT X IS FOR USING THE BOOST STOP OBSTRUCTING MY VISION WITH THE TEXT BOX SHUUUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
If the original Star Fox left a mark in gaming history for what it was, Star Fox 2 did the same for what it wasn't, or rather for what it couldn't be. A lot of factors, like N64 nearing its release and the incredibly high costs, resulted in the game just... never releasing. It was stated by several developers that the game was indeed fully finished, but never saw the light of day, and was left to wither inside the cold and agonizing walls of the Nintendo archives... or so we thought!
In 2017 it was finally officially released, being included in the SNES Mini as the special 21th game, and it was treated as an HUGE event both by fans and Nintendo itself, one that would be repeated some years later when it released on the NSO, and how not to? The game that never could was finally given the chance to spread its (ar)wings and fly into glory, and after playing it, man, I really got to say that...
...it sure is Star Fox again!... kinda...
Ok, I wanna preface by saying that, taking into account this was set to release 3 years after the original, it really shows it sequel status right off the bat. The game beings with a much more impressive cinematic and in general has more spectacular sequences, the pixel art on the characters is honestly amazing, and above else, the fact it breaks free from the pre-fixated routes and now basically lets you explore the whole Lylat system, selecting the objective you please and having some possible random battles against missiles and the enemy Star Wolf gang in space is a direction I didn't know I needed, but it feels like the natural progression for the series and it has so much potential... and that’s the problem: it has potential, but lets most of it untapped.
Star Fox 2 is flashier and it has bigger ideas, yes, but, just as the progression itself, its surprisingly directionless. Most of the magic and originality the previous iteration had is not only lost and doesn’t have the same kind of impact, but it also completely set aside most of the personality and identity that made it so unique. The almost abstract feeling is scrapped in favor of the redundancy of the asteroid filled space and the boring, samey giant space ships and planetary bases; they repeat over and over, adding enemies yes, but instead of going for original and interesting designs, they just stick to normal space-craft or one similar to animals which, not gonna lie, the enemy robot scorpion is rad as hell, but still. At first, with the whole preventing Corneria from getting to damaged by enemy weapons thing, it really feels like a war is taking place in the system, but five minutes in, it loses all the impact it had and becomes routine, and not a cruel and harsh routine, just a boring one. There are efforts here and there that clearly show they wanted to sell this idea of a conflict at a bigger scale, but it get dragged down by how it all the repetition and the loss of identity of the planets (you don’t get to spend much time on the planets themselves, but in the little while you do, they have little to none identity, like, in this one Venom looks exactly like Corneria did in the original game, which…huh?), and I don’t know about you fellas, but when a game that lasts less than an hour feels repetitive, something might be wrong over here.
I belive that the biggest example of what was lost from game to game is Andross: in the first game his presence is minimal, yet is always present at the same time, he’s incredibly menacing and his fight leaves a huge impact… while in 2 he appears just as the game starts, he says the word ‘’awesome’’ and his final fight is not as impressive or spectacular, in fact is even easier and more tedious… just goes to show that the Ape cube can’t save it all…
And I mean the gameplay is… fine? Is more Star Fox, and the introduction of the combat on ground with the new ship (which I’ve called Duckwing and I believe that’s the best name I’ve come up with in my entire life), how surprisingly hectic and fun it is considering it has tank controls and being able to change the form of the ship anytime you want is a really cool mechanic that makes encounters interesting. Combine that with the better (not by much) framerate and it honestly the combat alone could carry the game!... Too bad the space battles suCK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I don’t know who was the madman that thought that making all space counters in first person was a good idea, but that, combined with the already mentioned repetition, even in the Star Wolf encounters, and that they make most of the bulk of the game and we are left with the recipe for a good ol’ snore. It isn’t fun, it doesn’t tell anything, it basically pads the experience and its even frustrating… and I don’t know why it had to be like this.
Taking into account its flaws and its short duration I… it’s honestly hard to believe that this game was truly finished. I couldn’t call it bad since there’s still a bunch of cool stuff, but that’s all it feels like, just cool ideas, and instead of them improving on the core idea of the first game, they just left some incredibly good stuff behind, and it honestly just feels like Star Fox because it has the name of the series and Slippy is it, and while I’m glad it exists and it’s ideas went on to inspire other entries in the series, as it stands on its own is… a cool history piece, something which already was, and could have gone beyond that, but just didn’t…
…But the worst thing about is once again tHE COMPANIONS MOTHERFUCKER I KNOW THAT X IS FOR USING THE BOOST STOP OBSTRUCTING MY VISION WITH THE TEXT BOX SHUUUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-