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StarFox-Online wishes everyone a happy and prosperous 2016!

Fox's design in SSB4 has not changed all that much from Brawl, but it is more detailed: Interestingly, the 3DS version appears cell-shaded:

We at StarFox-Online would like to extend our condolences to those who lost loved ones or were wounded during the atrocious acts of cowardice that occurred in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015. May those responsible be swiftly brought to justice.

Interesting to see Miyamoto looking a bit startstruck meeting these people. Also interesting to learn that Miyamoto has had an interest in puppets since childhood.

The biggest impact the Star Fox franchise's had on the gaming world, hands down, was introducing gamers to the realm of 3D-rendered polygons in the original Star Fox title back in 1993. This was arguably the start of the biggest transition to ever occur in the history of gaming, freeing us from the shackles of sidescroller hell to let us explore open worlds at our heart's content. At the core (literally) of the game was the chip that made it all possible-the Super FX chip, which managed to math it's way into overclocking the Super Nintendo's processors. Developed by a small third-party company, Argonaut Software, it allowed for the system to run at an estimated 40x faster than the original specifications would permit. This permitted the Super Nintendo to render basic 3D polygons, allow for parallax-scrolling sprites, and even apply basic texture maps to polygons. This little wonderchip found it's way into several other major titles-Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Doom, Star Fox 2 (oh what could've been!). However, by the time these games were making it to market, Sony had already ushered in an entirely new generation of gaming with the Playstation, which could provide graphics and sounds that were lightyears ahead of what even the best Super FX titles could produce. The sudden appearance of the Playstation is what led to the untimely cancellation of Star Fox 2, as Nintendo feared that it and other Super FX titles would be negatively compared against their Playstation equivalents, and that their efforts would be better spent on developing 3D games for the N64. This is a really fascinating video, and goes into great detail about the chip, Star Fox, and the rise and fall of Argonaut. Props to LoneWolf for digging this up!

Here's the Discord link for any to join! https://discord.gg/KjD8yxr

The Battle Begins was produced in collaboration with Shigeru Miyamoto, and Production IG and WIT Studios. Looks like Star Fox is finally getting some animated love. Here's hoping that we'll get more some day! The Anime Short will premiere on Wednesday along with a special Nintendo Treehouse Live dedicated to Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard.

Evolution vs. Unoriginality The first claim she makes in the article is that Star Fox "never offered anything original to begin with." After making this statement, she goes on to list overhead and rail shooters such as Starblade, Space Harrier, and Star Wars on the Atari arcade and Atari 2600. To go for the jugular on this point, she includes a screenshot of a robot head from Silpheed and puts it next to Star Fox 1's Andross. She fails to disclose that the robot head from Silpheed is from an intro cutscene, and is not a boss (Though in her defense it does represent the "Big Bad": The real problem with an argument like this is that video games as an art have been evolutionary. Sure, you couldn't have Star Fox without Space Harrier, but you wouldn't have Call of Duty without Doom or Ratchet and Clank without Super Mario 64. Truly genre-shattering or genre-defining games are rare. For every Portal you point to, there are hundreds of Calls of Duty. Does that make every FPS less of a game because there were similar FPSes before it? What was so original about Halo when compared to Half-Life or Tribes or even Quake? Yet Halo is considered one of the greatest FPSes of all time despite it not offering much in the way of original gameplay. But it gets worse. She goes on to speculate on whether or not Star Fox 1 would be a noteworthy game if it came out on another system or from a different publisher. This is meaningless filler. It literally is asking "What if the game was what it isn't?" It doesn't matter. Star Fox was not published by Namco. Star Fox is a Nintendo title on a Nintendo system. That is part of the very identity of the game. These "what ifs" ignore that and really add nothing to the point of this section of the article. This was a very sloppy argument and I really expected better from Emily. She has to know that games don't have to reinvent the genre to be compelling. Star Fox 1 was challenging, technologically revolutionary, and above all fun to play. Sure, its main draw outside the technological achievement was its character design, but it doesn't matter. The game may not be a Portal, but it does stand on its own and that is why it is included on all of these "100 greatest games of all time" lists that get published from time to time. Sure, the great shooters like Starblade were a base for Star Fox to stand on, but Star Fox 1 deserves its place on the great shooter shelf just as much as Starblade, Galaxy Force II, Space Harrier, or any of the others Emily mentioned. Correlation and Causation The next argument rolled-out was "Star Fox Can't Sell Without Gimicky Technology." There is an old adage in the world of Statistics about claims like these: "Correlation does not imply Causation." Star Fox's series-wide sales chart is not pretty to look at: Yup, that's a serious downward trend. In fact, this chart is probably a big factor in why we haven't seen a new Star Fox game in a while. Emily says that SF1 sold millions of units "because it was the FIRST SNES game to use the Super FX chip" and that SF64 sold millions of units because it "was the FIRST console game to support rumble." She goes on to say that Stunt Race FX would probably have outsold Star Fox if it came out first, and that people bought SF64 because they wanted rumble for Goldeneye (which, according to VGChartz, sold twice the units SF64 did) and Star Fox gave them an "extra" game. Again with the hypotheticals. Both SF1 and SF64 blew well past the 2m sales mark. In fact, Star Fox 64 was once held the North America launch week sales record until Goldeneye snatched it away a few weeks later. She compared Star Fox 64 to Wii Play, which was recieved by the critics. While critic ratings for SF1 are hard to come by, SF64 was well-reviewed according to Metacritic and I don't doubt that critics received SF1 well, too, I just can't find the data. What an insulting comparison. I don't deny that the hardware innovations positively influenced sales, but to claim that they turned mediocre games into blockbusters is dubious and really needs some additional data support. Gamers have POSITIVE memories of these Star Fox games. Very few have positive memories of Wii Play, assuming they played it for more than 5 minutes. She then points to the other games, without hardware, and points to their lesser sales performance as evidence. She bases this off of ONE VARIABLE. Let's look at how Nintendo market Star Fox games, for instance. SF1 and SF64 were hyped to all ends. Game stores were sent 3' statues of Fox McCloud for SF1's release. Star Fox 1 got a huge display at Space World. SF64 had a corny infomercial and also a significant Spaceworld presence. The rest of the games in the series were not considered marketing priorities. Star Fox Adventures did receive some marketing support, Star Fox Assault got a little, but Star Fox Command got almost nothing. Star Fox 64 3D got a little, but it was in the shadow of the other N64 3D Remake, Ocarina of Time. Also, the genre taste changes that Emily mentioned were a contributor as well, but more on that later. Does she take any of these variables into account here? Nope. It must be hardware. Once again, I am not saying that hardware didn't help the sales, especially in SF64's case. But these games stood on their own. People positively remember them. They were well-received by critics. The exact impact of the Rumble Pak on Star Fox 64 is difficult to measure, and the impact of Super FX, which WAS NOT a peripheral, is even harder to measure. The argument sees a correlation and assumes causation when there are other variables. Instead of bolstering the claim with data, the claim is "bolstered" with hypotheticals. So, what did Emily Rogers get right? Short I'm sure most Star Fox fans agree with her here: The games, especially the later ones, are too damn short. Though I will pause and posit that Star Fox 64 has something called "replay value," meaning the game is fun to play through multiple times. Anyway. I agree here. The Games are getting are expensive, but they are short. Emily rightly points out that this is an industry-wide problem. And trends like pre-planned DLC that should be part of the main game exacerbate the problem. Now, you can make games longer, yes. But that is expensive, which is why it doesn't happen. 30+ Hr games are rare. Another way to address the problem is replay value. Star Fox 64 had it. Many games today, especially on mobile, have it. But many don't. Yes, please give us a longer game. Or at least make it fun to play repeatedly. And if you're going to make it short, don't charge me $60 for it. Blame the Fans Emily's final section compares Star Fox to Donkey Kong. I don't agree with the comparisons she makes (The original Donkey Kong was a platformer, so there really wasn't as great a genre-shift as she claims), but there is some merit to her suggestions. She shows that she unfamiliar with the Star Fox fanbase: "...for some reason, nobody is cool with the idea of the Star Fox franchise branching out to other genres, or trying something new and experimental. Nobody is cool with the idea of Star Fox broadening its appeal outside of a currently unpopular niche genre (shoot em ups, railshooters) so it can become more marketable." This is forgivable, though. Sure, the fanbase has its purists. Hell, I used to be one myself and still am to a degree. But Star Fox Adventures brought a new breed of fan into the fanbase. One that is more open to the very changes Emily is suggesting. I do see that the arcade shooter is a genre that has been supplanted. No one but a few dedicated fans are interested in them. This is not something that can be denied. But I think Emily failed to see what Star Fox fans really disliked about Star Fox Adventures. SFAd is a better game than Star Fox Assault hands-down (SFAs had potential, but it was not met). But, I find myself more drawn to SFAs than to SFAd. Why is this? Because SFAd, no matter how much Miyamoto wanted it to be, is not a Star Fox game. Is this a swipe at the genre? No. It's a swipe at how Star Fox Adventures came to be. While I cannot say much for the gameplay, the story for Dinosaur Planet was better than the one for Star Fox Adventures. The code repository for Star Fox Adventures was not cleaned-up prior to final compilation. The result is that quite a bit of the original Dinosaur Planet remains on that Star Fox Adventures disc. While I do not condone the use of emulators to play pirated games, the emulation community has pounced on this unclean repo and a lot has been learned. For sake of length, I will not go into much detail, but it is much darker than Scales stealing spell stones and causing the planet to break-up. How about Sabre's father killing Krystal's entire tribe? Anyone game for some time travel? How about a brewing war between god-like races? A wealth of DP information can be found here: http://www.rareminion.com/dp.html This game was gutted, fileted, and then reassembled with Star Fox characters and elements in a manner that was not only disrespectful to Star Fox, but to the original game. The Arwing missions were pointless. The ending was a letdown with them bringing back the same Andross battled that debuted in the Expert run of Star Fox 2. Even the more open-minded fans saw through it. Now, the game did bring new people into the fanbase. Had Star Fox Adventures been built from the ground-up as a Star Fox game, I think the fans would have liked it more. Also, the fanbase hates Star Fox Command, the closest of the new games to a classic game, though this is more over what the did to the story (what little of it there was) which many fans classify as a first-rate atrocity. Inverse of the Flaws of Marx The Diagnosis was wrong, but the prescription was right. I'll just come out and say it here: despite all of its flaws and terrible set-up, I actually agree with the article's conclusion. I will use a different analogy: Metroid. Metroidvania is a genre that is also pretty much dead. Games like Ocarina of Time showed that in the age of 3D, adventure games had to be on a whole new level. Yet, Metroid got a move to a similar modern genre and was done in a way that retained the best things about the original while adding some new. I'm of course talking about Retro Studios' excellent Metroid Prime trilogy. Star Fox needs a Prime. Modernize the franchise in a way that preserves its identity while allowing new generations of gamers to enjoy the series. The story doesn't necesarilly need a reboot, though starting-over would not hurt at this point given what has been done. Vehicular combat should remain the focus of any new Star Fox game. Vehicular combat in action/adventure games is usually done as a side-mechanic. Star Fox started with a focus on vehicular combat, so it should continue. Arwings, Landmasters, Blue Marine; let's see it all. Heck, let us fly Great Fox for a mission or two. Though we need to keep the cheesy dialog and redundant character names to keep the feel there. Vehicle upgrades. Side quests. Etc. In the end, though I don't see it being likely. I honestly don't think Nintendo has an idea for Star Fox anymore. The series seems to be in the same hole F-Zero is in. We remain hopeful, though. While I agree that rail shooters cannot survive in today's market, I think Emily really missed it on her reasons why the first games did as well as they did. I also think she misunderstands the fanbase. We're NOT the Sonic fanbase here. We're just like any other fanbase: the purists are vocal, but most of us just want a new game period.

It's a sad day in the world of Nintendo. Hiroshi Yamauchi, the man who brought Nintendo from being a humble playing card maker to one of the greatest names in video games, has died at the age of 85 from pneumonia in a Japanese hospital. Hiroshi Yamauchi was the last of the Yamauchi family to run the company, the company leadership being in the family since the company's founding in September of 1889. Most of Nintendo's big name franchises were created under his reign. Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, Metroid, Donkey Kong, F-Zero, the list goes on of great Nintendo properties created in the Yamauchi era, many of them by Shigeru Miyamoto. Sayonara, Yamauchi-san. You made Nintendo what it is and us fans are forever grateful.

Today is the official release date for Starlink: Battle for Atlas, the space exploration toy to life game developed by Ubisoft, available on the Switch, Xbox One and Playstation 4. Why is this important for Starfox? The Nintendo Switch version has a tie-in with Starfox, as a "toy" Arwing is included with the game, and you can play as Fox throughout the game, as well as special Starfox themed missions to stop Wolf. I hope to have a copy here soon, so I can review it more in depth with you.

Like many of the devoted faithful, I and many others woke up bright and early the morning of the 29th to line up at Toys 'R Us to get a chance at buying a vaunted SNES Classic. My roommates and I piled into my roommate's beleagured old Volvo, and arrived at 8AM sharp, finding a line that was already stretching back to the entrance of the adjoining Baby's R Us. It was a chill fall morning, and I offered multiple times to leave my spot in line to run to the Wawa a block away for some coffee and donuts. Everyone else was good, apparently. In front of us, a fashionably dressed mother attempted to explain to her equally well-dressed children why she was "buying a toy for herself". It vaguely dawned on me as to whether or not those kids would even comprehend the games on the SNES Classic as even being video games as they knew them. If those games were relatively primitive and obtuse to me growing up in the early 2000s, I can only imagine how incomprehensibly primitive they must look to fresh modern audiences. Or perhaps not so primitive, given the massive revival in sidescrollers and 8-bit gaming. Who's to say? Behind us, a rather grizzled scalper in a ratty sports coat and faded Pokémon tee. We'll call him Al, totally not after the villain from Toy Story 2. Al moaned loudly about Target's "bullsh*t" policy of only allowing one console per customer, and droned on about his console collection-2 of every console from the NES onwards in the box, the entire TurboGrafix 16 library, and was currently on the hunt for a "third" Model 1 Sega CD. When I asked how much of those he used, he seemed rather puzzled. "I just emulate them", he said, cocking his head to the side. Quite a character. As the hour went on, more and more people began to show. Rare sightings of the elusive inhabitantis cellarium were made. Young and old queued up in a line that reached almost to the Wawa a block away. It was hard to tell if the young kids were dragging their parents along, or their parents were dragging their kids along. Attire ranged from stained graphic tees to Louis Vuitton, and there was a trio cosplaying as the Mario Bros. and Princess Peach. Finally the manager of the store walked out, congratulated all who showed, and quietly began handing out tickets to purchasers before admitting them into the store. Just as it seemed there was enough to go around, a twenty-something in a black S550 and matching suit hurried into the back of the line, only to be greeted with a glum look on the manager's face. He walked off silently, tail between his legs, and everyone began to sort into the store. I probably wasn't the only one holding their breath, anticipating a storm. As someone who hadn't set foot in a Toys 'R Us in a good decade and a half, there was a weird feeling of nostalgia mixed with a feeling of being out of place. Fidget spinners, drones, and My Little Pony merch sat alongside the Rubik's Cubes, RC cars, and Pokémon cards, bringing back some nostalgia and relief that nostalgia is still being made. My reminiscence was short lived, however, as the line moved forward at record speed. My roommate almost snatched the holy object out of the cashier's hands, and it was back to the dorms in a flash. No time was wasted setting the diminutive console up. I really can't emphasize how tiny this thing is-it's exactly the size of an NES cartridge and weighs about as much. My roommate immediately booted up Super Metroid, and marveled at the quality of the graphics and sound. I got about 30 minutes of gameplay in myself, playing through Corneria in Star Fox in order to unlock Star Fox 2. Overall, it's mostly similar to the ROM that has been available over the internet since the late '90s. The dialogue and font are perhaps the biggest changes (similar to the footage shown at CES 1995, before the game was officially canned), and I'm sure someone will weep for the loss of "Expert Mode" on the main menu. Lock-on targetting seems to be missing, making space battles a bit more of a hassle. To this day, it remains my favorite title in the series, and continues to fascinate and entertain every time. The graphics scale nicely to modern HD sets, and a pseudo-CRT filter is provided for those that desire a more retro experience. Definitely better than plugging an original Super Nintendo via composite, but the scanline filter seemed a bit strong compared to the original equipment on an actual CRT. The sound is a perhaps a bit more crisp than the original hardware, but it still has the rich warmth and deep bass that we know and love. Super Mario World is airy and pleasant, Super Metroid envelopes you in dark, skin-crawling synths, and Star Fox carries a lot of punch and images fantastically. Frame-rates are at least as good as the original games, perhaps a bit smoother with the benefits of modern tech. Overall, it's definitely on par with a good emulator or the Virtual Console platform, and whether or not it's worth buying is entirely up to you. For what it is, you're getting an officially licensed Nintendo product with a good $800 worth of games and no aging equipment to worry about. That's 10x the Classic's MSRP, and roughly 4x what the ballsiest scalpers are demanding online. Sadly, Nintendo's limited it to just one product run of course, so the average consumer looking to relive their childhood or get into retrogaming will probably have to look elsewhere. All in all, nice piece of kit if you can get it.

In honour of the 24th anniversary of the North American release of the original Star Fox on March 26th 2017, @Patch93 will be streaming himself playing the first three installments of the series developed by Nintendo EAD, including Star Fox, the unreleased Star Fox 2, and Star Fox 64. Enjoy everyone! (´・ω・｀)

The big myth? Star Fox having robotic legs. Cuthbert's response: "They're just making that shit up ... They're metal boots" before completely mocking the idea of "pegleg furries in spacesuits." Well, that's even more definitive of Miyamoto's dismissal of this ridiculous claim. Also, Cuthbert is NOT Miyamoto's son-in-law. While yes, Miyamoto was at his wedding, Miyamoto doesn't have a daughter, so... Full stream:

Nintendo of Europe revealed some small set of details about the making of Star Fox Zero: The Battle Begins. It turns out that a lot of what we saw in the short were actually re-textured and re-rigged assets from the game itself. Of course they also had to make some custom stuff, too, but it was interesting to see this asset re-use. https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2016/May/Read-all-about-the-Making-of-Star-Fox-Zero-The-Battle-Begins-1105570.html

After over a year of work, A Fox in Space (Formerly "Star Fox the Animated Series") has finally released an episode!

Nintendo Co. Ltd. released a one-sentence press release this morning containing sad news: Satoru Iwata passed away on Saturday. The cites Iwata-san's bile duct problem as the cause of death. My thoughts are with his family and friends. This is a sad day for Nintendo. Sure, some questioned his leadership as Nintendo boldly, if not stubbornly, stayed on its own path. But he also led the company through its most profitable era ever. In the end, will we ever understand? The release implies that Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda will run the company in the interim. SRC: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2015/150713e.pdf

 

Reggie has seemingly decided to use NOA's Twitter account as if it were his own personal one lately. Yesterday, he tweeted "'What does the Fox say,' you ask?" with an art render of Fox from SF643D as an image macro captioned "Definitely not Ring-Ding-Ding-Ding-Dingerinding." http://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/394962554058862592 I don't know whether to laugh or cry.