Star Fox 2

Star Fox 2
File:StarFox2 SNES Game Box.png
Developer(s)	Argonaut Games Nintendo
Designer(s)	Katsuya Eguchi Yoichi Yamada
Platform(s)	SNES
Release	Cancelled (Planned release 1995 according to ROM Beta)
Genre(s)	3D shooter, Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Star Fox 2 is an unreleased video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was to be the second of the Star Fox series and the direct sequel to Star Fox. Both Argonaut Games and Nintendo developed the game, with Nintendo planning to publish it. The Japanese version was completely finished except for minor debugging tools that weren't yet removed. It is unknown if there are any complete English versions.

Star Fox 2 continues the battle against the Emperor Andross who seeks to conquer the Lylat system, and the Star Fox team is assembled to defeat him once again. The game introduces new ships and two new team members as well as a more realistic layout. Many see Star Fox Command as a spiritual successor, borrowing several innovative elements.

The game was never released due to the impending release of the Nintendo 64 and the desire to use the most advanced systems available for the game.

Gameplay

File:Sf2screen.jpg

Gameplay screenshot showing similar play style to the original Star Fox

The premise of Star Fox 2 is very different from the original Star Fox: Instead of following a mostly linear path composed of discrete missions, the player moves a team of two ships freely around the Lylat system. The objective is to defend Corneria by intercepting fighters, missiles and boss enemies before they reach the planet. To assist the player, General Pepper employs a space station that can shoot down enemies on a limited basis — the player must also defend this installation from viruses that can take over the laser and fire at Corneria. The player must also destroy bases that have taken over the various other planets of the Lylat System (including Venom, the site of the final battle in Star Fox), as well as large battleships armed with enormous laser cannons.

Each fighter can pick up a new secondary ability — for example, the Assault Fighter can pick up and use the Super Shield power-up. However, new abilities replace the old ones for the remainder of the game. Additionally, each Arwing has the ability to transform into a bipedal robot, allowing it to walk, jump, swim, and press buttons. Targeting is generally more accurate in this mode, and the ship retains its secondary abilities. There are two main screens in the game. The map screen shows a layout of the Lylat system, with Corneria in the lower-left corner and Andross' base in the opposite corner. The Star Fox team members chosen for the game fly around on this screen according to the player's instructions. Any number of enemies and missiles may be on screen at a time, as well as up to two battleships and four planetary bases, which fire missiles at Corneria. For the most part, all enemies move toward Corneria, although some bosses and the Star Wolf team will chase the player. The exact number of enemies, bases and bosses depends on the difficulty level — at higher difficulties, freed bases and destroyed battleships are replaced partway through the game.

The game runs in semi-real time — any time the player takes an action, time starts counting and enemies move as well. This occurs whether the player is moving around on the map screen or has engaged an enemy, making it possible for enemies to damage Corneria or new enemies to launch. For example, while the player is working on destroying a battleship or planetary base, a missile may impact the planet. This forces the player to think tactically and defeat their enemies as efficiently as possible, and at times the player may have to leave a battle to take on other enemies that are getting too close to the planet. In this way, Star Fox 2 bears considerable similarity to many real-time strategy games.

Bosses

Star Fox 2 has many bosses, often treated as normal encounters. They are listed here.

Star Wolf Members: Pigma, Leon, Algy (possibly a predecessor of Andrew or Dash), and Wolf. They fight differently in this game: instead of dogfighting, they charge the player head on, firing and barrel-rolling. Every now and then, they fire a charged shot, which can be barrel-rolled off. Most of the members of Star Wolf have orange colored ships, but Wolf's is colored blue and is the toughest.

Mirage Dragon: The creature seen in the game's intro. Its weak point is its head. It has two major attacks: it either spits a beam like in the intro, which is only blockable by an S-Shield, or it spits up random debris.

Hunter Phantron: Supposedly a new make of the Phantron, but doesn't seem to do much the original did, that is, create holograms of itself, and transform to a larger, more powerful mode. It mostly fires lasers and tries to dodge around you, much like normal enemies.

Andross/Andorf (Japanese name): On normal, he assumes a mask form with two colors and two eyes. He shoots lava out of his eyes in volleys. On hard, he uses the same form as normal, but once that form is defeated, the mask opens, and he continues to attack. On expert, he does uses the same form as hard, except for once you break away the rest of his mask, he will attack with his head and his two hands, similar to Star Fox 64.

Plot and setting

Setting and characters

File:Starfox2-map.jpg

The Lylat planetary system from Star Fox is the game's setting

Star Fox 2 takes place in the Lylat system, the home system of the series' protagonists. During the course of the game, the Star Fox team gradually penetrates the defense of Andross's forces and reaches his levitating base in Solar's atmosphere.

Star Fox 2 features six permanent playable characters, the most of any game in the series (until Star Fox Command). Primary characters include Fox McCloud, a fox who leads the Star Fox team; Falco Lombardi, the cocky expert pilot with a sometimes contentious relationship with Fox; Peppy Hare, mentor to Fox and the wisest member of the team; Slippy Toad, the team technician and childhood friend of Fox; Fay, a white poodle with a pink hair bow who is a new member of the team; and Miyu, a tomboyish lynx who is also a new addition to the team.

Most of the main characters in the game have an intensely positive or negative relationship with Fox McCloud and his team, particularly Andross, the game's main antagonist who has repeately organized invasions of Fox's home, the Lylat system. The supporting character Wolf O'Donnell and his Star Wolf team serve as recurring villains throughout the game. A handful of Star Fox characters have reappeared in later games, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Plot

After his defeat in the original Star Fox, the games antagonist, Andross, returns to the Lylat system and launches an all-out attack against Corneria using new enemies and giant missiles intended to destroy the planet. General Pepper again calls upon the Star Fox team for help. Armed with new custom Arwings, a mothership, and two new recruits (Miyu, a lynx, and Fay, a dog), the Star Fox team sets out to defend Corneria by destroying Andross' army before it can reach the planet. Along the way, Star Fox must also combat giant boss enemies, bases on planets throughout the Lylat system, members of the Star Wolf team and finally Andross himself.

Development and cancellation

The game was extensively covered by the various gaming magazines of the time, both at its one E3 appearance as well as in the many screenshots provided by Nintendo to generate interest in the sequel. Since the leaking of the unfinished beta code, some individuals have managed to take and compile a large variety of screengrabs. These were taken using an emulator. Though it's likely that a promotion video was put together at the time, no copies of it have ever been made public. The lack of media coverage about the compiled beta may be due to a fear of legal action from either NCL or NOA. Early in development, Fara Phoenix from the Star Fox comic (called "Lady" in the alpha) and the Andross look-alike "Saru" (Japanese for "monkey") were in place of Miyu and Fay. Fay replaced a sheep character (gender unknown) from the game's early development.

On the Internet, ROM images exist of two very early alpha versions of the game, which were originally shown at trade shows. Another ROM, compiled from the latest known source code before the project was cancelled, can also be found — this version is nearly complete and contains minor bugs, debug code, and unfinished features such as a rudimentary multiplayer mode. These ROMs can be played using a SNES emulator. Additionally, a fan-made patch can be added to the near-final ROM — this fixes most of the bugs, removes the debug code and the unfinished features, and translates the game's dialog into English. When asked about whether or not the game would be released on the Wii's Virtual Console or the Nintendo DS, Star Fox designer Takaya Imamura said "Probably not."

While Nintendo never disclosed the official reason for its cancellation, Star Fox 2 programmer Dylan Cuthbert shares the reasons for its cancellation:

"StarFox 2 was fully completed. I was the lead programmer and whilst Giles made Stunt Race FX, myself and the rest of the original Starfox team (ie. Nintendo's artists and designers) expanded Starfox into a full 3D shooting game. The reason for non-release was the then impending Nintendo 64 which of course was intended to be released a lot sooner than it actually was. Miyamoto-san decided he wanted to have a clean break between 3D games on the SNES and 3D games on the new superior 64 bit system. In retrospect, he could have released Star Fox 2 and there would have been over a year and a half before the N64 came out. But hindsight is always 20/20." —

Some have also suggested that high production costs and internal development problems also contributed to its cancellation. Additionally, several concepts have been reused in Star Fox Command for the Nintendo DS — among these are the map screen gameplay element and the ability to choose from multiple characters, each with their own fighters and statistics.