The development history of "Star Fox 2", originally officially unreleased for over 22 years, until June 26, 2017. According to Miyamoto, Nintendo never planned to officially release Star Fox 2 in any official capacity. Its official release on the Super NES Classic Edition came specifically at the request of the console's producers, who believed it would be a waste to not do so. [1]
Release History[]
Before the official release, there were multiple unofficial releases, compiled from leaked source code.
In 1999, an early technical demo of the game was leaked onto the internet. It is the earliest known build of StarFox 2 in existence. The demo included a two-player versus mode (which was later dropped), as well as Fara Phoenix as a playable character (who was also dropped).[2]
In 2002, the source code of a fully playable, very late development prototype of the game was leaked onto the internet.[3] After the code was successfully compiled on October 17th, 2004, Aeon Genesis translated the game into English and created a 1.00 patch that removed the game's remaining debugging features. This build shares many features with the final game released in 2017.[4]
On June 26, 2017, the game was released on the Super NES Classic Edition as an unlockable for players who completed Stage-1 in Star Fox.
On December 12, 2019, the game was released on the Switch Online as a part of its portfolio of games, free to play for all players with Nintendo Switch Online membership.
Development and initial cancellation[]
Placeholder SNES box art.
The game's title was also written as Star Fox II during development, and 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. It's likely that a promotion video was put together at the time, though no copies of it have ever been made public. Since the leaking of the incomplete code between May and September of 1999, individuals have managed to take and compile a variety of screen-grabs using emulation tools. The lack of media coverage about the compiled prototypes may be due to a fear of legal action from either NCL or NOA. Early in development, Andross or a look-alike (called "Saru", Japanese for a monkey or ape) and Fara Phoenix from the Star Fox comic (known as "Lady") ase in place of Miyu and Fay. A sheep character was also designed for the game, but was replaced by Fay before the final version.
On the Internet, ROM images exist of a very early tech demo of the game, which was originally shown at trade shows. This ROM is particularly notable for having a rudimentary multiplayer mode, which programmer Dylan Cuthbert later clarified was cut during development because the screen size was too small to be fun, resulting in more focus being placed on single player than originally planned. Another ROM, compiled from the latest known source code before the project was canceled, was released in August 2002 by an anonymous Nintendo employee — this version is nearly complete and contains minor bugs and debug code. These ROMs can be played using a SNES emulator. Additionally, a fan-made patch is in circulation for 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, Dylan Cuthbert shared his thoughts:
"Saru" from an earlier prototype.
"Lady" from an earlier prototype.
- “Starfox 2 was fully completed. I was 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. We used state-of-the-art technology such as arbitrary plane clipping (which has only been seen recently in such games as Crash Bandicoot 2 & 3) to create some rather spectacular effects. (for the time)...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.”
- —Dylan Cutbert
The staff members of IGN suggested that high production costs and internal development problems also contributed to its cancellation.
According to Dylan Cuthbert, some programming elements done for the game, such as the camera programs, were adapted and reused for the development of Super Mario 64. Shigeru Miyamoto also stated that ideas such as All-Range Mode, multiplayer, and Star Wolf scenarios came from Star Fox 2. He estimated that 30% of Star Fox 64 came from Star Fox 2. Additionally, several game 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. The concept of the Arwing transforming into a Walker was reused in Star Fox Zero. Furthermore, Miyu's flirtatious attitude was given to Katt Monroe.
Availability[]
This game, in varying stages of development, is available in ROM form on the Internet, although in most countries it is considered illegal to possess without direct permission from Nintendo due to still technically being copyrighted material. Nintendo has made no attempt to remove the distribution of the ROM.
Most ROMs available are in Japanese, though an English fan-translation exists. A version with an official translation can be seen in magazine screenshots, but it is unknown if it was archived or scrapped. One unofficial modification has an odd glitch in which pressing select to turn into a Walker when prompted will immediately take the player to the credits, which cannot be skipped.
On May 21, 2015, Dylan Cuthbert interviewed the Nintendo Life website. He stated that, despite canceling Star Fox 2, his team finished the game anyway, and when working on Star Fox Command, received a copy of this master ROM. He also stated that the builds floating online were far from the final product. In addition, he cited nightmarish legal issues with the now-defunct Argonaut Games as a key reason for the lack of official digital releases of games utilizing the Super FX chip up to that point. He has repeated these sentiments on other occasions.
On June 26, 2017, Nintendo made the surprise announcement that Star Fox 2 will finally be included on the Super NES Classic Edition, set for a North American and European release date of September 29, 2017. It will mark the first time the game will be officially released in over two decades, as well as the first time that Super FX games will be re-released since their original Game Pak format. On June 28, 2017, a Nintendo representative speaking to Famitsu claimed that the reason Super FX games weren't on Virtual Console was due to it being unable to properly emulate the chip, leaving Dylan Cuthbert's legal explanation unmentioned.
On August 22, 2017, it was confirmed to USgamer that the Super NES Classic Edition will feature the original master, with Dylan Cuthbert adding that it was given the full QA process during the final few months of post-cancellation in 1996, including the completed English localization from the Japanese iteration used throughout development. Around this time, footage of the final version began to circulate in previews and advertisements.
On December 4, 2019, Nintendo released a video of upcoming updates to its Nintendo Switch Online NES & Super NES services, available from December 12, 2019. The December Game Updates of Nintendo Switch Online Super NES includes Star Fox 2 as a part of its portfolio of games, free to play for all players with Nintendo Switch Online membership.
External links[]
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20180101223636/https://www.nintendo.com/super-nes-classic/interview-star-fox-2
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20180101224303/https://tcrf.net/Proto:Star_Fox_2/April_15,_1994_Build
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20180101224515/https://tcrf.net/Proto:Star_Fox_2/June_22,_1995_Build
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20171113071457/http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=starfox2
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