It’s been six years since Star Fox Zero released on the Wii U, and Nintendo has hardly touched the Star Fox franchise since then. Star Fox had an appearance in the poorly performing Starlink: Battle for Atlas, and we got Star Fox 64 on Nintendo Switch Online via the Expansion Pack, which scratched the itch many fans have been feeling for the last few years. But Nintendo’s silence on the series for the last few years begs the question: What could be next for Star Fox?
For those unaware, Star Fox is more than just the series that brought Fox, Falco, and Wolf to Super Smash Bros. The Star Fox games primarily consist of rail shooters, like Sin and Punishment or Time Crisis. The games follow Fox McCloud and his ship, the Arwing, as they fly through space and over various planets, fighting aliens, robots, and other anthropomorphic animal pilots. Some entries have attempted to break the formula, introducing gameplay out of your Arwing involving weapons, additional vehicles, and, in one occurrence, a magic staff.
If there’s one thing that the Switch has proven, it’s that it’s a great legacy console, having ports or remasters of games from prior consoles like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, Miitopia, and Advance Wars. It could very well be that we’ll see a remaster of a Star Fox game soon. My personal pick would be Star Fox Assault, originally released on GameCube in 2005. This game went by mildly unnoticed, and it seems many people have forgotten about it. It does, however, feature a great story mode and an incredibly fun multiplayer mode. With upscaled graphics and online play, this could be a great way to bring more fans into the franchise.
Perhaps we could be getting a brand new entry to the series. It could be a sequel to one of the other games or maybe a new story featuring another team. I’ve always liked the idea of a Star Wolf game following Fox McCloud’s rival, Wolf, and his teammates—or maybe a prequel game, focusing on the previous Star Fox team, featuring Fox’s father, James McCloud (Yes, there’s a surprisingly deep Star Fox lore). Whatever happens, a brand new game with tight controls and a good story could really entice both longtime fans as well as newcomers.
Sadly, there’s always the chance that the answer to our question today is simply, “Nothing.” Nintendo’s had a long history of letting beloved franchises slip away into obscurity. Just look at F-Zero, Mother, or Golden Sun. Sure, there’s the chance that we’ll get a new game years down the road, but there’s also a chance that Nintendo simply isn’t making the franchise a priority, focusing instead on their big series, like Mario and Zelda. While this is a very sad possibility for fans, it could also very well be the harsh reality.
What sort of StarFox content do you hope we see from Nintendo in the coming years? Tell us what type of game you’d love to see down below, or join us on our Discord.
Image Source: Arwingpedia
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