Star Fox 2
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 One of the few games in history to first get cancelled but got released later anyway, and even better, it's what Star Fox Command should have been!
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Star Fox 2 is a video game in the Star Fox series. It was originally slated to be released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995, directly proceeding the first Star Fox in 1993. Argonaut Software and Nintendo co-developed the game, and it was planned to utilize an improved Super FX chip; however, the game was canceled by Shigeru Miyamoto due to the impending release of the Nintendo 64 and the desire to use the most advanced system available for a new Star Fox game. The game remained officially unreleased for over 22 years, until June 26, 2017.
Plot
Star Fox 2 takes place in the Lylat System some time after the events of Star Fox. Emperor Andross, having survived his defeat at the hands of the Star Fox mercenaries in the first game, has returned with a rebuilt space armada and a new floating stronghold called Astropolis. He has also hired the Star Wolf wing and their unique fighters as a countermeasure against Star Fox.
With his renewed power, Andross launches an all-out offensive against the Lylat system, capturing planets along the way and converting them into war factories (including his former base, Venom, which has been terraformed into a livable world since his previous invasion). General Pepper once again requests the services of the Star Fox mercenaries, which has expanded from their original roster of Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare, to include the new recruits Miyu and Fay. They also have more and better equipment, including new specialized and transformable Arwings and a Mothership to repair and resupply them. The team sets out to defend Corneria by defeating Andross's forces before they can inflict critical damage on the planet. The ultimate goal is to destroy Astropolis, before Andross's new air force inflict too much damage on Corneria.
Why It Rocks
- Rather than being a linear shoot 'em up like in the first game, this game tried another formula, which is the real-time strategy game, in which this game execute this concept very well and much better than in Star Fox Command, but still had the shoot 'em up gameplay that everyone loved.
- It is even more impressive than the first game because it had another vehicle, the Walker, and the gameplay is even more 3D-like than in the predecessor, as seen when playing with the Walker.
- The Walker would also appear again in Star Fox Zero.
- Amazing graphics for its time, and they're also a big improvement over the first game visuals, since they look sharper and the sprites themselves are even more detailed and the graphics are also very colorful.
- The framerate, while still not perfect, is slightly better than in the first game and is a bit faster. There's still a lot of sluggish framerate in some levels, but still, it isn't as annoying as in the first game.
- The framerate in the traditional shoot 'em up levels, for the most part, has a much better framerate than the rest of the game.
- The story is still quite interesting.
- The gameplay is very fun, as the strategy gameplay really add up to the game charm and it could have easily been a huge hit if it was released back then, not to mention that the game is once again very challenge and in a good way, making this game even better than the first thank to it's even more polished gameplay style.
- In fact, the Walker gameplay is also just as fun and also make its introduction to the franchise, and its gameplay is on-foot, which is very fun, but still has action shoot 'em up gameplay, so it isn't too out-of-place.
- The game also had some voice acting, which sound just as clean as in the first game, and the Lylat speaking voices are still pretty fun to listen to. In fact, several voice clips are done by Nathalie Cox (aka Juno Eclipse from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed).
- This game chronologically introduced Team Star Wolf even before Star Fox 64, and while their designs are not really seen, you still fight them, and their names also appear (Wolf O'Donnell, Pigma Dengar, Leon Palowski, and Algy, the latter of whom is replaced by Andrew Oikonny in later games).
- Awesome soundtrack, having a lot of very fun music to listen to that doesn't feel repetitive. Much like Sonic Advance 3 OST, the style of music is also very different from the first game.
- Great, solid controls, despite the somewhat abysmal framerate. Even the Walker controls well despite its poor framerats.
- The game is very challenging, but way more balanced than the first game, because it is not frustrating because of the poor framerate or the hit-or-miss collision detection, but rather because of the clever difficulty that was though for this game, since the strategy gameplay is somewhat reminiscent of a real-time strategy mode, and if you fail to protect the Great Fox, then you're down (an instant Game Over) and will not get any continues. In fact,.it might possibly be the most challenging Star Fox game ever made.
- It introduced a lot of characters, such as the aforementioned Star Wolf team, Miyu (a tomboyish lynx) and Fay (a girly dog with a red ribbon on her head); howewer, they would not appear in any other games of the series (save for the former), like many of the characters in Star Fox Command. Essentially, Miyu and Fay get replaced by Krystal in later games.
- It had a difficulty-choosing option, which is amazing for those who want a more difficult mode to play or a much easier version of the game.
- Even better, those two modes of difficulty had different level design for most of the levels, meaning that the game had very huge replay values.
- Speaking about it, this game had ton of replay values, especially compared to the first game, which had some replay value, but only because it has three courses to play. Here, it's not only because of two difficulty modes, but also because of having more success in the strategy or even if you just want to beat the game as quickly as possible.
- It introduced a lot of new things that would be used in most games of the series after this, such as the aforementioned Team Star Wolf, the Landmaster, and the Great Fox.
Bad Qualities
- The game is way shorter than the first game, as this time you can beat the game in only 45 minutes (1h 30m if counting the two difficulty modes).
- The framerate, while still improved from the first game, still is abysmal because of running at sometime 15 FPS or even less, even if the FPS dropping is not as present here.
- In fact, it is way more noticeable with the Walker, where when you use it, the game runs even slower and in a sluggish way, making it annoying for those who want to play a fast action shoot 'em up game.
- Team Star Wolf aren't quite as funny and good characters as in the next games, howewer, their funny yet serious character traits would appear in Star Fox 64.
- The difficulty can still be frustrating at times, especially because of the poor framerate in some areas.
Reception
Star Fox 2 received positive reviews by gamers, being praised for it's impressive gameplay, it's musics and the addition of the Landmaster, howewer it imfamously got a score of 5 by IGN.
The game had a score of 3.7 on Gamefaqs based on 272 users votes.
Trivia
- This game, Star Fox Adventures, and Star Fox Assault are the only Star Fox games whose endgames do not take place on Venom at all. In this game's endgame, Fox and his friends storm Astropolis, but they can still visit Venom, unlike the latter two games.
- Star Fox Adventures took place around the planet Sauria (known as "Dinosaur Planet" in that game) for the whole game.
- Star Fox: Assault's endgame involves the planet where the Aparoids make their lair.
- Star Fox Command does not count, since it can have its endgame occur on Venom, but other endgame sites include the Asteroid Belt, Corneria, and Sectors X and Y, and the player can cut the game short at Aquas by having Slippy Toad and Amanda stay together there.
- In the final artwork, Fox clearly wears green as he does in every other game except the first Star Fox, since his promotional puppet wore similar clothing colors as Falco except differentiated with a lighter shade and pink scarf rather than a red one. Miyu also has larger ears lacking her left golden earring, her clothing is recolored, and both she and Fay wear reddish gloves. Andross's image in the background has a visible pupil in his right eye, and the four Arwings flying behind the team exclude Slippy and Peppy's bulky ships. The teams' boot designs have been updated in the general style of other games, while they were originally formfitting. Additionally, the number "2" has a slightly different metallic texture design between the Super NES and Super Famicom-style artwork.