Star Fox 2 (Super NES, 1995)

Star Fox 2

Many game sequels simply take the original approach and add slightly improved graphics. If that was all Star Fox 2 was going to be, then maybe its cancellation would have stung a bit less. But that wasn't the case; Star Fox 2 offered a radically new, non-linear style of play that would have allowed players to roam free around the Lylat System defending Corneria. And like the original Star Fox, which first made use of the Super FX 3-D graphics processor, the game offered a grand assembly of ships, fights, bases and other space elements. The game also allegedly had a feature that would allow players to transform their Arwing fights into giant walking robots. Oh, and there were anthropomorphized animals - a lynx and a dog. Thus, Star Fox 2 would take many of the elements that made the original so memorable and add an entirely new vision while blending action with real-time strategy. In short, Star Fox looked like classic Nintendo and another example of Miyamoto magic.

Then Nintendo did something it hadn't really done before. It slapped its fans across the face. While the title was reportedly finished and ready to go, Nintendo never published the game, and never really offered a full explanation as to why Star Fox was cancelled. Some speculated that because Nintendo 64 was to arrive soon and a Star Fox 64 was already in development, fans would simply skip over Star Fox 2. Of course, there was speculation that the opposite was true - that Star Fox 2 would be too good and would overshadow the Nintendo 64. Some of the features and ideas of Star Fox 2 were eventually incorporated in other installments of the series.

Like EarthBound Zero/Mother, a rough version of the game can be found on the Web. But Star Fox fans are hoping for the real thing and are waiting anxiously to hear if Nintendo will release Star Fox 2 on the forthcoming digital distribution service for Wii.