Star Fox’s Official Return Is The Perfect Time To Reinvent The Series

Fox McCloud is officially back, and that means it’s time for Nintendo to give his series the comeback it deserves. Star Fox has floundered for years, with its most recent games falling relatively flat – the long-delayed Star Fox 2 withstanding. It’s an understandable issue from Nintendo’s perspective; rail shooters like classic Star Fox can seemingly only innovate so far, but there’s a specific niche the series can fill in Nintendo’s first-party slate.

It was recently revealed that Fox McCloud will appear in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (voiced by Glen Powell), marking his big-screen debut. The Star Fox star’s inclusion has fans theorizing that a Super Smash Bros. crossover movie may be on the way, but it’s also an opportunity for the Star Fox team to re-enter the gaming limelight, which may happen this year if rumors turn out to be true. Nintendo, it’s time to reinvent Star Fox as a roguelike.

Star Fox Is Perfect For A Roguelike

Classic Star Fox already has the bones of a roguelike game, even down to its star system maps, which are reminiscent of roguelikes where you choose your path through an act, like Slay the Spire or Inscyption. Star Fox‘s separate levels offer opportunities to acquire upgrades between missions, altering how your Arwing works in the next fight, and can be rearranged and randomized to add variety.

Gameplay could be altered even further by giving different stats or play styles to the members of Star Fox – Falco, Slippy, Peppy, and Krystal (among other characters, like Star Fox 2‘s “new” Miyu and Fay) all have different personalities and tendencies already. Despite vehicles other than the Arwing being contentious additions to previous games, they are another opportunity to build out a roguelike Star Fox.

The idea supports much of Star Fox‘s existing structure, or at least that of the classic games. Mini-bosses could adapt the All-Range Mode dogfights introduced in Star Fox 64, providing an opportunity to bring back Star Wolf or introduce other mercenary bands. Boss encounters like the iconic Andross fights could easily return as well, capping off runs with frantic bullet hell sections.

Nintendo Has Already Proved It Can Make A Great Roguelike

Bringing Star Fox back as a roguelike is an opportunity for Nintendo to fill out its first-party offerings. The storied genre doesn’t really have a representative in the Nintendo lineup, but is only growing more popular as each year brings massive hits like Balatro and Slay the Spire 2. Nintendo recently dipped its toes into roguelike design with the Donkey Kong Bananza expansion, DK Island & Emerald Rush. The latter half of that unwieldy title is the roguelike game mode in question, and is a brilliant replayable twist on Bananza‘s smashing gameplay.

To be fair, making one roguelike add-on doesn’t automatically mean success on another. Bananza has a significantly deep platforming move set that can be pushed very far with enough skill. Adding depth to Star Fox, which is traditionally a rail shooter, is a different matter. Forays into adventure games didn’t really suit Star Fox, but returning to its roots and making it more modular could be a winning formula. Flying an Arwing and blasting Andross’s minions is still a great time, and with Nintendo proving its roguelike chops, simply giving classic Star Fox more gameplay permutations feels like an obvious evolution.

Star Fox Deserves A Comeback

Maybe I just have particularly fond memories of Star Fox 64, but the series’ lack of direction has always felt like a disservice. Its characters are likable – dare I say, iconic – and the combination of battles in space and in-atmosphere in a solar system-wide conflict gives each entry significant gravitas and spectacle, despite older games being quaint by modern standards. Even Nintendo sees the appeal in a roguelike entry, since Star Fox 2 includes genre elements (check out this great write-up on the game’s development from Nintendo Life).

Star Fox 2 was shelved in favor of Star Fox 64 as the industry rapidly moved toward 3D graphics in the mid-1990s. Star Fox 2 was eventually released in 2017, 22 years after its completion, on the Super NES Classic Edition.

Fox has sadly become equally, if now more, known for his longstanding role in the Super Smash Bros. games – not that that series and his appearances therein aren’t important, but it illustrates how little cultural cachet Star Fox has. Hyping up Fox’s appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie may be an unfortunate spoiler (it would have been a great surprise), but it may prove Nintendo’s renewed dedication to the character and his series.

Star Fox did not receive a new entry on the Switch, Nintendo’s best-selling console ever. In the eight years of the Switch’s lifespan, apparently no worthy Star Fox ideas came to light. It’s a bit sad to see a once-prominent series – big enough to take one of only 12 roster spots in the original Smash Bros. – fizzle out after a handful of lackluster games. Star Fox doesn’t need some radical reimagining; it’s a legendary rail shooter and space combat series, and simply adopting some roguelike elements may be what it needs to feel fresh again.