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Star Fox co-programmer says he’d like to make a new game with no ‘gimmicks’

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

In an interview with GameXplain, Giles Goddard – who was one of the SNES Star Fox’s programmers at Argonaut Software – was asked if there was any Nintendo IP he would be interested in working on.

“It would be interesting to do a Star Fox, I think,” he replied. “But not how the other ones were done.”

Asked what he would do different, Goddard explained: “I think I would just dial it back a lot and not in gimmicks like, you know, the stuff Star Fox Zero had, and maybe not even put in the free roaming aspects and stuff like that.

“I would just bring it back, pull it back into what made the original Star Fox fun, and just make one based on that. I don’t know how popular it would be, but it would be cool to try.”

Goddard was then asked if he’d be interested in creating a Star Fox game or spiritual successor with the basic, polygonal look of the original game.

“Yeah, a sort of retro Star Fox thing? Um, no,” he replied. “I think if we did it, it would have to be either an extremely stylised retro look, or just very updated and modern-looking.

“But I wouldn’t try to replicate the polygons from the Super FX chip because I don’t see the point. You don’t go back that far, you know. We’ve fixed that problem, you don’t want to go back to it.”
 

jigglet

Banned
YES!

It seems that Nintendo always wants to find that one new gimmick to add to this specific franchise. It's not allowed to just be.

"and maybe not even put in the free roaming aspects and stuff like that."

He seems to get it. A small amount of free roaming would be ok; Starfox 64 had the perfect mix of linear gameplay with 1/10 maps being free roaming. I think the balance was just right.
 
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Scotty W

Gold Member
Giles, maybe you could work Vortex into a playable state.

Or you could get the game in the hands of the Panzer Dragoon Saga team.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
“I would just bring it back, pull it back into what made the original Star Fox fun, and just make one based on that. I don’t know how popular it would be, but it would be cool to try.”

Fuckin' finally. Leave that extra bullshit on the cutting room floor.

Good News Yes GIF by Bounce



Don't get out of the Arwing. Ever.
 

Ceadeus

Member
What if it would be somehow like kid ikarus 3D.

I like the character progression and unlockables, difficulty setting... You know, star fox but like kid ikarus 3d
 

6502

Member
Zero was great after your first frustrating run.

But tbh we would all rather have Lylat Wars style with modern graphics. The game could easily be a 6-12 month job, perfect to launch and showcase new hardware...
 

Shut0wen

Member
I get nintendos view of wanting to release certain ips with something new to them but shit like star fox and f zero should just come out without anything new to them, i can never see us having another f zero with a gimmick attached to it
 

disap.ed

Member

In an interview with GameXplain, Giles Goddard – who was one of the SNES Star Fox’s programmers at Argonaut Software – was asked if there was any Nintendo IP he would be interested in working on.

“It would be interesting to do a Star Fox, I think,” he replied. “But not how the other ones were done.”

Asked what he would do different, Goddard explained: “I think I would just dial it back a lot and not in gimmicks like, you know, the stuff Star Fox Zero had, and maybe not even put in the free roaming aspects and stuff like that.

“I would just bring it back, pull it back into what made the original Star Fox fun, and just make one based on that. I don’t know how popular it would be, but it would be cool to try.”

Goddard was then asked if he’d be interested in creating a Star Fox game or spiritual successor with the basic, polygonal look of the original game.

“Yeah, a sort of retro Star Fox thing? Um, no,” he replied. “I think if we did it, it would have to be either an extremely stylised retro look, or just very updated and modern-looking.

“But I wouldn’t try to replicate the polygons from the Super FX chip because I don’t see the point. You don’t go back that far, you know. We’ve fixed that problem, you don’t want to go back to it.”
Great. Do a new 1080° Snowboarding right after it!
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
I can't imagine the Nintendo audience knowing what the fuck to do with a rail shooter.

Like, even 10 years ago, read the reviews for Sin and Punishment 2, by far the longest arcade-style rail shooter ever made (almost 4 hours if you get through it without dying, which you won't), and made up entirely of memorable set pieces. And reviewers still whined that it was "short."
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Everyone would trash it for being too simplistic. Star Fox Zero injected about as much complexity as is possible in a rail shooter and people still thought it was lacking. It even came with an entire 2nd game for free.

This is a case of people speaking on nothing but pure nostalgia. When it comes time to buy the game, none of you would buy it for $60.

Case in point: look at the complaining about Metroid Dread on this site. Half of you don't even know what you want.
 
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EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
As much as I hated star fox Wii U I don’t trust star fox in carrying Nintendo like Star Fox SNES, Star Fox 64 and to some extent Star Fox Adventures did. I have no idea what a modern day Star Fox would look like especially on an unhealthy system like the Switch. I’d enjoy a star fox type game on PS5/Series X hardware.
 
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Hugare

Member
This coming from a guy who released a Facebook Quest-exclusive snowboarding game and is part of obnoxious, white-hipsters-in-Japan studio Chuhai Labs who is also releasing something on another gimmicky platform Playdate?

Okay
.
Err, dude is expressing what he wants in one game of one franchise

He is not expressing that "gimmicks are bad", he is just saying that maybe SF had enough of them already and need to go back to basics.
 

In an interview with GameXplain, Giles Goddard – who was one of the SNES Star Fox’s programmers at Argonaut Software – was asked if there was any Nintendo IP he would be interested in working on.

“It would be interesting to do a Star Fox, I think,” he replied. “But not how the other ones were done.”

Asked what he would do different, Goddard explained: “I think I would just dial it back a lot and not in gimmicks like, you know, the stuff Star Fox Zero had, and maybe not even put in the free roaming aspects and stuff like that.

“I would just bring it back, pull it back into what made the original Star Fox fun, and just make one based on that. I don’t know how popular it would be, but it would be cool to try.”

Goddard was then asked if he’d be interested in creating a Star Fox game or spiritual successor with the basic, polygonal look of the original game.

“Yeah, a sort of retro Star Fox thing? Um, no,” he replied. “I think if we did it, it would have to be either an extremely stylised retro look, or just very updated and modern-looking.

“But I wouldn’t try to replicate the polygons from the Super FX chip because I don’t see the point. You don’t go back that far, you know. We’ve fixed that problem, you don’t want to go back to it.”
Considering how Nintendo and Argonaut relationship ended this was a really take interview.

Nintendo has tried numerous times to turn Star Fox into anything other than a proper sequel to 64. I think Metroid Prime was a one time thing.
 
S

SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Everyone would trash it for being too simplistic. Star Fox Zero injected about as much complexity as is possible in a rail shooter and people still thought it was lacking. It even came with an entire 2nd game for free.
Star Fox Zero was trashed for the asymmetric gameplay gimmick and dated presentation. The same game without the gamepad and proper gyro aiming (also an option for a classic control scheme) would be received much better.

Star Fox has a lot of untapped potential as a franchise. They could make a mighty AAA space opera if they wanted to. They could finally find a satisfying solution for on-foot traversal (I liked Assault though), maybe even with some RPG influence!? You know, going from planet to planet, going to towns, have sidequests, level-ups, and customization for your ship, having a bigger emphasis on the lore (Assault did this really well), orchestrated soundtrack, etc.

...but even if keep the rail shooter formula, I don't think this whole debate is about a lack of complexity. There are just developers out there that took the rail shooter formula and build much better games with it. Treasure with Sin & Punishment 2 is a prime example. The reason why SF64 is still regarded as the best in the series is that it's the most consistent.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
We really don't need another StarFox game.

One probl is fans don't have a clue what they want from a StarFox game.
" Let's remake SNES StarFox again! How exciting"

Personally I thought starfox assault was onto something! It was badly implemented but at least it tried to push things forward with extra vehicles and a multiplayer mode with potential.

You cannot justify another on-rails shooter for full price to me. It's a genre that's so outdated and archaic. It needs to do something new otherwise don't bother and stick to StarFox 64.
 
It seems that Nintendo always wants to find that one new gimmick to add to this specific franchise. It's not allowed to just be.
The franchise was started as a gimmick to show off the FX chip, then it went on to be used to show off the rumble pack in the N64... I think the GameCube entry is the only one that's not "gimmick" based.

I know 3D and rumble ended up not being gimmicks.
 
S

SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Star Fox has sucked after Adventures, and even that was a drastic departure by RARE, what a lovely game.
sorry to say, but Assault > Adventures any day of the week.

At least Assault made an attempt to advance the series and at least knows what it wants to be. Adventures is like taking Grand Turismo, slapping Mario in there, and saying it's the new Mario Kart. It's not a Star Fox game. Maybe it's Dino Fox.
 

01011001

Banned
unpopular opinion... Star Fox Zero is the second best Star Fox game after Star Fox 64

60fps, classic arcade style gameplay, and I had zero (pun not intended) issues with the controls either...
 
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IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Fly along with Star Fox developer Giles Goddard (Programmer), and current colleague at Chuhai Labs, Mark Lentz, as they watch and react to an incredibly fast playthrough of Star Fox (SNES) by SnakeMadness. Turns out it's sometimes hard to remember who exactly designed that boss 30 years ago. Enjoy!
 
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