Review - Unreleased star fox 2 for Snes

Back in the '90's, The Super NES was pushing the limits of the gaming world. With the advent of 3D gaming popping up in the arcades, and new consoles on the horizon with "lush 3D world's", Nintendo didn't want their user base to jump train and hop on with the other guys. In order to do so, they introduced the Super FX chip. This little diddy was able to provide a math processor to the system via the cartridges and allow developers to release real, 3D polygon based games.

One game that became the flagship Super FX game was Star Fox. This was an incredible flight shooter game. The premise was all to familiar in many aspects, but it was a fun and exciting game with plenty of difficulty. It has since spawned a few sequels. However, of all the sequels released, ONE was never released to the public. That was Star Fox 2 on the SNES.





This title was amazing. It was supposedly going to use the Super FX 2 chip to allow for more polygons, faster frame rates, and better texture mapping. Star Fox 2 also had a new way of play. Rather than being led to particular worlds and locations, you could actually plot your course there, making alterations along the way.

Rumor has it that the title was anywhere from 70% to 95% complete, and from the way the game played, it shows. There is a comment over at Wikipedia that quotes a programmer for stating that the Japanese version was 100%, minus the debugging system was still in place. The beta 1.1 release of the game has all of the menu's, sounds, graphics, and game play in place. It has only one level, and three difficulty settings. Surprisingly, with the use of a newer released SNES emulator, you can easily play the game.

Is the game playable? VERY much so. I played through the beta 1.1v and completed it to the point of defeating Andros, and being able to view the credits. I did this on the normal difficulty setting, so I am not to certain if you are able to actually defeat the game on higher difficulties.

Now, rumors persist that the game was canceled because Nintendo was just about ready to release the Nintendo 64 (N64), and Miyamoto wanted to distance the SNES and the N64 when 3D was concerned, as the N64 was supposed to be the only true 3D console in Nintendo's arsenal.

In regards to components of the game living on, Star Fox 64 inherited the All-Range mode, Multi-Player mode, and Star Wolf scenarios. Some of the flight mechanics also carried over, such as the barrel roll to deflect incoming shots. The Nintendo DS version of Star Fox, Star Fox Command, inherited the game play style seen in Star Fox 2, being the Semi real time map, and mission styles.


All in all, if you feel the need to experience a GRAND game that never got to be released, do a Google Search for Star Fox 2, and I guarantee you will find the beta 1.1 version. I recommend either zSNES, or SNES9x to play this title. Also, make sure you have the most recent release of these emulators. I promise that you will NOT be disappointed with this title, even though all of the text is primarily in Japanese