At Gamescom, Rhiannon Bevan from TheGamer got in some words with none other than Takaya Imamura, a key character designer for Star Fox and F-Zero. In the interview, they went over the two dormant franchises and whether or not a revival for either or both could be on the horizon.
Luckily for Star Fox fans, Imamura believes that, out of the two, Shigeru Miyamoto- the creator of both franchises- has “got [the[ strongest feelings for Star Fox,” rather than F-Zero. He then suggested that, because of Miyamoto’s love for the Star Fox series, “we’ll see another game, film, [or] some kind of new development with the IP at some point, but I don’t know when or what.”
And on his behalf, Imamura has already told Miyamoto to “please give me a call” for when and if a Star Fox movie gets greenlit.
On that note, Imamura also spoke about the merits of adapting games iinto film:
“If you create a game on a certain game platform or medium, so for example, F-Zero on the Super Nintendo, once that hardware platform is gone, then the IP itself ceases to be accessible. But if you create a film, then that’s accessible through the ages.”
As for F-Zero, the artist who brought Captain Falcon to life hinted that Miyamoto would need a good reason or a new spin on the series to prioritize it over new games and new projects.
This, of course, tracks with what we know of Nintendo’s M.O.
In a 2022 interview with Venture Beat, former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé suggested the same as Imamura did recently, saying that “at least during my tenure, Nintendo developers were always experimenting with different gameplay styles, always thinking about where a unique experience could be applied back, either to an existing franchise or maybe creating a new franchise. My bet is that somewhere in the Kyoto development centers, some developer is playing around with an idea that might be applied to F-Zero. It’s never a situation, at least in my experience, where the company makes a conscious decision not to continue supporting X-Y-Z franchise. Historically it just hasn’t worked that way, not when I was there.”
Beyond that, Imamura talked about AI briefly, saying:
“It’s human nature to want to see the face of the person behind the creative vision. So I do think AI can be used […] but I think at the end of the day, there’s going to be somebody behind that or creating something alongside, because, without that, there’s no connection between the audience and the artist.”
And finally, he talked about some of his own creativity by brushing up on his upcoming game Omega 6: The Triangle Stars:
“As a creative person, I just want to work on the things I want to work on. Just keep creating,”
“Omega 6 has been born in a time when it’s actually really difficult to kick off [a] new IP, so I’m really, really thankful to everybody who’s been involved.”
Fans of Imamura’s previous works may want to keep an eye out for Omega 6, which, despite not having a definitive release date for Switch, seems poised to deliver some of the charm that defined Star Fox and F-Zero during his time at Nintendo.
I think the franchise is long overdue for a another game. Seriously. It really needs another game now. I’m glad that someone mentioned this in the interview.
God Bless this man for holding out hope: I would low-key love another Star Fox game, as long as they just make it without any unnecessary gimmicks.
Just give us a straight up space shooter like 64, or something like assault if you really want to push the envelope, and it should do well: or at least decently enough to be considered worth keeping the brand alive
I have to agree with you on that statement you made. If they ever develop a good or unique controllers for a new game if people wanted a new Starfox game for with good controller mechanics on any Nintendo console for advance players who love the franchise, then there is still a chance it could happen. I’m still disappointed that the Star fox racing game was cancelled according to another user on here told me about it.
Now here’s hoping SOMEONE in Nintendo does something with this
This is one of my all time favorite games!
Fox is my switch icon.
There is still a chance… until Nintendo force more gimmick control mechanics into it that nobody wanted or asked for.
At this point I don’t even care about a new Starfox game, just port the wiiu version with actual controller support without the crappy dual screen function.
Another thing Nintendo can do is just make an anniversary collection that includes every starfox 1, 2, zero, command, adventures, assault, guard, and 64 3D.
If Capcom can make multiple collections for the switch back to back, the least Nintendo can do is make one for their own system.
i know Miyamoto loves his weird quirky gimmicks, but “Star Fox continues to exist as a franchise” feels like gimmick enough at this point
That’s how I feel about F-Zero.
Like, it’s been gone long enough (not including F-Zero 99- good to have gotten it, but it’s not new). Simply bringing it back is the only hook Star Fox and F-Zero should have.
Well the last time Nintendo did a Star Fox game, it went awry. I gave it points for trying, but then quickly revoked them because of just how messy the game was (forced motion controls, single-ship co-op multiplayer only, awkward dual perspective gameplay where either flying or aiming suffers when you look at the other screen, retreading the plot of SF64, etc.).
I would love another Star Fox, but they have to truly go back to what made the SNES and N64 entries such classics- none of these unwanted gimmicks we saw with Zero.
I’m kinda bored of that same tired excuse for not making a new F Zero. I can come up with numerous ideas for how they could do something different both in terms of gameplay and structure so the developers definitely can too. Even if you had no new ideas and they just made a better looking version of GX, enough time has past that there is a newer audience that are potentially more receptive to it. Sounds to me like they’ve just given up on the franchise outside of retro stuff which is sad for fans like me
Not going to lie, an Anime starting Season 1 with his Dad would also be a temp Substitute while we wait on a game.
I think star fox was a great one-off title and had a couple of good entries, but it’s alright to let sleeping dogs lie.