2

StarFox 2 was to be the much-anticipated sequel to StarFox, one of the fastest-selling games of all time (prelaunch orders for 1.7 million copies...). StarFox 2, with a 16 megabit ROM capacity (or so we thought with the "final" one in the wild being only 8 megabits) and a SuperFX2 coprocessor, was set to offer more complex action than the original, but never came out. The reasons for this are unclear to this day, though stories from Dan Owsen as relayed to me by VanBrain on Nsider claim the game wasn't "good enough" for release.

However, a Dylan Cuthbert interview claims that the game WAS finished, but it was the advent of the N64 that caused the game to get canned.

Many of StarFox 2's elements were incorporated into StarFox 64. Most of these pictures show an "all-range mode" type of play, plus many other vehicles. There is a two-player "versus mode," and, according to the StarFox 64 Player's Guide, it also had Star Wolf.

In the last few years at least 2 incomplete versions of the game have appeared online. The first is little more than a very buggy alpha version of the game which includes a 2-player mode. The second is a beta that is still incomplete, lacks a 2-player mode, but has most of the sound and features working. Both are smaller than the finished game was to be.

TOTAL! Issue 39, March 1995

Page 1 Credit to JayDrive for these scans from a U.K. magazine reporting on StarFox2 with pictures from the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. Once upon a time there was no such thing as E3, and the biannual CES was the place to be for video games. Page 2 The article continues with a picture of the 2-player mode. Page 3 The arwing is depicted in page 3. Page 4 Another show-floor picture and a neat picture of Fox McCloud dominate this page.

Two Title Screens

NP Title Nintendo Power Volume 69 I REALLY hope this was preliminary art. What happened to Andross' eye? Notice that there are two new characters on the title screen. In this picture one is a sheep while the other is a lynx. Both were female pilots, according to the issue. Do you suppose the lynx was the inspiration for Katt Monroe in StarFox 64? DG Title Diehard Gamefan Volume 3 Issue 3 An friend of mine told me she saw a dog character in early shots of the game. I hadn't until I came across this (low-quality) screen shot. It looks like the sheep was replaced by a dog with a big red bow. Could the dog be an inspiration for Bill Grey in StarFox 64?

Diehard Gamefan, volume 3 issue 3

City It's good to know the city-like feel of Corneria in StarFox was preserved. It looks like it'd be fun to fly over a cityscape at sunset! Space What would a StarFox game be without outer space action? Walking The ability to turn your ship into a walking vehicle was a new addition to StarFox 2. It sounds okay, but just give me my normal arwing and I'll be happy!