Miyamoto says:
“I tend to forget those games [laughs]. I’m a big fan of the ‘Star Fox’ games. Every time we make a ‘Star Fox’ game I’m hoping people will enjoy it as much as I do. Of course the goal every time is to try and make it more and more fun but, at least in Japan, the people that purchase the ‘Star Fox’ games has decreased over the years. But we still try to make them more fun and hopefully people will see the appeal in those games.”
I don’t quite know how to make the above comment. Japan doesn’t like 3d Mario, yet that doesn’t stop Nintendo from cranking 3d Marios out like candy. We know that Nintendo developers *love* making such a game so that is why it is made. They don’t make 2d Mario, despite the massive, massive demand for it, for one reason: Miyamoto just doesn’t want to make it. There is no explanation that can excuse twenty years of Nintendo ignoring the game that made the company to what it is (and not understanding the steep decline of “Mario games” with 3d Mario).
Am I to believe that Starfox is so loved by Miyamoto and Nintendo that they farm it out to a mediocre third party company? Is Starfox so loved that Nintendo passes on making it to make yet more 3d Mario (Mario Galaxy 2) or a soap opera about Samus Aran (Metroid: Other M)? Is Starfox so loved that they forced it on Rare’s “Dinosaur Planet” and effectively made the franchise a big joke? Is this the love that Miyamoto has?
What a funny way of showing this love. You would think Nintendo didn’t care about Starfox and wasn’t concerned that they ran the franchise into the ground. You can’t imagine such mediocre third party games of Starfox being made as they would be with, say, Zelda or Metroid.
Starfox was, primarily, to show off new 3d technology with the FX chip and later the rumble pak with Starfox 64. Starfox was a fantastic game when it came out and still holds up pretty well today (but god, does that 3d look dated). Starfox 64 holds up well too (though I am no fan of the ‘fly anywhere missions’).
Starfox DS is an interesting creature. It is interesting because it tells me that the old farts at Nintendo have too much power. Starfox DS was made SOLELY so the old farts at Nintendo could put out their precious “Starfox 2 gameplay idea”. Starfox DS was not responding to the market as it exists TODAY. It was a game based on a fifteen year old idea.
Nintendo is like a factory of gameplay ideas. These gameplay ideas are stored in their refrigerator. Just as you have a desire to throw out old gameplay ideas in the refrigerator because it is annoying to you, the same seems to go for Nintendo and their gameplay ideas.
Whatever the gameplay idea is, they warp the content around that.
If anything, Starfox should illustrate that the way how Nintendo has been doing things is ending up destroying their franchises. Take Zelda. I remember when a Zelda, on handheld or console, was greeted with huge hype and enthusiasm. With Zelda: Spirit Tracks, i.e. the Choo-Choo Train Zelda, you don’t see any real excitement about the game. Nintendo made the game starting with the gameplay idea first (trains and tracks) and then warped the content afterward.
Look at what happened to Mario. Mario used to be huge back in the 80s and 90s. Now, no one really cares about him. What happened? Nintendo went the “gameplay idea” first and warped content afterward. I figure that Nintendo hates 2d Mario mainly because they cannot come up with many “gameplay ideas” for it as they can with Mario Galaxy. Now, the content of Mario Galaxy makes no sense whatsoever. As the Eurogamer review put it, something seems very wrong especially with Mario doing un-Mario things like lighting four lamps with fire as in a Zelda game.
Starfox is an illustrative example of this. Gamers want a Starfox game like the SNES or N64 where you fly around and shoot stuff. They don’t want to be on a Dinosaur Planet picking up nuts. They don’t want to fly around in circles and not doing much as the Starfox DS version had. Starfox games are a game of action and intensity. Starfox is not a strategy game or an RPG or a soap opera. The fans have indicated their desires very well, yet they are constantly ignored.
The process of gameplay trumping the content of gameplay is why Starfox is where it is today. People don’t want the wheel invented. They want that good old Starfox gameplay. But they don’t want to play old levels in a retro way. They want a brand new adventure with the same gameplay skeleton.
Mario Kart succeeds because it doesn’t change its gameplay skeleton. It adds new cars, new racers, new tracks, new tricks, new thrills, etc. But the game doesn’t suddenly morph into Pilotwings where everyone is racing planes or an RPG where everyone is trying to collect tires.
For consumers, changing the gameplay is not important. Does the gameplay of Tennis, Football, Baseball, or Basketball change? No.
Back to basics means more than being production efforts focused. Back to basics means going back to why people played the game in the first place.
And no one will deny, not even the hardcore, that the reason why people play Starfox is due to the simple-yet-intense space ship shooting that the SNES and N64 versions had.
That and its kickass music.
Above: Even the control screen had better music than games do today!
