u/TheSouthPen

'Beat True Andross without getting hit' Yeah that's cool until you realize his rock inhaling attack has a low RNG chance of hitting you with the rocks from offscreen no matter where you brake

'Destroy the Bolse Satellite without getting hit' and you have to play in such an obtuse way to reduce the chance of the Bolse core lasers hitting you once or twice

'Beat Star Wolf without losing a wing' and then Peppy flies into you

Etc etc

Like some of these aren't even the hardest to get in 4 or 5 tries but a lot of the ways you can fail the challenges are SO random

Currently on my last expert challenge and no-hitting Andross makes me want to tear my hair out

That stupid look on his face as he says it, so proud of himself too

After comparing the two games, I actually think the remake is overall [slightly] harder than the original game, although some levels are definitely easier. Some standouts are:

Area 6: The Gorgon is MUCH harder this time around, mainly because the tentactle swatting attack is like over twice as fast. It's pretty hard to react to, let alone dodge, and unless you've fought the boss a few times you're pretty much guaranteed to go to Venom 2 with broken wings now.

Aquas: The Blue Marine's torpedo lock-on has been nerfed compared to the original 64 game. It's not a big change, but you have to think more before firing torpedos, and its easier to get hit for a badly timed torpedo launch. It's definitely tougher now.

Star Wolf: I dunno exactly what they changed, but the Star Wolf AI is definitely buffed in the remake, and its at least decently tougher to take them out quickly, which makes each level they appear in a bit tougher. Its nice.

Solar: Vulcan's arms are a bit harder to shoot, which makes killing the boss slightly harder.

Katina and Sector Z: Thanks to the fact charge shots don't despawn offscreen, its a lot easier to rid the level of enemies by spamming locked charge shots in both levels. Also, thanks to the better visibility and draw distance, you can find the floating space junk in Sector Z MUCH easier, where you pretty much had to stumble across it in the original game.

The lore additions are SO cool, its like reading Starfox related SCP articles almost. They finally confirm things that were either only in guidebooks or fan headcanon, and the extra detail they inject into the game makes it so much more interesting.

Like, in case you haven't been paying attention to that part of the game, here's just a few things you're kind of missing (Spoilers for Holoviewer)

-Bacoon and the Aquas monsters were planned to be used to attack Corneria via water, at least if the research had finished in time (Aquas was basically a testing ground for the bioweaponry)

-Spyborg's AI only went insane because Andross' forces turned it on before the body was complete, and once the AI realized it was just an unfinished machine, it went berserk

-Golemech isn't just running away from you, it's purpose was specifically to lure enemy craft into the Andross Temple where they'd presumably be destroyed by the constant traps Golemech's heavy, echoing footsteps would trigger in its wake. Fox and Team were just so good it didn't work

Its all more in-depth than I assumed we'd get at first glance, and I think the Venom/Sector X files standout as some of the most interesting so far. It's peak, basically trophies from Smash but for Starfox, and I REALLY hope a potential sequel keeps doing it.

Ignoring Boss Battles, imo the hardest level in the game is definitely Venom 1. And while its partially thanks to how many lasers/enemies are on screen throughout the level, the biggest factor is how much you have to dodge obstacles. There's all the rocks, beams, the entire Golemech fight, etc. It's great, and really presses you to get good at arwing flight control.

However, I think most of the rest of the game is way easier, and mostly because Venom 1 (apart from Sector X's warp and maybe Solar) is really the only level in the game that specifically tests your ability to dodge obstacles. Obstacles like walls, beams or the like can't be barrel rolled through, and will break your wings eventually. Not to mention they add a bit of fun to the level since imo dodging things in the Arwing has a bit of skill expression to it, its fun.

That's also part of why Starfox (SNES) is a harder game, as there's way more things that you can bump into.

I think a potential sequel to Starfox 2026 could be great if it leaned into obstacles as a difficulty metric as much as Starfox 2026 does its enemy density. Maybe even having more obstacles in a level if playing expert mode?

I appreciate expert mode filling the screen with a lot more enemies compared to normal (along with taking more damage/wing damage), but that mostly just gives you more potential for higher scores without REALLY making the game that much harder. Having say, twice as many buildings you have to weave through in corneria, more un-shootable asteroids in Meteo, more debris to dodge around in sector Z, or blockades you have to weave past in Area 6 would do tons for a game like this.

Katt as a new team member? Yes! You SHOULD do that actually, Peppy!

[Also I'm not gonna lie, Katt looks great when she's not an AI-upscaled blurry screenshot, I've BEEN saying]

Specifically, I think 'Laser Pods',' Rockets' and 'Force Field' have the most potential to join the ranks alongside Bombs and Lazer:

Laser Pods: It could be that after achieving Dual, then Hyper Lazers, getting the upgrade a third time could give your Arwing nerfed version of Lazer Pods for even more firepower.

Force Field: Similar to its appearance in Starfox 1, Force Field would serve as a temporary invincibility powerup, functionally the same as it is in multiplayer. Also, Nintendo could make harder level design with more obstacles without worrying, since they could always just put Force Field power-ups in those levels on lower difficulty settings.

Rockets: If a way to make them distinct from bombs was found (maybe allowing rockets to lock onto multiple enemies in exchange for smaller blast radius) that'd be enough to justify it imo.

I think most of the other items are too overpowered for any kind of campaign, BUT it could be really cool if Star Wolf was given some of those as a way to make their fights more difficult (maybe giving Star Wolf access to a weaker Plasma Blast if their health is low, giving them Lock-On missiles as a counterpart to Star Fox smart bombs, etc)

Falco's ship seems to follow 'actual' Arwing speed with his boost pretty much matching Fox's, so you can fly right beside him if your timing is good-

I know, not a big deal, but I just think its a really cool thing that makes flying through the arches twice as satisfying. I've noticed you can do the same thing on Venom 1 when you're flying alongside your team in the valleys, too...

Okay but like...
This has to be the biggest Aura Loss I've seen for a video game character in ages. Like yeah its Andrew so of course the memes about his glowup weren't going to stick for long but I still nearly burst laughing seeing what they did to him on the Venom 2 rematch...

There's legitimately no way, someone on the dev team has to hate him lmfaooo

What are we thinking of these numbers?

Like okay?

Funniest outcome that some Gamestop employee saw how many 'huge starfox fan' YouTube reactors didn't recognize Aquas when it showed in the Starfox Direct and assumed it was a new level

Any advice for better numbers would be great, but I'm pretty happy with this 😃

(TLDR: A lot of discussion about what style of game a new Starfox should be degrades the moment you bring up you want it to be like Starfox 64 instead of Assault. You'll hear 'Starfox 64 is a solved game, there's no point in making another one like it', 'Starfox 64's gameplay/length is unmarketable to modern audiences', and/or 'Starfox has to go in Assault's direction or it will never "evolve"'. This post is my argument for why all of that isn't true.)

-An On-Rails game with more levels/campaign content than Starfox 64 is possible.

Starfox 64 has around 16 levels. However, that's just what the Nintendo 64 could pull off. For reference, Kid Icarus Uprising on 3DS, a game that shares HEAVY similarity to Starfox, has 25 levels/chapters. Now I'm not saying a hypothetical 'Starfox 64 2' would have that much meat on it, or even need to. However, it's not unreasonable to expect a formulaic Starfox sequel made in our time to have a world map with say, 18-20+ worlds of fully new content, which is huge.

-'Arcade Shooters Can't Sell Anymore' no longer works as an excuse.

Whenever someone brings up that Starfox should pick back up the classic 64-style gameplay that worked best, there's ALWAYS someone who'll argue the series HAS to chase after going open world, on foot, or something similar because classic Starfox is 'too basic' for modern gamers. Now, I've always thought this a horrible argument out of hand, but Nintendo is now outright debunking it with this remake. Unless Starfox 26 bombs, we'll have undeniable proof that classic Starfox is still perfectly viable for the modern audience, meaning there's no reason outside of personal bias to dismiss a sequel on-rails game as a viable option.

-Starfox 64 has room to evolve without changing too much.

Levels that transition from on-rails to all-range and back to on-rails. New power-ups. More than 2 potential endings. Deep-Space Star Wolf encounters that interrupt your run between planets (Like in Starfox 2). Spending money on ship upgrades that persist throughout your entire run. On-Rails, on-foot style gameplay where Fox uses his reflector from Smash like a barrel roll. 4 Player, Online, All Range mode challenge levels for even more replayability. Beyond Expert difficulty mode. Etc.

-A formulaic sequel now makes the most logical sense.

Think of alllll the assets Nintendo/Velan Studios had to make for Starfox 26. If they just made an on rails sequel to it, they could reuse SO much of that for a quicker turnaround on development time. With bigger budget too, if the game sold enough to justify it.

Harsh criticism is totally fine, anything helps. Thank you-

(It's supposed to be a space bounty hunter beneath her spaceship at night in both images)

I labeled the hands for easier reference. I'm trying to get better at drawing them until they stop being what trips me up/consumes the brunt of my time when drawing, any advice or thoughts on what might look wrong would be great, please-

I specifically am trying to get more natural/less stiff thumbs, but I'll take any advice I can get

My highest score so far :]

I feel like I'm losing a lot of potential score at the very start of the level and beat the end of the warp, but I'm working on it. Any advice would be great!

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