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I was actually very surprised by Star Fox 2. I’m already generally unfamiliar with Star Fox as a franchise. At the time of typing this, I played the original Star Fox for the first time yesterday. This is also combined with the fact that Star Fox 2 is a game that went unreleased until 2017. This is all to say that I had little idea of what I was getting into when starting up Star Fox 2, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Star Fox 2 is genuinely such an impressive game for its time. While sure, it did release in 2017, this is still to its core, a SNES game, and it should be judged as such. Compared to the original Star Fox, where it was simply rail shooting segments, Star Fox 2 has fully explorable 3D environments, and full 3D movement to boot. And yet again I must reiterate, this is a SNES game, I’m just undeniably impressed with what was able to be done here.

And Star Fox 2 adds the one thing I think would’ve helped the original so much, that being a reticle while in third person view. Seeing where my shots would land helps a game so much, especially in a game like this, where leading shots is extremely important. A sort of addition with Star Fox 2 as well is a map to show you where enemies are around you. Since each level is an open area, it’s a good idea to know when, say, an enemy is behind you.

The game is oddly strategic too. You have to clear the board of all of Andross’ forces, flying to different objectives in order to take them out. But time moves whenever you move on the board, as missiles and such either move towards Corneria, or move towards you. Having to protect Corneria can be a difficult balancing act and I didn’t leave Corneria unscathed. Though that’s because I was still learning how to work things out at the time. Time also passes while in a combat stage, which I think is really cool, though it does make the balancing act much harder.

Though with that being said, there isn’t much in the room of level variety. They typically fall under 1 of 2 categories: Aerial Dogfights, or Ground Exploration. Aerial Dogfights are as they sound, you typically fight 1 to 4 enemies spaceships, which is simple enough. The Ground Exploration though is really fun. Walking around on the surface of planets or inside Andross’ bases, and finding your way to the core to destroy them. I really had an absolute blast with those stages. I will say, I do wish there were at least a couple of stages that played like the stages from the original Star Fox, as I think that would’ve helped balance out the level variety a lot.

But this game from beginning to end is so interesting to me. A game that went unreleased for over 20 years, and seemed like it never would, until it was eventually released in 2017. It’s so interesting to see what ideas were brought up here, and which ones either made their way into future games, or if not at all. This is the game where Star Wolf was meant to be introduced, for example. But there’s also multiple different playable characters, alongside 2 new ones that I don’t know exist anywhere outside of Star Fox 2. And there’s a sort of partner system where you can select a second character as a partner. There’s stats for each ship for crying out loud. There’s so much just… interesting stuff with Star Fox 2 that makes me wonder what it would’ve been like if this game was released back when it was originally meant to.

And yet again, I find myself just pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed Star Fox 2. There’s some sort of appeal in playing a game that was, for a long time, unreleased. Even aside from that, the game is an extremely impressive SNES game, and it likely pushed the console to its very limits. While it didn’t have much in the realm of level variety, its levels were really fun, and there’s so many interesting little concepts and ideas that I’m glad I was able to see with my own eyes.

Announcing your premiere actual-play podcast for amusement, entertainment and lies.

The Coffin Club is five friends who decided to record their games to share with others. The long and short of it is we do this for fun, and if it stops being fun we stop. Money and tips are nice, but this is for ourselves first and foremost.

Our initial campaign, already completed and being uploaded in an eight-part series, is a "Monsters and Other Childish Things" campaign called The Student Body. The players are the monsters controlling the bodies of the children after their demise (mind the content warnings) trying to find out who killed them. We've uploaded the first three episodes immediately as a taste; going forward we'll be uploading new episodes every Friday.

After that? Well we know where we're going next: it's wherever we want to. But rest assured it's in motion and we appreciate anyone who sticks around to watch the show.

Learn more at our website below.

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