This one is interesting, I guess. It ditches the formula of the first game, focusing more on a grander adventure where you can go in any order you want. There's a map screen where you have to fight off various ships and missiles to maintain the safety of your base. You also have to deal with Star Wolf, which is a group that functions as this game's boss battles. Most of the fighting is done with the first-person view, which I don't like as much. When in third-person, much of the time is spent in a new mode where you use the Arwing as a mech that runs on the ground. It's not as fun. I like that they experimented with the formula, but the end result feels flatter than the original. The ideas were neat around the time this game was supposed to be released, and maybe if they had released it and stuck to this formula, the series would be in a different place. But it's mostly just a neat idea with less than stellar execution, though still a fun romp. 3/6

Feels more like an extra game mode than a proper sequel. Don't get me wrong, there are new things like multiple playable characters and walker ships, but the game can be beaten in like 15 minutes (on a first playthrough + inexperienced). Also there are no on rails sections unfortunately, just open arenas this time. Framerate is somehow even worse than the original. The only notable thing this game does is a ranking system which helps with replayability, but honestly I'd just rather play the original again.

Someone at Nintendo saw Star Fox and thought, what if this were a tower-defence game? And they made then shelved it in favour of more technical grunt on the N64.

It’s a surprisingly good match-up. You intercept missiles, viruses and attack bases. This has 360 degree cockfighting as well as some indoor on-foot 3rd perspective shootouts similar to Doom.

Also introduces the Wolf team and some never seen before and since cat and poodle.

I found the experience all consuming in my session, put aside 1-2 hours to beat this on Hard… probably less time on Medium and I’d wager more on Expert.

Star Fox 2 is great, but it’s definitely in the vain of the “sequel” space where the game is reinventing the wheel instead of iterating on the previous game’s format.

Definitely is more of a high score chasing game, there is a constant timer and beating the game sooner seems like a great challenge! I’d place it in my top 10 or so SNES games.

Pros: The graphics are top-notch for SNES, using the SuperFX 2 chip, this is some impressive stuff for the system (shame it took so long to come out, we would've been wowed back in the 90s had it released then). And it's pretty cool, there's brand new team members with Miyu and Fay, you can dogfight a giant dragon in space, a rival mercenary squad of space fighters with Star Wolf, a free-roam map, and the ability to transform the Arwing into a walker. It's cool, and impressive stuff. Most stages involve big open areas that require you to unlock gates, enter bases, defeat bosses, and all with 360 movement with tons of shooty shooty blast blastin'. Either that, or it's dog fights on a timer in space. It works... I'm just...

Cons: Not a fan of the gameplay, my dudes... All-range mode ONLY, everything is on a timer, and the main form of progress is via strategy on a map, where you take turns for movement, to try and defeat each enemy base, destroy each missile, and confront rival teams as you head your way to stop Andross. I didn't gel with it, sorry to say. This isn't my type of Star Fox.

What it means to me: This game releasing at all was mind blowing, and it made the SNES Classic Edition mini all the more worth buying. Later released on Switch's NSO SNES service, there's plenty ways to play it, and so I did, and... well... I enjoyed what I could, and didn't enjoy the parts that weren't meant for me. It's a mixed bag, but I'm glad it saw the light of day anyhow. If anything, I'm glad Miyu and Fay are now official Star Fox team members!!

Game Review - originally written by Shih Tzu

One of the holy grails of console game prototypes, the unreleased Starfox 2 is apparently indeed the first developed sequel to the SNES 3D polygonal shooter Starfox. Fox McCloud and his equally anthropomorphic crew are back to battle the evil ape Andross, with two new female pilots, Miyu and Fay, joining the fight. In contrast to the first game, however, which features lots of arcade rail-shooter action, the sequel adopts a somewhat more strategic, exploratory tone. The game plays out on a galactic map, where you direct a pair of pilots around, intercepting enemy squadrons, attacking enemy bases, and so on. In the meantime, mean old Andross is launching missiles at your home planet of Corneria, and if you let too many get by, you won’t have any home left to save.

This shift toward strategy extends to the core gameplay as well. While there are plenty of Wing-Commander-style dogfights, many of the scenarios require the player to find switches to press or navigate through enclosed mazes. A key innovation is the ability to transform your Arwing into a bipedal gun turret and walk through some stages Doom-style, firing, strafing, and dodging. All the while, the clock ticks down as other battles rage elsewhere in the galaxy, and you will frequently get frantic radio messages from your commander about incoming missiles and other threats.

On “Normal” difficulty, the game can be beaten without much effort or time; I won my first game in under 15 minutes (and I’m frightfully bad at these games). The higher difficulty levels, however, feature new enemies, expanded stages, and a lot more gameplay in general. “Expert” level is truly demanding, but it’s also where you’ll see the most interesting developments. Factor in the challenge of topping your high scores and a healthy amount of randomness, and you’ve got a good amount of fun to be had for fans of this series who want to pull back the curtain for a glimpse of what might have been.
(editor's note: iirc the way the original prototype leaked, and don't quote me on this, was that Sonic Cult administrator Pachuka was hanging around in the #rareroms IRC channel on EFnet pretending to be one of the channel owners, when a regular messaged him with a download of the rom thinking he was the guy he was disguised as, fascinating story)

This is a case of a game that was simply too ambitious for its system. The Super Nintendo can just barely keep up with it; the controls are even jankier than in the first game; simple actions such as moving the camera, shooting, or jumping have an incredibly notorious input delay; and the level design is extremely bland, having you shoot at four enemy ships or go through a small maze and press a switch to let you progress. It's also like 20 minutes long and incredible easy, as almost every boss dies after two hits.

It's really impressive from a technical standpoint, though the result is a barebones game.