The title says it all: Star Fox. While there have been a few Star Fox games in the last couple years, I don’t think any have sparked my interest as much as Star Fox and Star Fox 64 did many years ago. This is why I hope for a return to form in the Wii U along with a good amount of innovation.

Now as far as what you’re about to read, you need to know that I have no inside information, no affiliation with any game developers and that any coincidences that you read here and what the games actually end up like are just that, coincidences. That is unless someone stole my idea, which is the whole point of this blog anyways (I just hope I get some credit).

Let’s start with the name, Star Fox Universe. Yes, I am cleverly using a word that starts with U, but this isn’t just my idea of a marketing ploy, it is an integral part of my concept. For the entire series SF has taken place in the Lylat System. While the system has expanded a bit over the last few entries it still exists within an unknown galaxy and lesser known universe, I think it is time to change that. I want to see our favorite heroes cast into the unknown and help them find their way home. I also want to play as all of them, not just a member of the McCloud family. I want to experience the unknown as Slippy, Falco and maybe even the now retired Peppy or even Krystal. Using each of their abilities to help them on their quest back to Corneria.

Ever since the Wii U was announced my brain has been going off on tangents on how games could be made better. The first thing is HD graphics. This game needs to be vibrant, full of awesome environments and gorgeous lighting and particle effects. There also needs to be an awesome view from inside the Arwing. N64 did it, but it was the equivalent of upping the difficulty of the game 10-fold and depending on how many barrel rolls you did, having a barf bag in the vicinity was a good idea. Levels were already pretty big back then and now they could be even bigger to show the vastness of space.

Now onto my favorite part: Gameplay. This game has so much potential without even taking away from its roots. Moving most of the HUD to the gamepad is a no brainer, almost every game should do this. Allowing you to map your course on the touchscreen at the beginning of your level after your initial play through would add immensely to the replay value and give you a true sense of exploration. The game can still be on rails but now you get to decide where the rails go. Nintendo has already done similar things with one example being LoZ: Phantom Hourglass and more recently the Yoshi minigame within Nintendoland. Letting you to pilot the Arwing using the gyro (Pitch and yaw only) on the gamepad would be awesome as well, as long as it allowed the player to set their neutral position. Another cool feature would be using the gamepad as a scanner to help you locate items in the different environments as well as enemy’s weak spots. I know this last one might sound gimmicky, but honestly I’ve enjoyed using the scanner in ZombiU more than expected. While all of this isn’t rocket science I think it would make for an awesome in-depth experience that would keep players at the edge of their seat.

Along with all the single player stuff there needs to be a multiplayer element to this game. 3 Words come to mind: Online Battle Mode. I hope someone at Nintendo is reading this because if they do not include an online multiplayer battle mode, I swear I will dropkick the Regginator at his next NY store appearance. Not only does this game need to allow me to kick some butt online but they need to let us be friends and play Coop online. Never has an existing franchise been so ready for online awesomeness like Starfox is. Imagine this: You start up your game. Log into The Great Fox. There you find yourself in a lobby where you can join an existing coop mission or host a mission. Up to 4 people can play in a room and guess what?! You get to pick from one of the 4 Star Fox members to go on your journey! This mode would blow my mind if executed and I would probably only play through the game solo the first time, if at all. Having this coop mode for local multiplayer as well would be awesome but I have something that could be more befitting of the Wii U and its asymmetric gameplay capabilities. While this also isn’t a new concept it’s one I haven’t seen or played in quite some time. 2 players, 1 ship. That’s right, P1 controls the Arwing with the use of a wiimote or a pro controller along with a weak single laser and P2 gets to use the gamepad to control the ship’s main weapons and bombs. I also hope there exist multiple controller choices. I would love to be able to try this out using full gyro controls, using the analog sticks and trigger buttons and maybe a mix of analog stick and touchscreen where you tap to fire at your enemies more accurately. This would be local coop at its best. Forcing you to rely on each other to make it through the level safely and making (or breaking) friendships in the process.

Well that is it for this idea. I do hope Nintendo realize that we’ve been missing a true successor to Starfox 64 and that they will load it up with all the bells and whistles available from their new console. I think it’s time to give us an experience that might rival playing SF64, or for those of us old enough to have experienced the original Starfox when it first came out, giving us the chance to be immersed once more in one of the best IPs the big N has to offer.