Star Fox 2

Star Fox 2 is a rail shooter game developed by Nintendo and Argonaut Software and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was completed in 1995, but was not released until 2017 on the Super NES Classic Edition.

Like the original Star Fox (1993), Star Fox 2 pushed the graphical capabilities of the SNES with Argonaut's Super FX chip. Katsuya Eguchi, Shigeru Miyamoto and Dylan Cuthbert returned as director, producer and lead programmer. Star Fox 2 introduces semi-real-time gameplay, new ship types, new playable characters, and a more advanced 3D game engine. The story continues the battle against Emperor Andross, who seeks to destroy the Lylat system.

By 1995, 3D technology was advancing quickly and the 3D game market was expanding, with competition from the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles. Concerned that the 16-bit graphics of Star Fox 2 would compare poorly against newer games, Nintendo canceled the Star Fox 2 release to prioritize its upcoming Nintendo 64 console. The Nintendo 64 game Star Fox 64 (1997) incorporated some concepts introduced in Star Fox 2.

In the years following, various prototype ROM images leaked online. In 2017, Star Fox 2 was officially released for the first time as one of 21 games included in the Super NES Classic Edition. In 2019, it became available for the Nintendo Switch through the Nintendo Classics service. Star Fox 2 received generally positive reviews, with praise for its depth, design and strategy elements, but criticism for its controls, short length and technical performance.