Star Fox 2 (Canceled and found 1995 Video game)

Star Fox 2 is a video game that was in production by Argonaut Software from 1993 to 1995 that was set to be the sequel to the hit SNES game Star Fox, The project was first revealed around December 1993, Compared to the original game, Star Fox 2 has much better texture quality and frame rate, Along with a new story.

The game was originally slated for Winter Holiday 1994, But presumably due to the developers not being able to completely finish the game, It was pushed into 1995 instead, This change can be seen in the earlier Alpha rom that was leaked in 1999 from a version of the game that was compiled from source code leaked by a disgruntled Argonaut employee which has an rather buggy multiplayer mode that goes unused in later builds of the game and a build date some time between April 15th and May 13th, 1994.

There are two other known early beta versions of the game, Neither of which has been found, One is a build used in a preview for Nintendo Power in February 1995, This version has a build date of November 25th, 1994.

The second beta is from a version that was shown at the 1995 Winter CES in Las Vegas, This version looks to be much more complete than the November 2994 version, With the major differences being level layouts and game features.

However, The rom that exists today, And that is the subject of this article, Is the build from mid 1995, The full release candidate of Star Fox 2, In mid 1995, Nintendo canceled Star Fox 2, With rumors blame that the looming release of the Nintendo 64 being the reason the game was canceled so late into development.

The version that was leaked by a former Argonaut employee in August of 2002 was a build that was fully functional and featured, With only a few minor bugs and glitches left, This was likely not the final version of the game, But more likely a release candidate that could have been released at a retail game if it was needed, But instead of Nintendo releasing the already completed game, They canceled the game, A game that would likely have been the best selling game on SNES in 1995 because they didn't want anymore 3D games on the SNES when the N64 was going to be released within the year in Japan.

The game was leaked onto the internet in August 2002, Most people believed that the game was not a final version Due to perceived game breaking bugs that were actually caused by emulators of the time being unable to correctly emulate the SuperFX chip that was used in most 3D SNES games at the time, After more accurate emulators came around, The version was confirmed to be the full version of the game, In the years since the game has been translated into English and has even been put onto SuperFX SNES carts and played on the actual hardware.

Yet despite all of the work that the community has put into the game, Nintendo has refused to even acknowledge the games existence, Despite the fact that they could get money for nothing just by putting the fan fixed versions up on the Nintendo Virtual Console.

External Links and Resources
Star Fox 2 on Star Fox Wiki

Article on the history of Star Fox 2 at SNEScentral