Valentine's Day 2025 is coming up quick on February 14th. But there's something else happening that day besides the holiday. It's the 20th anniversary of Star Fox Assault's release date (Feb 14th, 2005)!

I remember it fondly, finding out in 2003 that Namco was working on a sequel to Star Fox Adventures for the Nintendo GameCube. I found out like most others, by seeing the cool trailer with weird voice acting. It sounded like they got Billy West, the voice of Fry from Futurama, to do Fox McCloud's voice. In reality, they probably got some employees from Nintendo of America to do their best Star Fox character impressions for the demos.

It wasn't even called Star Fox Assault back then. Just "the next Star Fox on Nintendo GameCube".

Then, a few years later, we got the game that many consider to be the peak of Star Fox games. It featured a much more even spread of on-foot and flying missions. The story and characters continued from where they left off in Adventures, with Krystal becoming a pilot and Peppy leaving the Arwing to take on an advisory role. Plus, the whole game had an orchestrated soundtrack and some really nice pre-rendered cutscenes for the time.

20 years later, and Star Fox Assault hasn't aged quite as well as Star Fox Adventures has, but it's still one of the best known games on the Nintendo GameCube.

And I think that's worth celebrating! Like the Star Fox Adventures 20th Anniversary, let's pull out all the stops to remember and celebrate this game together! What will YOU do to celebrate the game?

The Plan

1. Find a way to show your appreciation for Star Fox Assault and the whole Star Fox series in your own way.
2. Post about it to social media (with the hashtag #StarFoxAssault20th), in the comments, or via email.
3. Whenever I can, I will retweet and post about the things you send.

Ideas

• Record some shenanigans in Star Fox Assault's multiplayer mode.
• Do a stream playing through the game.
• Make a remix of one of the songs from the game.
• Draw some fanart.
• Build a 3D prop replica of a weapon from the game.
• Reanimate your favorite cutscene (you know the one)
• Give us your best Panther impression, the cheesier the better!
• Show off your Star Fox collection.
• ...or whatever else you can think of!

Whatever you choose to do, when you post about it please be sure to use the hashtag #StarFoxAssault20th. Please keep it family-friendly! I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

NOTE: In the last five years, the release date listed for Star Fox Assault has moved around. I found some sources saying the 13th, some the 14th, and some the 15th. But last time we celebrated its birthday, it was on the 14th, so we're going with that.

Platinum is a well-respected game company who, among other things, co-developed Star Fox Zero with Nintendo. Well, several gaming outlets are publishing that the game has been removed from their website's list of games.

You can see that the page only shows a handful of games are listed now compared to the 22 games listed before. Speculation is running hard about what this means.

I don't know what it means for the other games that were removed, but for Star Fox Zero, it's a little unclear. It turns out the Star Fox Zero page is still there. It's just not linked to anymore. You can view it here.

Could it be that Platinum is simply reorganizing their site? Possibly. Maybe the missing games will reappear in a few days. Or maybe they do intend to remove those games, including Star Fox Zero, for some other purpose. Could Star Fox Zero be getting a remaster and Nintendo wants to sweep the original developers under the rug like they did with Donkey Kong Country Returns HD? No way to know yet.

Sorry for not posting much in the last day or two. I have the flu. I hope to resume posting soon. When I do, I'll try to make up for missed days. Thanks for your patience.

insoul_xiii has created a Krystal mod for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, a game that is a love letter to the Jet Grind Radio series. There are different colorations for Krystal, all in her Assault outfit. The mod also includes custom graffiti tags, so you can add some Krazoa Spirit to the neighborhood. The graffiti is by Z0.

Another cosplayer named Dreamarts302 has created a Krystal cosplay modeled around the Dinosaur Planet version of Krystal. The cosplay debut was at Kami Con, an anime convention in Birmingham, Alabama taking place in February 2024.

According to her, Krystal has been a favorite character of hers since she was a kid when she played Star Fox Adventures at age 5. She had always wanted to dress up like her. Her mother assisted her with the ears, tail, and dress. Dreamarts302 did the makeup herself. Not counting her face, her body was covered in a blue suit to mimic Krystal's coloration. The cosplay features a glowing staff that's quite unlike any Krystal staff I've seen before. It may have been a staff originally designed for a different character. Any ideas?

More recently, she posted a winter photoshoot with a nice fur-based shawl to go on top of the dress. There's also a video of her running through the snowy forest.

Here's all the photos she posted:

• Tons of photos from all over the con
• Meeting Ryan Drummond (Sonic voice actor) and other photos
• Suit-up shots, photos at the con, and a video of her holding a massive gun
• Winter photoshoot

As an artist, Dreamarts302 has done many drawings, including several of Krystal. Dreamarts also drew a Dinosaur Planet Krystal fanart which she sells as a sticker on her Mercari store.

Always happy to see the love for Krystal manifest as creative costumes. Good job Dreamarts!

The universe of Warhammer 40K is savage. Discord user anactualfox747 has created "The Krystal Korps", a set of T'au fighters made up of AI remnants of the former Star Fox team, with Krystal remaining alive as the leader of their advanced mecha squadron. According to anactualfox747's story, the yellow figure contains the AI copy of Fox McCloud, though he has gone crazy. Krystal saved survivors of an invasive force in the Lylat System, while the rest of the Star Fox team stayed behind to help their escape. That's why Krystal is the only survivor.

You can see that the mechs and vehicles have Krystal's tattoos and coloration for the most part. The Krystal head for the lead unit is a modified and 3D printed version of the Krystal bust by Kagekitsoon. Anactualfox747 did all the painting himself.

Thanks to anactualfox747 for the photos and info on his project.

Cosplayer mililani_lilo dressed up as a human-style Krystal in the Star Fox Adventures outfit. The cosplay appearance occurred at Holiday Matsuri, an anime con in Orlando, Florida during December of 2022. I like that she took the time to add the tattoos.

The clothes and armor were made by mililani_lilo with some assistance from her mom. The ears were made by crystalpawz_creations (deactivated account) and the tail was made by MyLarissa on Etsy (also deactivated).

There are several more photos, which you can see at these links:

• Peeking around tree
• Rock poses
• Other poses

More recently in 2023, mililani_lilo has also done a Miyu Cosplay.

It was previewed a couple days ago, but now the Walled City level of Star Fox Event Horizon is mostly complete. This video shows an entire run, from the initial charge, to betrayal, to confronting the RedEye King in the pyramid. This is the seventh level in the Sauria campaign. It represents an alternate path to get to the CloudRunner Fortress. You'll see Krystal and Fox riding Tricky during the assault, as well as the King and Queen EarthWalker, Princess Kyte, and tons of allies and enemy soldiers. The gameplay of this level is chaotic, and UndyingNephalim says it's his favorite so far. The level isn't completely done yet. The voice acting hasn't been recorded for this level yet, and no doubt it will need additional polish before release. But well done, UndyingNephalim. I get some serious Hyrule Warriors vibes from this level.

I missed this because I mistook it for ShadowSnake's Krystal Mod where a Krystal mesh, some effects, voice clips, and a bunch of other small changes were used over the top of Dark Pit's fighter. Thus, Krystal inherited most of his moveset. That mod worked pretty well, but it was not a completely new fighter.

This new mod, which was a collaboration between Light5585 and much of ShadowSnake's work, has resulted in a complete fighter. This mod gives Krystal her own moves, weapons, and effects.

Here's a video of some Smash players trying it out (Language Warning).

Her Final Smash unleashes a huge blast of both fire and ice from her staff. Her Up-B is the staff's Rocket Boost. Down-B creates a force field that reflects projectiles. Forward-B is Ice Blast from the staff, while Neutral-B shoots a fire projectile across the stage. She runs very fast and has lots of staff-based jabs. She even has new taunts. This really does feel like a complete fighter mod for the game.

As with the previous mod on which this is based, it supports both her Assault and Adventures outfits. The mod has been given a few updates since launch about 6 months ago, with the mod's initial development taking about a year.

The mod can be downloaded from GameBanana, and is about 91MB in size. There are some requirements to get it working on your system, like the previous mod.

Thanks to Light for this amazing moveset, and ShadowSnake for the work on the original mod. This all turned out great! And thanks to Raiando on Discord for bringing the difference between the two mods to my attention!

God Hand is a beat 'em up game for the PS2 by Cover Studio, the same people who made Ōkami. According to AngelTheVixen, there are some new modding tools for the game, and that means only one thing. That's right, trying to add Krystal into the game! You can check out AngelTheVixen's video post on X/Twitter to see some demo footage.

No idea if AngelTheVixen plans to further develop this mod or if it was just a test, but it looks like fun. AngelTheVixen is still dealing with illness and this was a way of taking a break from another Krystal project. Hope you feel better soon, Angel!

Thanks to ChrisHighwind for the heads up.