One of the premier Star Fox fansites for many years, ArwingLanding.net has gone down again, its domain name apparently expired. I'm told that the site was essentially dead before that, its forum largely inactive, but it is still sad to see such a large community disappear. Hopefully this is a temporary situation and the site will be restored.

This brings up larger questions to me, though. To my knowledge, the largest Star Fox sites on the internet right now are Star Fox at Wikia, Starfox-Online.net, and the Krystal Archive. Notable Star Fox sites that are dead or dying are the Krystal Lovers Association and of course, ArwingLanding.net. All other Star Fox fansites either disappeared long ago, or are too small to mention (please correct me if I missed one).

The Wikia Star Fox page has a very rich amount of mostly historical and textual information. It doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon. Starfox-Online.net appears pretty strong, and their community forum, while not as active as it once was, is still swinging. And then there's the Krystal Archive, focused primarily on news and archival of media. Since I helped put Starfox-Online.net back together when it failed the first time (back in, I don't know, 2006?), and maintained an active presence there until around 2011, I have a copy of pretty much every piece of media ever published there, since I was responsible for a significant percentage of it. So that stuff is not going away, I just have to publish it.

It's something I've been thinking about: should I start a Star Fox Archive? I probably will, in some form. I hesitate to initiate some kind of forum software though, because managing a community is a lot of work that I just don't have time for. Then again, there are things like Facebook and other social platforms that could easily fill the hole that a forum otherwise might have. What do you guys think? Where do you go for Star Fox community? Would you like to see historical Star Fox media published somewhere? I will of course continue to post Star Fox news in addition to Krystal news here. It's just that I might also post it somewhere else too.

Early this morning, Nintendo launched the official site for Star Fox Zero. It mostly contains the assets released at E3, but there are a couple new things...

Three HD resolution wallpapers were released, showing off the newer character models (possibly final?). While the largest available wallpapers for download are 1920 by 1080 pixels, examining the source code for the site revealed all three wallpapers had 1920 by 1200 pixel variants (Nintendo appears to be loading all full resolution assets with every page load for some reason). There's also a larger 'hero' image, which is the close-up of Fox's face you see at the top of the page, and a larger version of the docking bay image. If you want to view the full resolution images, they are...

• Wallpaper 1 (1920 × 1200) - black background is different from the downloadable version
• Wallpaper 2 (1920 × 1200)
• Wallpaper 2 (1920 × 1200)
• Hero Image (2440 × 1200)
• Docking Bay (1680 × 1473)

A message at the top assures that the "Full site [is] coming soon." Who knows what all that involves, but I hope for more information and media as the release date gets closer.

Also, Andross is more or less confirmed as the main villain in the game: "Master your craft, defy the odds, and earn your face-to-face meeting with Andross."

Lastly, some messages at the bottom of the page imply certain game modes.

• "Additional accessories required for multiplayer; sold separately."
  Might be multiplayer player-vs-player, or might be a co-op mode we heard about a while back where one player flies while the other player aims and shoots. The game is also listed as supporting "1-2 players", so at this point, I'd call 4-player multiplayer unlikely.
• "Broadband Internet access required for online features."
  Could this game have online play? Or could it instead be some kind of online scoreboard or Miiverse connectivity? Perhaps the cloud-based game saving we've heard rumored? Who knows!
• And Amiibo support is re-confirmed.

My hosting provider will be upgrading my server's database sometime on November 2nd. They expect no more than 5 to 10 minutes of downtime, but during that time, the site will probably be completely unusable. I don't know exactly when it will be, but if you do notice it going down, please send me an email so I can make sure it comes back up.

Update: Everything seems to be in order.

We posted a few of these photos from her Twitter, but now Ayano has sent the full resolution photos of her trip to the Tokyo Game Show where she showed off her new and improved Star Fox Assault bodysuit. She was hoping to meet with Mr. Imamura, the producer of Star Fox Command, to find how some details of Krystal's suit from Command. Sadly, Nintendo does not attend the Tokyo Game Show.

Thanks, Ayano! You are wonderful, as always.

I'm not sure how they found it, but a secret video showing the next wave of Mii Fighters appeared on the official Super Smash Bros. channel. It depicts the Wave 4 Mii Fighter DLC, including a Fox McCloud Gunner costume complete with hat, tail, and flight suit. This DLC is apparently already available along with some previously announced stages.

Thanks to thatveryweirdperson for the tip.

You know what to do. If you haven't already, please vote. If you know some friends who haven't voted, get them on board. This is it! The final mission!

Art by Pey

Here she is showing off her new Assault suit to the crowds at TGS. It's VERY shiny! Ayano says this is "scaly dot printed fabric." There are many more photos than are listed here, check them out on Ayano's Twitter.

YouTube user TwilightGintoki has been hacking on the Star Fox Adventures Prototype and decided to replace meshes rather than replace the objects themselves. This allows characters who shouldn't be in certain parts of the game to exist in other areas, but the textures and animations result in down-right creepy results! This is probably why the Krystal mesh won't ever work outside of Krazoa Palace without massive work. Then again, maybe I should try my hand at hacking stuff.

Wow. I'm actually surprised. I had originally thought Nintendo had a very accelerated development period for Star Fox Zero, but it seemed like they had everything under control. Technically, I guess that's still correct, but Nintendo has decided to voluntarily delay the game to drastically improve the control scheme and add more polish to the cutscenes. This is going to make Nintendo's tough holiday season even tougher, because they delayed their biggest release in their most financially important season. These changes must be really worth it.

Here's the official announcement.

A Message from Mr. Miyamoto Regarding Star Fox Zero

I made a big decision last week.

We have been developing Star Fox Zero for Wii U with the aim of releasing it this year. Although we felt that the development had been progressing well, we now believe that we will need a little more time to work on areas such as the unprecedented discovery that we want players to experience in the game by using two screens, and further polishing the level designs and perfecting the tone of the cut scenes. While we have already reached the stage where it would be technically possible to release the title in time for the year-end holiday season, we want to polish the game a bit more so that players will be able to more smoothly grasp the new style of play that we are proposing.

To the people looking forward to the launch of the game this holiday season, I am very sorry. Star Fox Zero is going to bring new game play and experiences that take it far beyond the framework established by Star Fox 64. All the members of the development team are doing our best so that the final product will not betray your expectations. And the game will not be delayed for a very long time – we’re aiming to launch the game in Q1 2016. Please stay tuned for further announcements.

So, that's a small disappointment. On a funny note, there's a huge number of comments on the Facebook post requesting Nintendo add Krystal to the game.

Source

Finally! A new audio podcast featuring guest host Brian from the UK. We talk about all of the E3 news, the Smash Fighter Ballot, and Ayano updates before getting into upcoming plans for the site. Hope you enjoy!

Listen on YouTube

Download
Show Notes