In 2017, original Star Fox programmer Dylan Cuthbert expressed interest in working on new game for the Nintendo Switch. While that wish didn’t come in the form of a new Star Fox entry back then, news of a certainly unexpected Star Fox spiritual successor has arisen from the Japan based studio, Chuhai Labs. In partnership with the publisher Humble Games, a different programmer from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System era who also happened to work on Star Fox, Giles Godard, founder of Chuhai Labs, is making what Nintendo refused to after the unfortunate failure of Star Fox Zero on the Nintendo Wii U.
Directly mirroring the aesthetic of the SNES classic, Wild Blue Skies sees the player take on the role of a team of anthropomorphic animals, with Bowie, a striking K9 figure taking the role of team captain. Other team members include Roe the deer, Thorne the lizard, and Chuck the bull. Despite each cast member’s differing identity and size, again mirroring its predecessor, they each sport matching red and white fighter jets, as opposed to the original Star Fox’s blue and white. All of these similarities in character and vehicle design alone are eclipsed by the practically identical gameplay, as trailer footage shows the player dodging enemy fire with evasive barrel rolls, and the in game depth visualizing reticle best known for its featuring throughout the Star Fox series.
With Wild Blue Skies, Chuhai Labs is intending to bring gamers back to the nostalgic days of 90’s on-rails shooters. Being a genre that has largely gone down in popularity among a majority of gamers—alongside physical arcades, the larges known carrier of on-rails shooters—many gamers will hopefully be re-introduced to this classic action game formula. That being said, gamers who are familiar with the genre will be overjoyed at the news that not only is Star Fox receiving an official spiritual successor, but one of the programmers of the original game is spearheading the project, meaning that Wild Blue Skies is in the best possible hands.
Wild Blue Skies has yet to receive an estimated release date, however, gamers can expect the game to release on PC via Steam and Xbox Series X|S.