Nintendo’s runaway success in the Switch era has led to a real reinvigoration of so many of the company’s beloved series — Fire Emblem, Pikmin, Metroid, Xenoblade, and even Famicom Detective Club, of all things. But my single lingering wish, as I imagine with many fans, is for something, anything new for Star Fox. The space shooter series has long been one of Nintendo’s biggest cult classics, but after the rough reception of 2016’s Star Fox Zero, it seems like Nintendo simply didn’t know what to do with it. And while countless games have tried to be a spiritual successor, there’s never been one able to really stick the landing. But I’m hopeful that might all be about to change after playing the first few levels of Wild Blue Skies — which is quite literally Star Fox in everything but name. I’m hesitantly hopeful this might be the game to finally, truly scratch the itch that won’t go away.
Wild Blue Skies is developed by Chuhai Labs, a Japanese studio that used to be known as Vitei and was founded by Giles Goddard — one of the key programmers on the original Star Fox. So there’s a real pedigree for the studio behind Wild Blue Skies, and it’s abundantly clear right from the jump that the game is not shy, in the least, about emulating Nintendo’s franchise. Honestly, Wild Blue Skies feels so much like Star Fox that it practically seems like a challenge, a callout for leaving the series to languish for so long.
Set in a sci-fi world, Wild Blue Skies follows Bowie Stray, an anthropomorphic German Shepherd, as he leads his elite team, the Blue Bombers, against a tyrannical villain named Grimclaw. Just like Star Fox, Bowie is joined by three animal wingmen, and yes, that includes a diminutive (and kind of whiny) reptile. I was able to play through the tutorial and first three levels of Wild Blue Skies, which struck a fascinating balance between reverence for Star Fox and a desire to push the formula forward.
Wild Blue Skies plays exactly like most rail shooters, with you controlling Bowie’s starship as you fly continually forward, with the ability to fire lasers and bombs, flip the ship on its side to turn quickly, barrel roll, and more. The game also has an open flight mode that it switches to for certain battles, like Star Fox’s “All Range Mode.”
And I’m happy to say that Wild Blue Skies feels smooth as butter to play — effortlessly letting you pull off maneuvers that make you feel like an ace pilot in Star Wars. I’d genuinely compare this experience to riding a bike again after not doing it for years, in the way it instantly clicks and you know exactly what to do. I’ve played a lot of Star Fox in my life, and Wild Blue Skies has the feel of those games down to a tee — from split-second barrel rolls, to boosting under a falling pillar. It’s essential that these kinds of games feel tight and responsive, and every life I lost in Wild Blue Skies felt entirely my fault, and not because of a lack of controls or options.
But in terms of level design, saying the game’s first level, Archipelago, is a homage to Star Fox would legitimately be underselling it. This is basically a one-to-one transposing of Stage 1 - Corneria from the original game, which was also used in Star Fox 64. This includes having to blast enemies off your teammates’ tails, flying through a burning city, and even a sequence where you follow your wingman through waterfalls (which can unlock a diverging pathway and a different next mission). While the homage is fun, I was initially worried that this might just be aping Star Fox to a tee, but the next two missions assuaged those fears a lot.
One has you flying through tight canyons while fighting off hordes of enemies, while the other sends you into the eye of a hurricane, where surging rain obscures your vision and makes it harder to see enemies and obstacles. Both of these felt like a nice, small twist on the Star Fox formula, integrating some unique ideas both visually and mechanically — including a mechanical tentacled boss that would shoot up water while you tried to blast its weak points.
All of the elements of Wild Blue Skies fit together like a well-oiled machine, and that’s what gives me the most confidence about this one. Previous Star Fox successors have tried to implement roguelike elements or have just been a hair off in terms of the proper game feel. But Wild Blue Skies doesn’t want to be Star Fox-esque; it wants to simply be Star Fox — and that’s why it might work.
I’m still hesitant, as I’ve been burned by too many games in the past claiming to be Star Fox’s successor. I hope the game’s missions can continue to experiment or shift up the formula a bit, instead of just riffing on what’s come before. At the same time, while I dig the game’s colorful Saturday Morning Cartoon art style, I don’t really feel any attachment to the characters, as they feel a bit hollow. That’s something I’m hoping the rest of the game can fix.
But the main point is that this is the closest I’ve gotten to that nostalgic feeling of Star Fox 64, well, since the 3DS remake of that game. Chuhai Labs has a clear understanding of the beating heart of Star Fox, and if the studio can take that and sprinkle in some kind of new special sauce, and stand on its own — it could be something special. And, hopefully, in the process, it could prove there’s still a place for this kind of game.
