Indie developers got tired of waiting for a new Star Fox, so they’re making their own
Indie developers got tired of waiting for a new Star Fox, so they’re making their own
独立游戏开发者等不及《星际火狐》新作，决定亲自操刀制作
Despite the new remake, smaller studios are barrel-rolling their way into plugging the gap left by Nintendo. 尽管任天堂推出了重制版，但小型工作室正通过“滚筒翻转”动作，试图填补任天堂留下的市场空白。
Nostalgia remains a powerful force. So much so that, in exploring the echoes of a late-’90s childhood spent skimming the water of Corneria and sneering “cocky little freaks!” in time with a monkey encased in a Gundam suit, I’m simultaneously describing playing Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars if you’re nasty) in 1997 and streaming it through Nintendo Switch Online today. 怀旧依然是一股强大的力量。这种力量如此之大，以至于当我回味 90 年代末的童年——在 Corneria 的水面上掠过，并随着那个身穿高达机甲的猴子嘲讽“自大的小怪胎！”时——我既是在描述 1997 年玩《星际火狐 64》（如果你喜欢的话，也可以叫它《Lylat Wars》）的经历，也是在描述今天通过 Nintendo Switch Online 游玩它的体验。
The franchise has been revived through a splashy remake on the Switch 2, but it’s also a series that has not seen an all-new entry since Star Fox Zero on the Wii U. Yet Nintendo’s neglect of the series has been gently offset by indie creators. Ex-Zodiac and Whisker Squadron: Survivor recently offered echoes of Star Fox, and now two upcoming games, Huskrafts’ Rogue Eclipse and Wild Blue Skies from Chuhai Labs — founded by former Star Fox programmer Giles Goddard — offer hope that this desolate genre might be resurrected. 虽然该系列通过 Switch 2 上的重制版重焕生机，但自 Wii U 平台的《星际火狐：零》以来，该系列一直没有推出过全新的作品。然而，任天堂对该系列的冷落正被独立开发者们悄然弥补。《Ex-Zodiac》和《Whisker Squadron: Survivor》近期带来了《星际火狐》的影子，而现在两款即将推出的游戏——Huskrafts 的《Rogue Eclipse》以及由前《星际火狐》程序员 Giles Goddard 创立的 Chuhai Labs 开发的《Wild Blue Skies》——让人们看到了这个荒废的游戏类型复兴的希望。
Though perhaps it’s unfair to describe Star Fox’s absence in terms of abandonment. “It’s just that times have moved on,” Goddard tells The Verge. “Each iteration were great games for their time,” but now, he suggests, their enduring popularity may be because you don’t see them much. “I think people are starved of originality more than any particular style or genre of game.” 不过，将《星际火狐》的缺席描述为“被抛弃”或许有失公允。“只是时代变了，”Goddard 告诉 The Verge。“每一代作品在当时都是伟大的游戏，”但他认为，它们之所以能保持持久的人气，可能正是因为你很难再见到它们了。“我认为人们渴望的是原创性，而非某种特定的游戏风格或类型。”
For indie developers who hope to forestall the obscurity of games reminiscent of Star Fox, that translates to dealing with risk-averse publishers. “When I was pitching Rogue Eclipse, the response I generally received from most labels was that the genre is dead,” says Huskrafts’ Husban “Mcdoogleh” Siddiqi. It echoes the experiences of others, including Flippfly creative director Aaron San Filippo, who says many publishers “told us they just couldn’t see a big enough market to justify our budget for Whisker Squadron: Survivor.” 对于那些希望避免让类似《星际火狐》的游戏被遗忘的独立开发者来说，这意味着必须应对厌恶风险的发行商。“当我推销《Rogue Eclipse》时，大多数发行商给我的普遍反馈是这个类型已经死了，”Huskrafts 的 Husban “Mcdoogleh” Siddiqi 说道。这与其他人的经历不谋而合，包括 Flippfly 的创意总监 Aaron San Filippo，他表示许多发行商“告诉我们，他们看不出有足够的市场来支撑《Whisker Squadron: Survivor》的预算。”
Unable to persuade publishers to take the leap, developers like Flippfly turn to crowdfunding as a means to resuscitate Star Fox. This follows crowdfunding success stories like Hollow Knight, Pillars of Eternity, Shovel Knight, and Undertale, which similarly revived underserved genres. 由于无法说服发行商冒险，像 Flippfly 这样的开发者转向众筹，以此作为复兴《星际火狐》类游戏的一种手段。此前，《空洞骑士》、《永恒之柱》、《铲子骑士》和《传说之下》等众筹成功案例，也以同样的方式复兴了那些被忽视的游戏类型。
Siddiqi isn’t convinced by arguments that the audience for Star Fox-alikes, or more broadly arcade flight shooters, is limited. He points to the success of 2019’s Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown as proof of that (Bandai Namco announced its sequel at The Game Awards 2025). As is often the case, however, an existing audience is not a guarantee that if you build it, they will come. In February 2025, Flippfly let its development team go for lack of funding, shelving a more ambitious follow-up to Whisker Squadron: Survivor in the process. Siddiqi 并不认同关于《星际火狐》类游戏（或更广泛的街机飞行射击游戏）受众有限的说法。他以 2019 年《皇牌空战 7：未知空域》的成功作为证据（万代南梦宫在 2025 年游戏大奖上宣布了其续作）。然而，现实往往是，拥有现成的受众并不代表“只要你做出来，他们就会买账”。2025 年 2 月，Flippfly 因资金短缺解散了开发团队，搁置了《Whisker Squadron: Survivor》更具野心的后续计划。
Challenging as funding is, bringing Star Fox back from the brink requires capturing what Siddiqi describes as the “push-forward, fast, frenetic, and kinetic approach to combat” that marks its genre in ways that makes sense for a modern audience. That’s a test for indie developers, but also for Nintendo with its Star Fox 64 remake on the Switch 2. 尽管融资困难，但要将《星际火狐》从边缘拉回来，就需要捕捉到 Siddiqi 所描述的那种“勇往直前、快速、狂热且充满动感的战斗方式”，并以符合现代观众审美的方式呈现。这对独立开发者来说是一个考验，对在 Switch 2 上制作《星际火狐 64》重制版的任天堂来说也是如此。
“Not everyone wants a low-resolution game,” Ben Hickling, developer of Ex-Zodiac, says, adding that others might not enjoy a 240fps reimagining of childhood favorites either. In revisiting underserved genres, there is a balance to be struck between capturing the realities of past games and the rose-tinted forgeries, replete with erroneous improvements, that we conjure in our memories. “并非每个人都想要低分辨率的游戏，”《Ex-Zodiac》的开发者 Ben Hickling 说道。他补充说，有些人可能也不喜欢以 240fps 重新构想的童年经典。在重温那些被忽视的游戏类型时，必须在还原过去游戏的真实面貌与我们记忆中那些带有滤镜、充斥着错误改进的“虚假记忆”之间找到平衡。
“I think people are quite happy with me making Ex-Zodiac more responsive and snappier, as I think that’s how people remembered the original being, despite that not being the case,” Hickling continues. “To be honest, the whole game is kinda my version of how I imagine Star Fox in my head.” “我认为人们很乐意看到我让《Ex-Zodiac》的操作变得更灵敏、更干脆，因为我觉得这就是人们记忆中原作的样子，尽管事实并非如此，”Hickling 继续说道。“老实说，整个游戏就是我脑海中《星际火狐》的样子。”
That’s one approach. Another is to pull from more than one source. Rogue Eclipse draws influence from Star Fox, but also Armored Core, Mobile Suit Gundam, Returnal, and Battlestar Galactica (to name only a few Siddiqi lists). 这是一种方法。另一种方法是从多个来源汲取灵感。《Rogue Eclipse》不仅受到了《星际火狐》的影响，还借鉴了《装甲核心》、《机动战士高达》、《死亡回归》和《太空堡垒卡拉狄加》（这只是 Siddiqi 列举的一小部分）。
This is echoed further in Chuhai Labs’ approach. Wild Blue Skies, according to director Francis Pétrin, is less about being a Star Fox clone than capturing a broader memory of Saturday mornings — games, cartoons, and all — in the 1990s. That Wild Blue Skies happens to bear a striking resemblance to Star Fox? “I guess we only really know how to make one kind of on-rails shooter!” Goddard laughs. 这一点在 Chuhai Labs 的做法中得到了进一步体现。据总监 Francis Pétrin 所言，《Wild Blue Skies》与其说是《星际火狐》的克隆版，不如说是为了捕捉 90 年代周六早晨那种更广泛的记忆——包括游戏、动画片等等。至于《Wild Blue Skies》恰好与《星际火狐》惊人地相似？“我想我们确实只知道怎么做这一种轨道射击游戏！”Goddard 笑着说。
Yet evoking the past is only useful insofar as it supports engaging gameplay. “My blind affection for the past could mean we’re inadvertently bringing in baggage or inheriting systems which could be unnecessary for the experience,” he says. “I viewed this as an opportunity to see if we could solve some of the issues that individuals may have come up against in the past with flight games in general.” 然而，唤起过去只有在支持引人入胜的游戏玩法时才有意义。“我对过去的盲目热爱可能意味着我们无意中引入了包袱，或者继承了对游戏体验来说不必要的系统，”他说。“我将此视为一个机会，看看我们能否解决人们过去在飞行游戏中普遍遇到的一些问题。”
One way developers are making that happen is by building on top of the basics that games like Star Fox did so well: making flight feel natural. “What immediately comes to mind is just how effortless and responsive the flight controls were,” Siddiqi says of 2001’s Star Wars: Rogue Leader. (Mark Haigh-Hutchinson famously spent a year perfecting its prequel’s controls.) “I can still recall, to this day, playing the Death Star Run mission for the first time. I imagine it’s one of the reasons why Rogue Eclipse has manifested.” 开发者实现这一目标的方法之一，是在《星际火狐》等游戏做得非常出色的基础之上进行构建：让飞行感觉自然。“我立刻想到的是 2001 年的《星球大战：侠盗中队 2》，它的飞行控制是多么轻松且灵敏，”Siddiqi 说道。（Mark Haigh-Hutchinson 曾花了一年时间完善其前作的控制，这很有名。）“直到今天，我仍能回想起第一次玩‘死星突袭’任务的情景。我想这就是《Rogue Eclipse》诞生的原因之一。”
More pointed is the desire of developers to capture the broad shades of their own experiences and share those in a visceral, and interactive, way. Readers of a certain age will hear their own childhoods echoed back at them when developers talk about their love for the genre, and of days when games were more personally scarce and therefore more impactful. 更重要的是，开发者渴望捕捉他们自身经历的方方面面，并以一种直观且互动的方式分享出来。当开发者谈论他们对这一类型的热爱，以及那些游戏资源匮乏、因而更具冲击力的日子时，特定年龄段的读者会听到自己童年的回响。
“When I was a kid living in rural Wisconsin, we didn’t have any gaming consoles, but you used to be able to rent them from the video store,” says San Filippo. “So we’d get t “当我还是个住在威斯康星州农村的孩子时，我们没有任何游戏机，但你可以在录像带租赁店租到它们，”San Filippo 说。“所以我们会……”