Games that should be: Star Wolf

This is the first in the series of “Games that should be” articles, similar to the Game Spotlight articles but focused on games that don’t actually exist… BUT SHOULD!

Around the net, everyone seems to crave another Star Fox game. Well, the truth is, Star Fox sucks… and Star Fox has been sucking for quite a long time, though to be honest I did find Assault to be pretty entertaining in parts… even so, there’s a very good reason why we haven’t seen Star Fox on Wii so far and it’s because Nintendo doesn’t know what they want to do with the series because it just keeps on sucking. I’m sure another game in the series will be revealed eventu– “Can’t let you do that, Star Fox!”

What I’d like to see is Wolf O’Donnell and his crew tear up the screen in their Wolfen in a different kind of adventure.

“You’re good, but I’m better.”

Nintendo doesn’t seem to really know what it wants to do with Star Fox at this point. The formula for the series seems to vary between each game and they can never seem to get it quite right. With Star Wolf on the other hand you don’t need to stick to any of the Star Fox traditions or formulas of what makes a Star Fox game. Unlike Fox and his crew, Star Wolf are outlaws and considered the scum of the universe. Excellent, this pretty much means that anything goes with them. Hell, they’ve even been known to work with the good guys instead of fighting against them… this makes Star Wolf A LOT more interesting than Star Fox already.

“You’re on my turf now. Watch…your…step…Fox.”

Wolf’s motivations seem to be centered around being were the action is and to ultimately fight the good fight. His mercenary crew is for hire by anyone who is willing to pay the fee but his motivations are his own. Star Fox Command took the branching paths concept of the original Star Fox and Star Fox 64 to another level and provided a branching storyline to go with it. The branching path/story concept would work extremely well with Star Wolf and is the only gameplay mechanic I would carry over from Star Fox.

Being mercenaries, Star Wolf would be able to take on odd jobs around the Lylat system for pirates, outlaws, private military groups, etc for a listed fee. The higher the reward, the higher the difficulty… but not only that, other factors would come into play as well. Depending on who Wolf chose to work with, his reputation would be effected and the people he would deal with during the progression of the game would change along with the story.

The way I’m envisioning this is kind how BioWare has with Mass Effect in terms of the Paragon/Renegade system and the overall effect it and your actions have toward the story. I even think it would be a great idea to let the player dictate which way they want to take the story during the battle. For example, Star Wolf could end up being hired to protect a mining colony. Now, that could be the mission to begin with, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change mid-mission. What if the attacking forces make Wolf an offer to join them and double what the mining colony has offered them? The player could then choose by their actions whether they continue attacking the bad guys or turn their guns on the colony itself.

To differ Wolf from Fox even more, instead of picking up power-ups from the field, Wolf would have to use the money he acquires from each mission to upgrade the individual Wolfen of his crew as well as to repair them. He could also use the money to buy supplies like bombs or even buy information that could take the story into another direction depending on whether the player acts on it.

Taking things even further away from how Star Fox would do things, I’d want this to be a pretty meaty game as well and not just some extended arcade experience that Star Fox seems to have gone for in the past. This game would be around 15 to 20 hours on a single run through of the story… and then players would still need to play through it again to see all of the other branching story lines and endings. Keep Wolf and his crew in their Wolfen for the action, but have it as almost like an RPG experience where the player can dictate how they want to upgrade their Wolfen, what special skills and abilities they give to Wolf and his crew and which path they ultimately walk.

“Looks like we win this round, Star Fox”

So where’s Star Fox during Wolf’s adventure? Hopefully nowhere to be found, to be honest. If this game were to exist, I’d set it during the events of Star Fox Adventures so that the Star Fox crew can’t interfere with the story at all… well… maybe Falco can, cause Falco is awesome… but that’s as much as I would allow.