How You Can Play Star Fox 2 On An Actual Super Nintendo

With the release of the SNES Classic Edition gamers have been able to play the complete and fully finished version of Star Fox 2 for the very first time as an official release. Well, with the release of the official game on the mini-console, some took an opportunity to make it viable to play on an actual Super Nintendo Entertainment Console. Yes, you can actually play the game on a real SNES home console by purchasing a bootleg cartridge of the game from eBay.

Polygon is reporting that dumpers have already dumped the ROM data from the SNES Classic Edition and packaged it on an old SNES cart board. The dump supposedly not only works with emulators but also works right proper on an actual SNES game console.

Dumpers have then taken this opportunity to begin selling the bootleg version of the dumped ROM as an SNES cartridge on eBay at marked up prices.

For those of you wondering why anyone would buy a bootleg cartridge version of the official Star Fox 2 that was dumped from the SNES Classic Edition mini-console, well it's simple: Star Fox 2 was never officially released.

This would mark the first time that gamers would be able to play the original 1995 game on a home console as an official release.

All the previous outings of the game were bootleg dumps based on an unfinished prototype build that made its way online many years ago. So, gamers had to settle for tinkering with the ROM data by dumping it and finishing the translation and then recompiling the data. While gamers have been able to play Star Fox 2 in that rather unsavory capacity, it should come as no surprise that collectors are salivating over the idea of owning a cart based on Nintendo's actual release of the game.

As Polygon points out, this definitely is a legal gray area. I mean, technically Nintendo never released Star Fox 2. The game was pretty much complete back in the 1990s but the company decided to scrap its release in favor of working on Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo 64 instead. At the time, Sony was already tearing up the market with the release of the original Sony PlayStation, and so Nintendo felt it was a better route to focus on the N64 instead of a sequel to the original SNES release of Star Fox. Additionally, the SNES was pretty much topped out by that point and there was nothing else left to squeeze out of the system. Instead of drawing blood from a stone, Nintendo went the more sensible route by upgrading and focusing on the bigger, beefier hardware.

However, dumpers are making money on reselling Star Fox 2 on auction sites. Now, this could be considered a resale after the first sale was already made with the game being included on the SNES Classic Edition. However, selling it in its cart format for the SNES could be seen as the first sale since the game was never sold for the SNES on a cart, and so they may be running into some legal troubles depending on if Nintendo decides to pursue the matter.

Nevertheless, you can purchase a legal copy of Star Fox 2 as part of the 21 game bundle that comes packed into the SNES Classic Edition, which is available right now at participating retailers and online e-tailers.