The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was another big hit for Nintendo, crushing at the box office and essentially printing money for the gaming company and Illumination. It seems both intend on keeping the party rolling, as rumored movie releases and a post-credit sequence hint that Star Fox has its own standalone movie on the way. With all that seemingly on the way, I'm questioning why an upcoming game in the franchise made a baffling decision regarding the character's design.
For those who don't game, Nintendo has a remake of Star Fox on the way, and rather than mimic the Dreamworks version, this new game features hyper-realistic anthromorphic versions of Fox McCloud and his team, and I'm not sure why this is happening.
Nintendo Changing Star Fox's Look Feels Like A Massive Misstep
Why Nintendo would greenlight a game to radically change the look of Star Fox right on the heels of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is beyond me. Both of these projects were in development, and Nintendo was active in both. Surely, brand synergy is important, and it's not like anyone was complaining about how Fox McCloud looked.
So then, why change things up right after the massive get of Glen Powell as the character? It's not like A-listers just pop out of the woodwork and offer to voice video game characters every day. If ever there was a time to stay the course with branding across the board, this is it.
While I doubt this is the case, I also have to wonder if this means the next time we see Star Fox in theaters, the team will look completely different. Once he returns to his dimension, could he have a completely different look? I can't help but wonder. At the risk of sounding like an outraged Nintendo fanboy, I've followed this company long enough to see it make some bafflingly odd decisions.
Nintendo Made Efforts To Change Other Nintendo Characters After The Super Mario Brothers Movie
What also makes the Star Fox decision odd is that Nintendo already transformed one of its characters to look more in line with its Illumination counterpart. Illumination added a black outline around the character's eyes, which Nintendo then added to the character in Mario Kart World as well as Donkey Kong Bananza.
He's a bit bulkier in the games, and he doesn't sound like Seth Rogen, but he looks more or less like the same character we see in The Super Mario Brothers Movie. It's understandable, especially since he's rumored to have his own spinoff on the way. I'm not sure then how things fell apart with Star Fox, and I'm hoping someone at Nintendo is asking the same questions and looking into making some changes. Let's hope we don't get another Sonic the Hedgehog situation, where a project is delayed due to backlash from visuals.
For now, we're left waiting for more details about whether a Star Fox spinoff movie is happening, and what it may focus on. Hopefully, the redesign for the game is a one-off and not a tease at what these characters will look like when a movie actually does happen.
