Namco's Arwing design is awesome:

[Sammy]

I'm a huge Starfox fan, and this game almoast slipped my radar, what, with all the new holiday releases lately.

But this time around Nintendo left Starfox in the hands of NAMCO, them being known for their shooters and all... but it seems for the best, check out how nice the new arwing design is <3 <3 Can't wait to get my classic "shoot'em'up" on!!!

http://www.ngeb.net/e303/starfox_arwing1.png

http://www.ngeb.net/e303/starfox_arwing2.png

in contrast, here's where it all started ... the dawn of polygonal gameplay (nintendo was there...):

http://acorn.cybervillage.co.uk/emulation/snes/starfox.gif

http://www.nemoprod.net/emu/console/sneshot/starfox.jpg

VVV money shot VVV

[Nero's Master]

I've been waiting for this game for a long time. Finally. :teeth: Those shots are so sweet. <3 I still have the original Star Fox. It gives me some major headaches. :dead: Love it still, though. This game comes out next month, right?

[Sinix]

I'm suprised the wings aren't angled down.. seems kinda static to have them perfectly parallel. I dominated the original starfox.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Ditto on the wing angles.

I've seen a lot better spaceship designs on random japanese artist pages... which I can't seem to find now.

The ASP explorer (Elite 2, amiga version) is still the coolest looking spaceship.


Here's some random pages with neat edgy shizzle.
some site (http://www.interq.or.jp/blue/yanase/raku/rakugaki.html)
nice links to explore (http://www2.neweb.ne.jp/wc/k2s/link.html)

[Sammy]

actually the wings angle down slightly, they can't be at too much of an angle since they flipp arround and fold in and such.

Yea, I've seen better too (see: Icaruga), but NAMCO did a great job updating a rather vague ship design into something that's still an icon.

[N D Hill]

I'm on the fence with this one. Does it look like an Arwing? Yes. Was the arwing a good spaceship design? Yes. Is this a good spaceship design? It's all right but I've seen better. Personally, I don't see the need to retain the polygonal FX chip look when the developers of the original game probably would have elaborated a bit more on their design if the (what was then) current technology had permitted them to.

I'm not a big fan of the whole mentality when artists believe they have to "update" an old design in order to make everyone happy. When you try to appease everyone, In my opinion, what you usually end up with is something that's just "okay". It lacks the unique flare of the original and it tends to look clunky or forced according to modern standards. Just think of all of the recent superhero flicks that have been coming out in the last 5 years. They try to take an original character design and attempt to make them look "sleeker" and more fit for an audience that demands big effects budgets and no less than 5 billion bullet-time sequences per film. What you usually get is something that just barely hits the mark but you can't really take it seriously. It just doesn't look like it's in it's true element wherever you put it.

In the first Metroid Prime, they completely redesigned our beloved classic Space-Pirate to be something unique and great in it's on rite. In Prime 2, they were even bold enough to redesign Samus. I can at least speak for myself and say that I wasn't complaining. I'm not saying that all old concepts are bad and need to be replaced; just that artists shouldn't be constrained by them for the mere purpose of appeasing a fan base.

[Sinix]

Metroid prime samus design wasn't a radical change from the old games. You make it sound like they started from scratch.

[Sammy]

hrmm.. I think I should've titled the thread "Namco's Arwing design is awesome : based soaly on its franchise"

I think we've all seen better ship designs (I attached some of my favs :bashful: )... especially when we compare the Arwing to more current and trendier mechanical works.

But critiquing this new Arwing can be much more rewarding considering there was actual criteria to follow ...
Namco couldn't do like other, more current shooters, and just willy-nilly create some eye-candy ship ... they not only have a 13 year old franchise framing them in, but also a (very rabbid) fan-base. (and lets face it, noone other than Starfox's fan-base really goes after this game anyways ... not 'till they truely update/reinvent the franchise)
Namco has a discipline to follow, after all, creating based uppon a criteria is true design.

http://mo5.com/gamepatria/images/psx/raiden2/decor.jpg

http://www.treasure-inc.co.jp/product/ikaruga/img/HPTitle.JPG

http://www.angelfire.com/games2/angelsnapdragon/images/einhander.gif

http://www.davidsclazzic.com/images/COLLECTI/PLAYSTAT/THUNDERF.JPG

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~bevhome/striker2_front.jpg

[SJ Bennighof]

I was blown away when shots of Assault began appearing in my NPs. This game has utterly amazing vehicle design. I love the renders for the ground characters, and have you seen the Landmaster? It's beautiful.

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Thats great stuff. The first Star Fox was FRIGGIN DOPE!!!!!

[Sammy]

I just Played through the game last night (it's out early for rent) ...

Sadly the game is 'mehhhh', there are only 3 shooter/rail missions in the starfox tradition ... the rest are all arena/vehicular ... they're fun, but I'm still wanting a reinvention of the series : \

Also, it's sad too ... that there is not cohesive design element with the ships ... all the ship designs within the franchise are nice, and keep in tune with eachother ... but outside of that Namco just went haywire, and made whatever ship designs they wanted :zzz:

[oracrest]

Please God, make a sequel to Raiden. And keep it 2D. Make it a "Treasure" ;)

[Sammy]

Please God, make a sequel to Raiden. And keep it 2D. Make it a "Treasure" ;)


OHHHH, just imagine the sexy animated sprites <3 <3 <3

makes me wanna play 'in the hunt'

[oracrest]

OHHHH, just imagine the sexy animated sprites <3 <3 <3

makes me wanna play 'in the hunt'

Dude, you remember that arcade that we played in that obscure mom and pop movie theater in savannah? that thing was awesome. As good as if not better than the raiden games, very fluid animation, and scripted goodness going on in the background. Do you remember the name by chance? Maybe I should call those guys and see what it was..... :wink:

[Sammy]

Dude, you remember that arcade that we played in that obscure mom and pop movie theater in savannah? that thing was awesome. As good as if not better than the raiden games, very fluid animation, and scripted goodness going on in the background. Do you remember the name by chance? Maybe I should call those guys and see what it was..... :wink:

It's always so hard to remember shooter names : | lets try www.whatwasthatgame.com

but I don't even know where to begin, that game was baadasss, with the tanks running along the earth and flyin' up to you.

scripted goodness = <3

[MuffinMan]

i thought nintendo owned starfox...

[Sammy]

i thought nintendo owned starfox...

Yes, they own/publish Starfox but Namco is developing it this time ... (like Ubisoft owns/publishes FarCry, but CryTek developed it)

I don't think Nintendo has actually developed any starfox ... (maybe half the 64 version) ... I think the first one was developed by a team called 'argonaut' but don't hold me to it ;)

[cartoonfox]

darn, i have been waiting a looooooooooooooong time for a starfox sequal (ever since i completed lylat wars the 10th time ^-^) but looks like im gonna have to keep waiting?

how complete was the demo you played? any chance they could fix some things before release?

bah, this sucks, im still gonna get it ^-^ but yeah, kinda dissapointed that it aint awesome.


ah well,



peace :7up:

[Strife25]

I just played the Demo of this at Tsutaya(video rental store over here). I have to say that although the art direction is really cool(like moost namco games). The gameplay is a bit bland. Just my opinion though, I wasnt really into starfox much. I played the Super nintendo version. Never N64. There are better games out there to be had on gamecube than this. But then again its was a demo. So you never know.GT4 was way better than GT prolouge.