Remember the first time you banked hard over Corneria's ocean, the Arwing's engines screaming as you locked onto a Wolfen? Me neither—because I wasn't born yet. But nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and for a generation of indie developers who grew up on Star Fox 64, that feeling of barrel-rolling through enemy fire is sacred. So sacred that they've stopped waiting for Nintendo to resurrect the franchise. They're building their own.
The Fox That Didn't Bark
It's been almost two decades since a mainline Star Fox game didn't make fans wince. Star Fox Zero (2016) tried to reinvent the wheel with dual-screen gyro controls and ended up feeling like a tech demo for the Wii U GamePad. Before that, Star Fox Command (2006) on the DS was a touchscreen mess. And the less said about the 2011 remake of Star Fox 64, the better—it was a 3DS port with worse voice acting.
Nintendo, for reasons that baffle even its most devoted fans, seems to view Star Fox as a relic. A franchise to be trotted out for a cameo in Super Smash Bros. or a brief appearance in Starlink: Battle for Atlas. But not a living, breathing series worthy of a new entry. Meanwhile, indie developers—the same people who brought us Shovel Knight and Celeste—look at that vacuum and see an opportunity.
The New Wave of Arwings
Enter Ex-Zodiac, a love letter to Star Fox that's been in development since 2019. It's not subtle—the game apes the exact structure, visual style, and even the sound design of Star Fox 64. But it's also brilliant. Developer Nico Tuason (known as 'Pumpkin' online) has spent years meticulously recreating the feel of that iconic rail shooter, right down to the branching paths and medal system. The game launched on Steam in Early Access in 2023 and has already sold over 100,000 copies.
But Ex-Zodiac isn't alone. There's also the upcoming Project Kyzen, which leans harder into the arcade sensibilities of the original Star Fox while adding modern touches like online leaderboards and customizable ships. And then there's the bizarre but fascinating Sky Rogue, which fuses the Star Fox formula with roguelike randomisation—every run has different enemy placements and power-ups.
These games aren't just clones. They're arguments. They're saying: This genre isn't dead. Nintendo just forgot how to do it.
“We didn't want to copy Star Fox. We wanted to finish what Star Fox started.” — Nico Tuason, Ex-Zodiac developer
Why Nintendo Won't Bite
You might ask: why doesn't Nintendo just sue these guys into the ground? Short answer: they can't. Copyright protects specific expressions—character designs, music, exact dialogue—but not gameplay mechanics. You can't copyright a rail shooter, just like you can't copyright a platformer. So as long as these indie games don't feature Fox McCloud or Andross's ugly mug, they're perfectly legal.
But there's a bigger question: why won't Nintendo just make a new Star Fox? The answer is probably money. Star Fox has never been a mega-seller. The best-selling entry, Star Fox 64, moved about 4 million copies—respectable, but a fraction of what Mario or Zelda pull. In Nintendo's eyes, the franchise is a niche curiosity, not a flagship. Why allocate a AAA budget to a game that might sell 2 million copies when you can churn out another Mario Kart and sell 20 million?
That logic is cold, but it's also why the indie scene exists. Indie developers don't need to sell 20 million copies. They can thrive on 100,000 sales, especially if they keep costs low and passion high.
The Irony of Nostalgia
Here's the thing that keeps me up at night: these indie games are better than anything Nintendo has done with Star Fox in 20 years. Ex-Zodiac runs at 60 frames per second, supports 4K resolution, and has a level editor. The original Star Fox on SNES ran at about 15 frames per second and looked like a polygon fever dream. We've come full circle: the fans are now the masters.
But there's a tragic irony here. The more successful these indie tributes become, the less incentive Nintendo has to make an official entry. Why bother competing with a vibrant ecosystem of fan-made games that do the job just as well, if not better? Nintendo can sit back, collect licensing fees from Amiibo sales, and let the indies carry the torch.
That's a loss for everyone. Because as good as Ex-Zodiac is, it's not Star Fox. It can't be. It doesn't have the characters, the history, or the Nintendo polish. It's a simulacrum—a perfect copy that's still missing the soul of the original. And that's the problem with nostalgia-driven development: you can recreate the mechanics, but you can't recreate the magic of playing a game for the first time in 1997.
The Verdict
Indie developers are doing what Nintendo won't. They're keeping the rail shooter alive, one barrel roll at a time. And for that, they deserve our applause and our wallets. But let's not pretend this is a happy ending. It's a symptom of a larger disease: a corporate giant that would rather sit on its IP than invest in it. Nintendo has the resources to make a Star Fox that could blow our minds—but they won't, because the spreadsheet says no.
So we're left with the imitators. Good imitators, even great ones. But imitators nonetheless. And every time I play Ex-Zodiac and feel that familiar rush of flying through a tunnel of rings, I can't help but wonder: what if Nintendo actually tried? What if they gave us a Star Fox that wasn't a gimmick, but a genuine evolution? We'll never know. Because the indie devs got tired of waiting.
