PlatinumGames' studio head, Atsushi Inaba, has admitted that if Nintendo was on board, the team would "definitely" be interested in bringing a new version of Star Fox Zero to Nintendo Switch.
Talking to VGC, Inaba said that it was "not cool" that some people are prevented from playing older games like Star Fox Zero – which was co-developed by Platinum – because they're no longer available on current-gen systems. He also hinted that the team would "bring over any of those titles to the newer platforms" if it was possible.
“It’s not cool that people aren’t able to play older games because they’re locked out of the platform, so of course if anything was possible we’d like to bring over any of those older titles to the newer platforms.
“It kind of depends on what’s in the realm of actual possibility, but yeah, if the chance came up it’s definitely something we’d like to think about.”
However, Inaba was quick to add that any port to Nintendo Switch would have to respect the views of Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto.
"The important thing to remember there is that because it’s Nintendo’s IP, the ideas are coming from Miyamoto-san himself," he added. "We have to respect what Miyamoto-san wants to do.
"Of course, at that time there was a lot of discussion between Platinum and Nintendo, but if the opportunity came up to bring Star Fox Zero to the Switch again it would be more of a question of what he would like to do in that opportunity, and of course we would respect that again."
Interestingly, Star Fox Zero received a mediocre response from 12DOVE when we reviewed it back in 2016, chiefly because of what our reviewer deemed to be a clumsy control scheme – something a Nintendo Switch port could potentially address and fix, of course.
"Even a perfectly designed campaign packed to the rafters with content couldn't cover up the awkwardness of Star Fox Zero's controls," we wrote at the time. "That's what's so disappointing - there are moments of greatness in here, little sparks that, despite other flaws, remind me why I loved Star Fox 64 in the first place.
"Unfortunately, all of it is constantly undermined by a slavish devotion to wrapping the core design around every feature of the Wii U's Gamepad, regardless of whether it makes sense or feels good to play. 19 years is a long time to wait for a game to live up to the legacy of Star Fox 64, but we're going to have to keep waiting. This game isn't it." Ouch!
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