We recently got the chance to speak with two members of the Star Fox Command development team, for some additional perspective on how the game was designed. The creative team of Dylan Cuthbert (Director) and Takaya Imamura (Producer) answered several questions about the vestiges of Star Fox 2, the process of creating all-range missions, and online features.

As some of our readers may know, Star Fox 2 is the unreleased Super NES sequel to the original game, and since several people involved with those games also worked on Command, some lost features were bound to appear in the new DS title. That includes the turn-based strategy gameplay, which had been left on the table for years. The Star Fox guys always wanted to bring it back someday, and it seemed to be a perfect match for the touch screen capability of the Nintendo DS. Although Command is a completely new and different game, the fully 3D "all-range" levels and tempo of the gameplay are quite similar to Star Fox 2.

The decision to stick with all-range levels came at some point after the touch screen controls were implemented. Also, because Command was designed as a handheld game, players are given more influence over the pacing of the missions. They can go straight for the target enemies or play methodically, eliminating every single threat. On-rails shooter levels, like those found in the original Star Fox and Star Fox 64, are heavily scripted and not conducive to being split up into smaller chunks like the battles in Command.

However, designing the all-range levels to retain the classic Star Fox action proved to be challenging. The development team started with the controls, then experimented with enemy placement, behavior, and design. The enemy core system and time limit were added to provide tension and strategy. A major difference between on-rails and all-range gameplay is that the former is essentially two-dimensional, while the latter is fully 3D. Command was designed to emphasize the differences of flying in a 3D space; for instance, the target enemies are not highlighted on the map, so players must pay attention to enemy types and flight patterns in order to identify the most important bogeys.

One feature of Star Fox 2 that did not make it into Command is ship transformation into walking robots. The mechs were enabled in an early prototype of the game, but it was difficult to make them work with the limited graphical power of the DS. However, Cuthbert hinted that the feature could appear in a future game. He also mentioned that on-rails bonus levels were a possibility for the next game, further hinting that the Star Fox series will continue. Regarding the possibility of a Wii version, Imamura said there were many ideas but they would have to remain secret for now.

Online multiplayer is a major new feature in Command, but since the game's release, many players have complained about competitors dropping out during a match, which immediately ends the fun for everyone else. It happens because Battle Royale matches affect the player's ranking, and the designers didn't want any collusion among players resulting in exaggerated rankings simply because cheaters were winning matches against a single opponent. It's not clear to us how this sort of cheating could be a problem when Battle Royale is always randomly matched and offers no method of communication among players. Though it may not be clear from the connection screen, Battle Royale matching is based on the dropout statistic, so frequent droppers will tend to be matched with fellow crybabies, and honest players will increasingly be matched with each other.

The basic, no-frills online setup was designed to let players jump into a game very quickly, without having to worry about a lot of options. According to the developers, allowing players to choose levels and ships would introduce many balancing problems, but robust configuration for friend matches could be implemented in a future game. There was some worry that providing too many options in Command would splinter the online audience, and the designers were not sure how many people would be playing in the first place.

Mr. Cuthbert and Mr. Imamura closed by saying that Star Fox Command was created for fans of the series who would really enjoy the background story and new character developments, and they are grateful to all those fans who have given positive feedback on the game. PGC would like to thank both of them, as well as translator Tim O'Leary, for taking the time to speak with us.