Star Fox: Shadows of Lylat is a fan made Star Fox project that has been in the works for six years now. Six years is a long time for a fan project but there’s a lot on offer here. Space and ground missions, co-op, multiplayer, a deep storyline, massive enemies to much more. Plus, the game looks amazing.
Shadows of Lylat seems to be exactly like the kind of sequel we should have gotten in the first place. Not some stupid game with dinosaurs (Star Fox Adventures) and not that game with the really horrible voice-over work (Star Fox Assault). No word on a release date but you can find out more info over on the game's Web site.
Hit the break to check out the trailer. How's it looking to you?
Hamza Aziz, Destructoid's Community Director, has been here since day one. He was born when a tiger coughed up a hairball into a pool of ooze. He was one of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before budget cuts. Hamza works as a previews editor and manages a team in San Francisco. To date he has given away tens of thousands of dollars in prizes to readers. What a dick. Actually, Hamza is as kind as he is hairy.
Likes
Super Mario RPG, Halo, iPhone, Videogame cover bands, Super Nintendo
Meet the rest of the team
This looks awesome. But honestly, why can't people simply be inspired by a game make an original IP. Nintendo is only going to shut it down. 6 years of work wasted.
Rule 1: Never advertise or show your fan made projects which uses somebody's intellectual property to the public until it's done, otherwise you have nobody to blame but yourself when you get cease and desisted.
@Chronic Logic: Exactly what I've been saying (Re: Chrono Trigger 3D Remake)...
If you finish and release, then there's no C&D on development, only on distribution -- and then you simply stop distributing it. We all know how the internet works, so as soon as it gets into someone's hands outside of the dev team, the shit will spread like a virus. I doubt that most of these companies would invest the time and money going after the creators of the fan-made release, since they probably don't have much to take anyways. At worst I would expect the content to be seized and, again, if it's already on the 'net, it's a done deal.
It's important to get feedback from the Internet community. After six years of development, generating a little excitement (which in turn becomes motivation) isn't unreasonable. It does, however, nearly guarantee that a C&D will be issued, and the six years it took to make that trailer will have been completely wasted (excluding the development experience). I guess these people will never learn, and we will just keep drooling over shit we'll never get to play.
It's like, the girl of your dreams decided go on one date with you after your constant pursuit, and you go around telling everyone who ever exists, including her Mom, Dad, and best friend, how you're going to fuck her.
Well, we'll see what happens now! On the one hand, those Zelda fan projects never get shut down; on the other, it might be because those never, ever finish. My money's on these guys getting bored halfway through, too.
@atastysammich:: I would hope that after six years they are past the halfway point. : )~ Regardless, I'm not holding my breath for this one (or the Zelda remakes either).
it's look amazing BUT as always happens in this fan made project it's gonna be shutted down by nintendo and/or never get finished. If it gets finished, good for us, because that trailer was hot.
Well now its been reported on a gaming blog site its going to get shutdown - great. But then again you should know better than to use other peoples licenced IP.
Call it Nova Ferret or something and change the designs enough to make Ninty leave it alone, then you can release a special 'mod' through a separate website that changes all the textures and models back :).
Nintendo should track these people, and when found, kneel before them and offer them a proper contract and tools to work with. It's amazing to think what inspired fans give us while Nintendo fails to bring
@The Prodigal Son & Chronic Logic: Thirding that thought, it's incredible projects keep sabotaging themselves this way.
"Nintendo should track these people, and when found, kneel before them and offer them a proper contract and tools to work with. It's amazing to think what inspired fans give us while Nintendo fails to bring"
And that's exactly why Ninty is going to C&D them, can't have a bunch of amateurs running around who are better than them.
Just want to point out what I always point out when people complain about Star Fox Adventures: it was originally supposed to be a game called Dinosaur Planet by Rare for the N64, When Rare moved the game to Gamecube, Nintendo noticed that the main character was a fox and made Rare change the character to Fox McCloud, slapping on the Star Fox license in the process in a rather last-minute effort. The game is still well-polished, but you can note the slapped on license quite easily: Fox is given a poor explanation for why he can't use his blaster (then receiving a staff that...shoots blaster bullets basically), classic Star Fox levels are awkwardly placed between the rest of the game, and just when you're supposed to fight General Scales in the final boss battle, Andross literally appears out of nowhere, kill him, and spouts some nonsense about destroying the Lylat System (after being nowhere the entire game).
So honestly, it's best to just treat Star Fox Adventures as a separate game with an unfortunate license and not go complaining about how it's not a true sequel every time - because it's not.
As long as they won't get idiotic plan to claim any rights except for credit for its creation, there should not be a problem. They make no money - it's a fan project - Nintendo can't touch them (theoritcially). It can't sue people for drawing fan art of some character, who's image copyright they posess, and this is the same ... just bigger. But if some not so clever 3d artists gets not so good idea of claiming copyright to models he did for the game (BTW WTF for?! what are the chances to sell any of these?!) which is based on other copyrights, they won't realease anything except for open letter filled with regret.
Thanks for this story, Hamza. This is the first I've heard of this fan project and I'm a huge fan of the first two games of the series.
I do believe Starfox is Nintendo's most neglected and mismanaged IP. Between the re-skinning of Dinosaur Planet to the on-foot mission centric Assault(at least Mother games were good, if not released stateside other than Earthbound), Nintendo is going to be shown up by a fan project. Which is why I'm affraid they will C & D it if possible.
Whoa, first I've ever heard of this. Nintendo needs to hire these guys right now and get to releasing this. (Yeah, I know, not going to happen, but I can dream...)
Really, really dumb. Fantastic-looking project based on someone else's IP that will end up being shitcanned before it's finished, because developers can't keep their bloody traps shut.
You *know* Ninty's going to come down on this like several tonnes of angry Japanese publisher once they clap eyes on this, which is a crying shame because A) they've done bugger-all but screw up the property since the SNES sequel, and B) it looks ace.
I really hope Nintendo doesn't crush this into oblivion, as I could definitely see myself playing the crap out of it.
I agree with Necros: Star Fox Adventures is not a sequel, nor is the other Star Fox Assault...this is more of a true sequel and I, for one, will download it the minute its released.
Nintendo should hire these people instead of suing them. However, with a little time and work to reskin this thing I can't help but think it would be a pretty bad ass indie game that could make it to Wii-Ware/XBL/PSN. Perfect Dark was supposed to be a Bond game and that turned out well.
I just hope this project gets finished and leaked into the internet before Nintendo has any say. Companies really should actively hire these people, though.
Alright, let's hit the brakes for a second. I don't want to be a naysayer, but this doesn't look that amazing to me. I'm curious about how they're working on the ground stuff... but the outer space stuff? Looks almost exactly like Freespace 2, the source code they're using. And when it comes to projects using the Freespace 2 source code, I'm much more interested in the Star Wars one, Fate of the Galaxy. Which, by the way, has only been around for 2 years and seems a lot closer to being released.
6 years? Why did it take them 6 years to create what they have so far?
They should drop the IP stealing and make an original game with that talent. Even if it pisses some people off, Nintendo have all the right to shut down the project once they find about it. Starfox is their IP and even if you feel it's underused, it's still theirs.
God dammit, dont you think fan project developers would have learned from the two canned Chrono Trigger projects and just keep their damn mouths shut until it's done?
Hmm... Nintendo let the Mother 3 fan translation happen, and it was awesome. But other companies (Square Enix comes to mind prominently) prefer to wait until a project is almost done and then bury it in legal cease-and-desist orders.
Hopefully Nintendo takes the same approach here as they have previously by turning a blind eye. I'm also hoping that they don't have a StarFox game in the works, because that would make it more important (from a legal standpoint) for them to shoot down this nice looking fan-made game.
Well, if Nintendo, et al, let There Will Be Brawl continue without a hitch, I don't see how this game will be any different, unless they start selling it. THEN comes problems.
Here's hoping they don't get C&D'd, which may happen. I dunno about how many fangames and the like Nintendo has shut down (there was one OoT done in the LTTP style that was supposedly shut down, but I hear the author used that as an excuse to quit), but as stated, they let Mother 3 go through, and that almost required you to download the game. =P
First, that's one of the worst trailers I've ever seen.
Second, when will these fucking morons learn. Draw up some hype for your fan project AFTER it is completed and released. No cease & desist order or lawsuit can take it back once it's out there.
I hope these guys do get shutdown. Their project looks pretty terrible and they clearly don't have any sense.
Original projects are made all the time using the Freespace 2 engine. The SCP is basically the most prolific engine used in the (still surviving) space sim community today. This is just one of numerous mods being developed.
Shadows of Lylat dropped off the face of the earth a few years back and I never heard anything from them until this announcement was made a few days ago. Looks pretty great though, definitely the most visually intensive SCP game I've seen yet.
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
4:00 AM on 07.17.2009
| 
'Course, that doesn't mean Nintendo won't issue a C&D, but we can still hope.
If you finish and release, then there's no C&D on development, only on distribution -- and then you simply stop distributing it. We all know how the internet works, so as soon as it gets into someone's hands outside of the dev team, the shit will spread like a virus. I doubt that most of these companies would invest the time and money going after the creators of the fan-made release, since they probably don't have much to take anyways. At worst I would expect the content to be seized and, again, if it's already on the 'net, it's a done deal.
It's important to get feedback from the Internet community. After six years of development, generating a little excitement (which in turn becomes motivation) isn't unreasonable. It does, however, nearly guarantee that a C&D will be issued, and the six years it took to make that trailer will have been completely wasted (excluding the development experience). I guess these people will never learn, and we will just keep drooling over shit we'll never get to play.
It does look pretty badass, though...
It's like, the girl of your dreams decided go on one date with you after your constant pursuit, and you go around telling everyone who ever exists, including her Mom, Dad, and best friend, how you're going to fuck her.
Call it Nova Ferret or something and change the designs enough to make Ninty leave it alone, then you can release a special 'mod' through a separate website that changes all the textures and models back :).
@The Prodigal Son & Chronic Logic: Thirding that thought, it's incredible projects keep sabotaging themselves this way.
And that's exactly why Ninty is going to C&D them, can't have a bunch of amateurs running around who are better than them.
So honestly, it's best to just treat Star Fox Adventures as a separate game with an unfortunate license and not go complaining about how it's not a true sequel every time - because it's not.
I do believe Starfox is Nintendo's most neglected and mismanaged IP. Between the re-skinning of Dinosaur Planet to the on-foot mission centric Assault(at least Mother games were good, if not released stateside other than Earthbound), Nintendo is going to be shown up by a fan project. Which is why I'm affraid they will C & D it if possible.
You *know* Ninty's going to come down on this like several tonnes of angry Japanese publisher once they clap eyes on this, which is a crying shame because A) they've done bugger-all but screw up the property since the SNES sequel, and B) it looks ace.
Way to shoot yourselves in the face, 'Sol Team'.
I agree with Necros: Star Fox Adventures is not a sequel, nor is the other Star Fox Assault...this is more of a true sequel and I, for one, will download it the minute its released.
6 years? Why did it take them 6 years to create what they have so far?
Freespace 2 is the best space sim out there though. Yeah. Just installed it 2 days ago with all the goodies the SCP adds to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6VhyMzu12c
So, can I count on it not running on my machine?:(
Hopefully Nintendo takes the same approach here as they have previously by turning a blind eye. I'm also hoping that they don't have a StarFox game in the works, because that would make it more important (from a legal standpoint) for them to shoot down this nice looking fan-made game.
Good luck, Sol Team.
People really need to stop stealing other peoples property's.
Second, when will these fucking morons learn. Draw up some hype for your fan project AFTER it is completed and released. No cease & desist order or lawsuit can take it back once it's out there.
I hope these guys do get shutdown. Their project looks pretty terrible and they clearly don't have any sense.
Shadows of Lylat dropped off the face of the earth a few years back and I never heard anything from them until this announcement was made a few days ago. Looks pretty great though, definitely the most visually intensive SCP game I've seen yet.
And mention of a "deep storyline" is troublesome... makes me worried they're some creepy Star Fox fanfic writers involved or something.