Takaya Imamura, the original creator of Star Fox, has stated that he prefers the designs of Fox in the Super Mario Galaxy movie over the new video game in the franchise.An opinion that has caused controversy and has been supported by many people, who believe that the new designs are quite ugly and questionable. Not capturing the charm of the original designs.
A man of fluctuating or complex opinions
This does not prevent him from declaring that he is tremendously proud that they are making a remake of his game, even thanking Miyamoto himself for it. But regarding the designs, it seems he is among those who think they are not as good as they could be. Stating that “I guess this is what happens when I’m not supervising… or something along those lines. I think the concept is fine”, he does not fall into the category of those who hate the designs, but he has not shown much enthusiasm about them either.
Or so we thought. After his statements became news over the weekend, Imamura himself has come out to assert that “the character design of Star Fox on Switch 2 is exactly as I imagined it in my head in Star Fox 64”. This seems to contradict his previous statements.
From this point on, there are several possible interpretations of why this change in tone occurred. It is possible that someone at Nintendo scolded him and he had to come out to defend the designs, that nuances were lost in translation or in his expression of what he wanted to say, or simply that he finds the version of the movie cuter and they should have used that instead of the one he had in mind during the development of the original game.
What is clear is that the game is not leaving fans indifferent. Not even its original designer. But to know if the designs are good or not, we will still have to wait until next June 25, which is when Star Fox is released exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.