Nintendo Release 'StarFox' Animated Short

Ahead of the release of the forthcoming StarFox Zero game for Wii U, Nintendo have released an animated prequel online.  The Battle Begins acts as a 14-minute prequel to the latest game in the popular franchise, which is released in North America and Europe on April 22nd 2016. This is the first time that Fox McCloud and co have featured in an animated short of their own.


Whether they are planning on picking the game up of not, StarFox fans are likely to get a kick out of seeing the universe of the games on screen in this form. It's an interesting new development from Nintendo and it'll be good if this turns out to be not a one-off. Who wouldn't want to see the Next Zelda game get the same treatment, for example?

This is animated mostly in a CG cel-shaded style. The method used in Japan is often intended to recreate the look of 2D animation more closely. However, this tends to result in animation that's not as smooth as we're used to in Western CGI. Once you get used to it though, this actually doesn't look half bad.  The animation comes courtesy of a pretty impressive line-up, including Attack On Titan's Studio Wit and Production IG. Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto is credited at the producer. Check it out below, and do a Barrel Roll!