Anscestors

Titles	System	Description
X/Lunar Chase (Nintendo, Argonaut)	Game Boy	Lunar Chase was evidently programmed by the same people who made SF. It was shown in one issue of Nintendo Power, and it seemed to be based on 3D line segment graphics--probably the first time such a graphics engine of the sort had been done on that system. I have yet to play this game, but it seems like an incredible feat given that Game Boy doesn't even natively handle multiplication! The game was not released outside of the Japanese market.
StarGlider(Argonaut)	Various computers	Argonaut Software also made a computer title that supposedly bears strong resemblance to SF.
Solvalou (Namco)	Arcade	I noticed the word "Solvalou" in Namco's arcade title Xevious, so I wonder if the game has its roots in the early 1980s coin-op. Xevious was fun, but I have yet to see Solvalou. Dylan Cuthbert's interview mentioned it influenced SF.

Super FX games

Titles	Info	Description
Dirt Trax FX	4 Mbit FX 1995 Acclaim Sculptured Software	Dirt Trax featured unlit, flat-shaded polygon tracks, but the dirt bikes were all scaled sprites. This is a good approach because it adds more detail to the graphics. You can probably imagine how simplistic polygon dirt bikes would be in this game! 360-degree, "all-range" play, with few tracks. Low framerate graphics, but solid play control. Some of the worst music I have in my Super NES collection, though. Tag mode is a fun idea.
DOOM	16 Mbit FX2 1995 Williams Sculptured Software Id	Although one of the largest Super FX games, it is missing some graphics and supposedly about 6 stages. Its principle disadvantage isn't so much the low framerate as it is the long latency between the time a button is pressed and the action is performed. To compensate, the game is very lenient in aiming. You can be very far off and still hit a target. This version of Doom has good music. It does not run full-screen, but it's at least a greater percentage of the screen than the SGI version of Doom.
Stunt Race FX	8 Mbit FX 1994 Nintendo Argonaut	A fun game, though the play control is its weak point. It's far too easy to oversteer, and in a tight game one mistake can easily cost a race. The SF arwings make a couple of appearances in the game! Bouncy music score that ranges from catchy to a bit annoying. Graphics feature more texture-mapped polygons and all-range gameplay, but also a lower framerate.
Super StarFox Weekend	8 Mbit FX 1993 Nintendo Argonaut	The title screen says "Official Star Fox Competition." This game runs on the same engine as SF, but is timed to last 4 minutes. The stages are modified from SF or entirely new, and the gameplay is frantic and exciting! The same great music adds to the pace and atmosphere of the game. Wonderful play control. Modified scoring system.
Vortex	4 Mbit FX 1994 Electrobrain Argonaut	Originally called "Citadel," Vortex was one of the first FX games not published by Nintendo. The game seems to pack quite a bit into its small cartridge size, but the gameplay itself is less than stellar. It has 360-degree, "all-range" play that showcases monotonous level design and bad camera angles comparable to that of many N64 games. Boss weak points are hard to discern and even harder to target due to the poor camera. The game has decent play control, though, and exciting music. (I like the "Vortex" and "Magmemo" music alot!)
Winter Gold	16 Mbit FX2 1996	This was probably the last FX game published. I don't think I have any magazine reviews of it and I've never seen it in stores. Notable for its geometrically constructed "video" intro.
Yoshi's Island	16 Mbit FX2 1995 Nintendo	Probably one of the best platform games ever made. The sheer size, scope, and imagination of this game put Super Mario 64 to total shame. The FX chip was used for both polygon graphics and 2D special effects, mostly for sprite scaling and rotation. Wonderful control and very fun music, though the harmonica was overused in one song. The only bad aspect is baby Mario's crying, which seems almost universally abhorred. The game's art was pretty unique for the time, and the special effects were more than just eye candy. I was eager to see how a 2D game could benefit from the Super FX, and this game blew me away when it came out.

Successors

Titles	Info	Description
Red Alarm	8 Mbit Virtual Boy 1995 Nintendo T&E Soft	This was the first Virtual Boy game I played, and I knew one day I'd have to own it. It's my favorite on that system and, although technically all-range in terms of gameplay, most of the time the action is forward-scrolling much like SF. 3D line segment graphics replace polygons, though. Excellent play control and great music. A "shootemup" video game web site gave rave reviews to another VBoy game, Vertical Force, but frankly I think Red Alarm blows it away in every respect.
StarFox 2	16 Mbit FX2 1995 Nintendo Argonaut	The ill-fated StarFox game. Featured morphing vehicles and all-range gameplay reminiscent of Vortex. That was probably a huge mistake (all-range gameplay can easily get boring and unfocussed), but I was still looking forward to another Super NES SF game. SF2 was canned and partially cannibalized to make the N64 SF game.
StarFox 64	96 Mbit N64 1997 Nintendo	The N64 game in the series was essentially a remake of SF with elements from SF2. In this respect alone you can almost tell their hearts weren't in the game. There are a few all-range areas, but thankfully most of the stages are forward-scrolling. Almost too many vocals were used, and while many are great, some were cheapened. Most notable is Slippy's voice, which is completely unlike his sound effects in SF. Peppy's voice is a bit weird, too. Background music in most places is comparatively uninspired. Lack of digital control for those of us who prefer it. Ugly, disgusting, low-budget 3D models even in prerendered box art! Many story discontinuities, such as in where Fox's father vanished. Video output can be grainy, especially in foggy areas, explosions, and objects that are supposed to be in shadow. A fun N64 game (one of the few there are), but I wished it was more like the Super NES SF.
Rogue Squadron	128 Mbit N64 1998 Nintendo Lucasarts Factor 5	I started giving up on N64 games after playing this. I rented it to test out the N64 Expansion Pak and liked it for about 5 minutes. After that I hated it. Boring all-range play, annoying play control, and vocals more annoying than SF64's. A typical Star Wars game and nothing more. Choppy movement is a pain, such as in the hanger when you pick a vehicle and it "stutters" around to the exit. High resolution is all but necessary to see distant objects well. Control does not feel natural as NP claimed. Graphics can interfere with gameplay in dark areas when objects are not easy to distinguish. (Even Aquas in SF64 isn't that bad...) Even more importantly, why are there so many evil, el-cheapo Star Wars games (all remaining faithful to the movies) while new SF games (few and far between) deviate so much from the standard?
Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2	1 GCN disc Nintendo GameCube 2001 Lucasarts/Factor5	Some of these stages are frighteningly like SF & SF64. Notably the Death Star is reminiscent of Bolse (SF64) and the corridors of SF (the trench run). Also check out the asteroid stage! A very worthy sequel, far more fun than Rogue Squadron.
Solar Assault	1997 arcade Konami	A sequel in the Gradius series, Solar Assault is reminiscent of SF in some ways. It was a fun game, though at first I had a hard time getting used to the controls in the coin-op.
Cybermorph	16 Mbit? Atari Jaguar 1993 Atari Corp. ATD	When Diehard Gamefan (December, 1993) raved about this game I was almost set to buy a Jaguar system just to see it. I'm glad I saved my money. After finally trying it out, I can say that this game surpasses Super Mario 64 in poor level design and is the epitome of the evil all-range gameplay paradigm. Collect pods scattered around a bunch of empty planets. Whoop-de-do. Few enemies; fewer sounds. Passive gameplay. Every game designer should be forced to spend a week playing this without sleep so as to know how NOT to make a game. I now look back at pages 170 and 171 of that issue and laugh at comments like "Look at the creativity, the sound, the intelligence" and "we will all own this system, at least most of our readers will." Hindsight is 20/20, but Cybermorph speaks for itself.
Battlemorph	On CD-ROM; not sure real size. Atari Jaguar CD 1995 Atari Corp. ATD	What a metamorphosis! The sequel to Cybermorph is halfway cool! Music makes a huge difference, as well as more varied terrain and objectives. All-range play can be a little boring at times, however.
Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy	16 Mbit? Atari Jaguar 1993 Atari Corp.	The same Diehard magazine previewed this title and didn't like it as much as Cybermorph. I haven't played it yet, but it'd be hard to imagine a shooter worse than Cybermorph. It's a side-scrolling shooter, but I'm including it here because its anthropomorphic characters (Trevor McFur, Cutter Lynx) make the game feel like a SF wannabe. The world may have given up entirely on the Jaguar system as it did Virtual Boy (after Cybermorph it's no wonder why), but I'm still willing to give its other titles a try. (Just stay away from Kasumi Ninja unless you like cheesy tournament fighters.)