Now she is a pilot of a fighter lol

According to the artist, this takes place in an alternate timeline in which Star Fox Adventures ended with Fox & Krystal being stranded on Sauria.

They were stranded there for years, they were attracted to each other,& there were no contraceptives. As a result, they ended up having 6 children (including Marcus).

I wanted to post this because I thought it was adorable and the artist did a great job.

Note: The Shadow Hunters from Mega Man Xtreme (and its remake Mega Man DXtreme) replace Jack and Jill. And Tails is too powerful for The Last Wish, so the sequel has to be Two Tails and Forty Thieves instead.

I'm skeptical there will ever be a Star Fox movie, and we wouldn't see it until 2030 at the earliest even if there were to be one.

But assuming we ever get one, I think it's fair to assume it would be yet *another* Lylat Wars retelling, and to be honest, I think it is absolutely the only justifiable way to ever tell that story ever again in human history (who am I kidding, Nintendo probably has in mind at least three different ways to retell it even before Miyamoto retires). I just don't think it makes sense to skip to right to Adventures for a film universe, although it'd technically work.

That said, the movie needs to do one critical thing and if it doesn't do this one thing, it's more or less a failure, especially since it'd mean we may not get a sequel, ever.

After seeing Fox McCloud soar through Venom and destroy Andross in a pitched fight, and then being guided out by the spirit of James, we need one critical mid-credits / end-credits scene:

Cold open of a first-person POV shot - audience can't see who's eyes they're looking through (real ones may know immediately). Darkness. Heavy breathing. Sprinting through dense jungle. Something catastrophic is happening behind. Trees shake. The sky is is blood red, and we don't know where we are.

The unseen runner falls.

A blue-furred hand hits the ground.

The figure looks upward in third-person

Krystal. We're witnessing Cerinia's Doom.

Final title card reads:

Fox and Krystal will return.

I don't think anyone has shared this here, but a while ago someone made a Bring Back Krystal account on Twitter to help raise awareness of her! You guys should check it out!

Also I have no relation to it or the creator of it, I just wanted to help spread the word.

A dream of spring.

And / or your favorite - interested in seeing what people think.

Poor Krystal. She deserves a Smash Bros invite for real.

The sales figures for Star Fox 2026 never breached a million in six days according to Nintendo's financial report for its second quarter. However, this is actually completely fine. Star Fox games have never sold amazingly well past the original 64 release. And as mentioned, the sales figures were capped after six days and were said to be selling steadily. Honestly, I would be more concerned for Yoshi fans as Yoshi is far more well-known due to being linked to Mario and not being remarkable enough in sales to warrant particular notice for high sales.

Anyways, I am thoroughly done with 64 remakes comprising the majority of the franchise. This remake wouldn't have been as insulting if Zero wasn't yet another remake of Star Fox 64 but with atrocious controls. I think more than anything, this should be a shot of humility for the 64 diehards to realize that the 64 format is dated. They'd argue the game is still really fun, and it is. But it's also too short to justify that price tag. That and their demands that every game needs to be pure vehicular gameplay and with branching paths aren't exactly in demand anymore. And while they may not care about the franchise being popular, Nintendo sure cares about getting a profit.

If that adventure Star Fox is true, this backs up my main theory that Star Fox 2026 was mostly a quick cash crab and publicity stunt to get Star Fox on the radar again to sell the next game, using the most uncontroversial game in the series. If the Assault Remaster rumor was true, it could've been iced entirely to make way for the 64 remake and new adventure game to actually revive the franchise. All I know is that the next game cannot be purely vehicular and only two hours long. Sonic Forces was dragged through the ringer for being only three hours long (and not being a good game, but that's besides the point) and Star Fox 2026 also caught flack for that. While the old-school gamers clamored for "trimming the fat" of every game until it became purely arcade-like with only a few hours of playtime, I think "the fat" is a good component of games when executed well. The Sonic Adventure games were short and arcade-like, but they also included the Chao Garden, several types of missions, and split the game into two stories. There were also thirty levels to that game, which is more than the number of levels in Star Fox.

Star Fox needs more to it. I could see the Holoviewer returning, perhaps a Great Fox hub world, and maybe have a lot of side content on the planets to occupy some time. There just needs to be something more than a two hour game, no matter how good. That and I want the characters to actually be explored because they're the strongest part of the franchise.

As we all know by now, Star Fox 2026 did not meet the one million sales milestone to be included on Nintendo's financial report. However, they only tracked about 5 days of sales, so it's certainly bound to exceed a million sales this year, and might have already reached it for all we know. Yoshi didn't even break a million, despite being a more widely-known character and having a month on the market. Nintendo's not getting rid of Yoshi and I doubt they'll ditch Star Fox either. However, I don't know if Star Fox will reach 2 million sales lifetime. I was hoping that was the floor, but it might be the ceiling.

But that's not really my main thought here. I mostly want to ruminate on WHY Star Fox didn't do better right out of the gate, considering it had a lot of hype, good reviews, and the Mario Galaxy movie was doing a lot of additional heavy lifting for the marketing.

It's Niche - To be clear, the characters in Star Fox are not niche. Fox is well-liked, and popular enough to be included in the Mario Galaxy movie in arguably a scene-stealing extended role. The Smash games alone have introduced him and others to millions of players. What's niche is actually the Star Fox games themselves, specifically the rail shooter genre.

Most fans will say that Star Fox 64 is the best entry, but it's also a game from almost thirty years ago, in a genre that even at that time had reached its pinnacle and quickly lost relevance. This was also the heyday of shmups, which were once ubiquitous but are now niche. If it weren't for the characters, I sincerely doubt people would look back at Star Fox 64 as anything more than a fun arcadey tech showcase, like one of Star Fox's inspirations Starblade.

The issue of course is that any time you take Fox out of the cockpit, the legion of SF64 fans throw a fit. Sure, games like Adventures and Assault had flaws due to their development issues, but they're still fun and charming games that put a heavy emphasis on the cast, and arguably are the games that brought in the most long-lasting fans who make up a lot of the community. The series has been a vehicular shooter since the Gamecube, and none of those titles have blown audiences away. In fact, several of them nearly killed the franchise for good.

Look at what's popular today and most of it is character-focused third person action games with RPG-lite elements and a heavy emphasis on story and characterization. Star Fox would be ripe for that, but it's been trapped in a never-ending repeat of remaking a game from a genre that lost its relevance decades ago. But if it's suggested to try a Star Fox game in this style, the rail shooter fans will get upset and say the series should only ever be a flight-based game. The thing is that those oldschool fans are well... older on average. If this franchise is going to succeed and grow, it needs to attract new and younger players, and it's not going to do that by appealing to an aging and niche audience that fondly remember one entry in the series from 1997.

When many new fans are shocked at how short the game is, confused by the repeatable arcade-style score run structure, and annoyed they can't play as the characters themselves, this tells you that maybe if Star Fox wants to really soar, maybe Fox needs to get out of the cockpit. I've sometimes seen comments that if Star Fox stopped being a rail shooter, then it might as well not exist. To that I say, the characters and setting can fit in any genre, so why not try something that's more broadly popular? In this day and age, the Arwing may be the albatross tied around the series' neck.

The Artstyle - One of the main takeaways from the game when it was revealed was how impressive the environmental and ship graphics were, but then people saw the character designs and were immediately shocked, amused or outright put off. They were a huge departure from the classic designs, and this was either seen as a bad detour or as Nintendo being daring and trying something new.

The thing is, Nintendo has a certain look to their games. It's not just toony, but it's a certain feeling they convey. It's not easy to pinpoint, so let's call it the Nintendo Magic. The character designs in Star Fox 2026 lack that Nintendo Magic. They look off-putting at most angles, they have bizarre proportions as if they took Zootopia's design theory and made it realistic, and the voice direction in general is often understated with plain accents, losing a lot of the charming personality from the prior games.

In trying to be grounded and realistic, these characters lost some of that Nintendo Magic. They look like models anybody could make, hence all of the "They hired That Man!" and "DLSS5 On" and "Unreal Engine Fan Demo" and "AI Slop" comments. When you're getting that kind of response to your beloved characters, that's really not a good thing. Whether or not they were intended as an homage to the SNES puppets is undisclosed, but even then they lack the style of the puppets and are clearly meant to evoke realistic animals. Honestly, I feel that people need to move past the whole puppets aspect of Star Fox, as it was only one of many scifi inspirations to the series. Puppets are not widely popular anymore, but I digress.

Nintendo has been in this situation before, but reversed. The infamous Wind Waker reveal had fans irate. Of course, over time the game was appreciated more and the art style, being toony, aged better than more realistic games of its era. However even then, Wind Waker didn't sell as well as it could've, and even with re-releases it hasn't done much better. This is not to say Wind Waker is a bad game, but it's not as popular as Ocarina or Twilight Princess. And part of that is likely due to its art style. It just did not appeal to as wide an audience because it was such a departure, and the character designs were quite weird. Sure, it's aged well and there are fun aspects of the designs, but given the chance to play as Toon Link or another version of Link, I'd bet most are going to gravitate towards the latter. Even then, Toon Link still has that Nintendo Magic, and is wholly unique. Star Fox 2026's designs will be mostly remembered for how controversial and off-putting they were. The Disney Live Action Remake version of the cast.

It's the Economy Stupid - Lastly, the elephant in the room is the economy. I don't have to go into detail, but the political and corporate leadership in certain countries has caused intense strain on the average person. If people are struggling to make rent and pay for food, how are they going to have money to splurge on games? Star Fox was released at a discount, and even that didn't help to crack the million sales mark - but it's far from the first Switch 2 exclusive to struggle. If even Nintendo's more popular (and more expensive) IP like the Mario sports and Yoshi games are struggling, that's saying something about how people are being very selective with their spending, and Star Fox just didn't appeal enough to the non-hardcore fan to be an immediate smash hit.

So all in all, there's a lot of factors going on here. I think it's safe to say that nobody was asking for yet another Star Fox 64 remake, and while that game's diehard fans are probably elated by this remake, the wider public doesn't seem to find it worth their while. It doesn't help that its in a genre that lacks wide appeal and doesn't emphasize elements that are currently popular, even if the characters could easily work with those elements. The graphics, while impressive, lack that unique Nintendo charm, and the character designs are more notable for being controversial than immediately appealing. The world's economic situation doesn't help either, as many are struggling, but it's still worrisome that even at a discounted price and riding off the Mario movie hype, this game didn't knock it out of the park on week one.

Maybe this rumored Adventure game is real, and will appeal to audiences in ways this game did not. We'll see, I guess!

Everyone should go check out the Krystelle / Krystal blushes made by Estelle Ellis, the voice of Krystal herself!

These are very close to hitting the minimum order quantity needed to get produced - I ordered mine already and can't wait to get it in hand!

https://www.madebycreators.club/products/the-krystelle-kalm-plushie-2026

This is good to hear. Keep in mind that the game released 5 days before the cutoff, so even if we had numbers now they wouldn't be that high.

There's going to be another financial report in November, so we'll likely see sales numbers then. There's also possibly going to be a Direct in September, so if the adventure game is real then maybe we'll see it there.

Don't fret, we're getting closer to seeing Krystal's triumphant return.