Nintendo's Yusuke Amano has explained to the UK's Official Nintendo Magazine why the 3DS remake of Star Fox 64 doesn't support online play.
Surprisingly enough, the move wasn't spawned by any aversion to online play or a desire to keep the face recording feature family friendly. Instead, Amano says, it was a matter of priorities.
"For this project what we needed to do was use Star Fox to provide users with a game that shows the appeal of Nintendo 3DS as quickly as possible. We put a lot of effort into the graphics, and if we had included online support then we couldn't have reached this level in the time allowed."
The developer goes on to state that merely making the existing multiplayer component support online play wouldn't have been enough to satisfy fans, and the costs involved in creating a full-fledged online mode would have been "vast".
There's a ray of hope on the horizon, though. Amano suggests that any future Star Fox titles for the 3DS might feature online play, stating,"If I get the chance to work on another Star Fox title, I would definitely consider an online multiplayer mode." With the very solid multiplayer groundwork that Star Fox 64 3D has laid for a potential sequel, that's a promising prospect indeed.