Star Fox 2 introduces semi-real-time gameplay, new ship types, new playable characters, and a more advanced 3D game engine.

By 1995, 3D technology was advancing quickly and the 3D game market was expanding, with competition from the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles.

In 2017, Star Fox 2 was officially released for the first time as one of 21 games included in the Super NES Classic Edition.

Instead of following mostly linear paths inside predefined missions as in Star Fox, the player moves a team of two ships freely around a map screen that represents the Lylat system.

The objective is to beat all enemy forces present in the map while defending planet Corneria, preventing its damage level from reaching 100%.

Armed with new custom Arwings, a Mothership, and two new recruits (Miyu and Fay), the Star Fox team sets out to defend Corneria by destroying Andross's forces before they can inflict critical damage on the planet.

[6] It was an enhanced version of the Super FX, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) for SNES ROM cartridges developed by Argonaut.

[9] These enhancements enabled the chip to manipulate more polygons and sprites and to map textures more quickly,[2][8] giving the team the computing power needed for free-roaming 3D environments.

[3] At one point in development, the Walker sequences occurred in much larger space stations with energy gates that needed to be unlocked, a gameplay structure comparable to dungeon crawling.

[2] Because of the Super FX 2's greater computing power, the team decided to have the fighters visibly transform into bipedal Walkers.

[13] Electronic Gaming Monthly also liked the shift to free-roaming and felt the non-linear gameplay and ship morphing abilities were major improvements.

[12] A man was arrested and charged with felony grand larceny for attempting to steal a demo cart from the show floor.

[3][9][17] Cuthbert said that Star Fox 2 would be "compared directly against games such as Ridge Racer, which felt like you finally had an arcade machine's power in your home".

[18] The Super FX 2 chip also raised the cost of production, which would have made Star Fox 2 an expensive release.

[21] Nintendo Power wrote in their September issue that "rumors of the demise of Star Fox 2 have been greatly exaggerated", and that the release was most likely coming in the first half of 1996.

[23] In 2015, Miyamoto told journalists: "In my memory, I enjoyed [Star Fox 2] but I'm not sure I would release it, [...] I'd rather have people play a new game".

[5] When compiling a list of games to include on the Super NES Classic dedicated console, the system's producer proposed the inclusion of Star Fox 2.

[30][31][32] The version is the localized English ROM that was completed in the 1990s,[19] though Cuthbert suspected Nintendo had to make minor changes, such as altering screen flashing, to get it past modern regulations.

[11] The instruction manual was released digitally online and included concept art and design documents,[11] an unusual move for Nintendo.

[34] The update includes Star Fox 2 as a part of its portfolio of games, playable by those with an active Nintendo Switch Online membership as of December 12, 2019.

[35] Star Fox 2 received generally favorable reception from critics during its inclusion on the Super NES Classic Edition in 2017.

[46] Destructoid's Chris Carter complimented the constant swap between viewpoints and playstyles, minimal "RPG-like" exposition between levels and the introduction of Star Wolf, stating that they added character into the game but noted its short length and criticized the low framerate.

[36] Eurogamer's Christian Donlan described it as an unusual but "wonderfully surprising and inventive" sequel that builds upon the first Star Fox, due to its more roguelite nature.

[39] IGN's Samuel Claiborn complimented its "janky-yet-plucky aesthetic" but complained of severe frame-rate drops and found it difficult to control the ships.

He felt it was the worst game included with the Super NES Classic Edition, and that it "probably deserved" to have been cancelled, but was happy to see it released.

[41] Nintendo Life's Damien McFerran praised the depth, complexity and challenge, and called it a good reason to own a Super NES Classic Edition.

[42] Nintendo World Report's Neal Ronaghan and John Rairdin praised the distinct structure and design, challenge, strategy and roguelike elements, audiovisual presentation, replayability and depth.

[48] GameSpot's Michael Higham gave positive remarks to the land vehicle sequences, freedom of approach to manage an incoming threat and off-rails 3D dogfights in space, but criticized its poor technical performance, short length, and lacking sense of adventure when compared to the first Star Fox, among other aspects.

[3] Cuthbert believes a lot of the platforming experimentation they ran in Star Fox 2 gave Miyamoto confidence for Super Mario 64.