New Video Details How Dylan Cuthbert Made Star Fox When he was 17

It's common knowledge a young British programmer named Dylan Cuthbert helped Nintendo program Star Fox, the first true 3D game for the SNES—but how much do you know beyond that little factoid? A recent episode of People Make Games (an informative series by Eurogamer alumni Chris Bratt) goes in-depth about how Cuthbert came under the employ of Nintendo.

The information dished out in the 10-minute video ranges from amusing (Cuthbert and the rest of Argonauts' team essentially worked on Star Fox in Nintendo's smoking room) to a little mind-blowing (Cuthbert reverse-engineered the Game Boy and wound up working on Star Fox when he was just 17).

The video also goes into detail about Shigeru Miyamoto's contribution to the project: He built up a story and well-defined levels around looser, freer experience. Star Fox wound up being a cultural and technological cross-breeding between East and West, and the melding of ideas served the final product well.

Star Fox's slow, chunky polygons haven't aged extremely well, but there's no denying there's still a lot of fun left in the game. Star Fox's direct sequel was cancelled just before release, and its eventual release on the SNES Classic gave us a game that's technically superior to the original Star Fox, but not nearly as fun.