The timing was just right to make Star Fox 2 obsolete as a flagship product. We could only do one "jump from 2d to 3d" in game graphics console transition, in all the generation jumps. Star Fox 2 just happened to fall into that crack.
RT: https://gameliberty.club/users/beardalaxy/statuses/114196027777050743
ひげ
@DailyStormerDigest star fox has a habit of games being meant for a previous console and then getting canned and completely remade. it happened with star fox 2 and star fox 64, and then again with dinosaur planet and star fox adventures. dinosaur planet was more or less complete with some polishing needed. there was a version of the game that leaked a few years ago that wasn't fully playable, but i believe modders patched it up to make it so. but yeah shigeru miyamoto came in and was like "oh your game has some funny foxes in it, you need to make that a star fox game now." so it got pushed to the gamecube instead.
that was a similar technology leap too. not quite as crazy as star fox on the snes to star fox on the 64, but the amount of detail crammed into adventures is pretty insane. the fur especially is one thing people like to point out.
@DailyStormerDigest i don't think it boosted sales at all, honestly. rare was extremely popular on their own. a few of their games outsold star fox 64. i think it may have been the timing, because a new rare game that wasn't a sequel coming out on the gamecube wouldn't have been successful as one coming out on the n64. people were expecting that sort of thing with the gamecube, like, "the stuff you enjoy but now it looks better!"
i do agree that it shouldn't have ever been a star fox game, though. but it is what it is. we got krystal out of it either way so i'm chill with it 
It really shouldn't have been a Star Fox game. It probably goosed sales, but I'd argue it was a square peg-round hole situation that unduly influenced expectations for the game, instead of letting it do its own thing, on its own merits.