If Nintendo isn't going to do it internally, they should let Platinum try. It couldn't be worse than Namco's attempt.
If he really thought SF64 couldn't be improved on, then he's the only person in the world I want to see working on a new one. Someone making decisions at Nintendo apparently thought it needed improvement, which is why they let the franchise be ruined. Either that, or they think there's no sense making another one because it was perfect, but then there's Punch Out.
Why don't they just handle "on-foot" (out of the starwing) missions like S&P gameplay with a jetpack on StarFox's back, or make it the exact same left to right gameplay on the ground with a barrel roll while on foot? doesn't seem that difficult. Use the pointer for aiming.... I can picture it in my head.
The real question is why would Fox ever run around on foot in the first place? It was odd enough that he ever used the Landmaster when he could have been flying. There would have to be some reason for leaving the heavy firepower behind, like infiltrating a building for some reason, and then there would have to be some reason not to bomb the building from the air in the first place. Now we've got so many contrivances to explain that it's starting to look like a
story, and I fervently believe that's what's been killing the franchise. Someone got it in their head that we cared about Fox's love life more than we cared about blowing stuff up.
Truthfully, if enough stuff blew up, I might learn to like an on-foot level. It's the sheer magnitude of the violence in the SF64 Macbeth level that got me to like the Landmaster, after all.
Since Star Fox has always had the wingmen the OBVIOUS thing to have done for a third game was allow you to play through the story-mode with FOUR PLAYERS!!
Amen to that! If Nintendo is so big on co-op that they give a second player something to do in a 3D Mario game and even make a 4 player Zelda, why leave out the franchise with the most obvious need for co-op?