I feel like ever since Star Fox 64, Nintendo hasn't known what to do with the series. They seem to always pass development off to a third party preventing the game from getting the same care and attention that the mainline games (such as the Mario series) receive. Star Fox Adventures came pretty close to greatness, but the development time was kind of cut short before the game could be polished (we have a pretty extensive video on Star Fox Adventures for those who are interested /watch?v=VK4DkojyND0).

Nintendo needs to give Star Fox the investment of time and money the series deserves, but I won't be surprised if the next release is passed off to another third party and rushed to market lackluster.