The original Star Fox models may look bad (
see them here), but there's a certain charm to them now. They just somehow look right. I think it's because they're all staring into space, something about that seems noble or interesting. But Falco's in-game comm image in the SNES version was indeed ugly.
Took until Star Fox 64 before I preferred Falco over Fox, because I just needed to hear his voice.
You know, I never stop enough to think about how ridiculous some of these ragtag teams are. Yeah they're all friends and you get to care for (almost) all of them, but do you ever think about how weird and different they are from each other? Final Fantasy X had a guy who whined and ran slow, the cute girl who's holy and philosophical, a gothic magic user with a dress made out of belts (what the hell), a no-nonsense blue cat beast who never seems to be happy, some Jamaican-sounding dude who attacks with a blitzball, and the cool old guy who has a flowing red jacket and one working arm. And a mouth that's always obscured by a coat collar except at certain camera angles. It's like they thrive on individuality.
So the Star Fox team shouldn't look that strange because there's been plenty of varied, bizarre parties in games before. In particular I wonder how they chose the species of Fox's teammates, as they seem pretty random. I understand having a bird since they're up in the skies, I guess a hare would be for the "fast" aspect just like Fox is... but a toad? ...oh wait, tortoise and the hare, you need the ironic slow guy in the group. Okay, nevermind, the species aren't as random as I thought they would be.
Warning - while you were typing 5 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post.
Yeah, whatever.
EDIT:
yes, i've played SF SNES, i own it, and also, its still ugly either way!
Reminds me of one issue of Nintendo Power where a reader basically said "Star Fox looks ugly, don't show off the Super FX chip until the graphics look good!" I'm surprised there was a time when Nintendo allowed criticism. While the game does indeed look pretty bad, at least you have some idea of what each thing is. Also, there was someone who said the Nintendo Power comics sucked or were boring (the current comic at the time was the Star Fox comics I believe).