Reading the article I think you're exaggerating the statements made.
What was said was:
“It’s definitely not a prequel,” Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto told me after I played the game earlier this week. “In some ways I think more of it as being a remake of the first one or we’re starting from ‘1’ again, but obviously with that as a base trying to think, ‘now with these two different screens and new play system and different vehicles, what are the new things we can add to that?’”
What you think it mean: "This is a remake and we're starting from 1 again"
What it actually probably means: "We wanted to call it Star Fox, but it's a new game so we needed a subtitle."
Think of it like how Movie Franchises "Reboot" the franchise. I think Nintendo wanted to do this with Star Fox, but gamers don't lend themselves to reboot titles to well because they'll call it something distinctive anyway.
Examples of this are XBox One being called "XBone" and Sonic the Hedgehog being called "Sonic '06"
If Nintendo called it "Star Fox" gamers would just call it "Star Fox Wii U" or something.
Reading the article I think you're exaggerating the statements made.
What was said was:
“It’s definitely not a prequel,” Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto told me after I played the game earlier this week. “In some ways I think more of it as being a remake of the first one or we’re starting from ‘1’ again, but obviously with that as a base trying to think, ‘now with these two different screens and new play system and different vehicles, what are the new things we can add to that?’”
What you think it mean: "This is a remake and we're starting from 1 again"
What it actually probably means: "We wanted to call it Star Fox, but it's a new game so we needed a subtitle."
Think of it like how Movie Franchises "Reboot" the franchise. I think Nintendo wanted to do this with Star Fox, but gamers don't lend themselves to reboot titles to well because they'll call it something distinctive anyway.
Examples of this are XBox One being called "XBone" and Sonic the Hedgehog being called "Sonic '06"
If Nintendo called it "Star Fox" gamers would just call it "Star Fox Wii U" or something.