Summary
Star Fox is a gorgeous and solid remake that brings this classic arcade shooter into the present.
Developer – Velan Studios
Publisher – Nintendo
Platforms – Nintendo Switch 2 (Reviewed)
Review copy given by publisher
What’s with the influx of remakes and remasters these days? Star Fox 64 has now been retold for a fourth time. We have the 1997 N64 original, the 3DS version in 2011, Star Fox Zero in 2016, and now just simply Star Fox for the Nintendo Switch 2. Quality was never really the question because Star Fox 64 is still Star Fox 64. You can hand it to almost anyone and they’ll probably have a good time. The real question is: why does this need to exist at all?
In terms of narrative, nothing has been altered. Fox McCloud and his mercenary crew, hired by General Pepper, fight across the Lylat System to Venom to take down Andross. What’s new is the framing around it. Voiced cutscenes replace the old text briefings, and a fresh prologue about what happened to Fox’s father, James, reworks Fox into a younger pilot flying in his dad’s shadow, with Falco and Slippy getting some more screen time and character development too.
The branching “bad” routes are smarter too, written as deliberate choices rather than mechanical quirks. My one worry is tone because the original was campy and a bit silly. This one plays a lot more cinematic, and if the goofiness is what you loved, you might feel a bit of that missing here.
Star Fox, at its very core, is a rail shooter. You pilot the Arwing, boost, brake, barrel roll, blast, and fight your way through countless dogfights. This formula is nearly thirty years old and it’s still a blast because nobody makes them anymore! The real gift is the frame rate and performance on the Nintendo Switch 2.
Several missions swap the Arwing out entirely, putting you in the Landmaster tank on Macbeth and Titania or the Blue Marine submarine on Aquas, and others open up into All-Range Mode, free flight arenas where the dogfighting really breathes. That’s where Star Wolf comes in. The rival mercenary squad remains the best recurring threat in the game, and their encounters feel sharper here than they did in 1997.
Then there’s the mouse controls. You put a Joy-Con on the table, slide it around, aim like you’re on a PC. It’s actually quite nice and the precision is accurate, but the problem is that going into mouse mode forces you into a first person perspective cockpit that requires movement and aiming to be done by the same hand. I personally prefer just playing it with a normal controller. Regardless, it’s nice of Nintendo to add this as an optional accessibility feature for those that prefer it.
The stage lineup is Star Fox 64’s, rebuilt rather than reinvented. You have Corneria, Meteo, Sector Y, Katina, Solar, Zoness, Macbeth, Titania, Aquas, Fichina (the ice planet the old game mislabeled Fortuna), Bolse, Area 6, Sector X, Sector Z, and Venom, mostly in the order you remember. Zoness gets the biggest glow up; its polluted shallows are now a full on angry ocean. You still only see about seven stages per run, so the harder branching paths are where the best level design lives.
Progression is the same as it was in 1997, and whether that thrills or disappoints you is entirely up to you. A single run or playthrough is maybe an evening, just a couple of hours. These types of arcade style shooters have always been short. The replay value sits in the branching routes and the desire to see the ones you skipped. There’s a new easy mode for newcomers and the returning Expert mode for people who want to be challenged.
A separate Challenge Mode is the closest thing to “new content”. You replay cleared levels with different objectives on Normal or Expert. But it’s tucked into its own menu, off to the side of the main campaign.
When the campaign wraps, Battle Mode, a 4v4 online mode set across three maps, tries its best to keep you around. The progression mostly pans out to cosmetic banners, with a handful more unlocked by tapping a Fox, Falco, or Wolf amiibo. Hopefully Nintendo rolls out a couple more maps down the line, but I wouldn’t hold them to it.
I’d say local co-op is the sleeper pick and honestly the best reason to keep the game in the dock: one player flies, the other guns, roles swap on the fly, and it’s the most fun I’ve had with anyone else in the room in months.
Technical performance is *chef’s kiss*. It’s about as clean as Switch 2 games come, with locked 60 frames per second on both docked and handheld modes. The cutscenes run in the same engine as the gameplay, so there’s no weird transition. It’s seamless! The load times are short.
Star Fox on Switch 2 looks absolutely fantastic, mostly thanks to its art direction, and runs at around 1440p docked. Places that used to be flat and grey have color and mood now. In terms of character models, Nintendo went more anthropomorphic, but I think a lot of old folks don’t want their Fox looking too lifelike. Personally, I quite like it!
The music is also easy to praise. The orchestral takes on the classic themes are beautiful, and hearing those tunes with a real ensemble under them alone is reason enough to buy this game. Hunter McCoy does an impeccable job voicing Fox.
As a game to sit down with, this is the best version of one of the best arcade shooters ever made, and if you’re handing this to a kid who’s only met Fox in Smash Bros, they are in for a hell of a ride. But at the end of the day, this is still the fourth retelling of a story with no new levels, no new systems, and a shallow multiplayer mode. Every strength in this game is an argument for Velan to make an actual new Star Fox next. I hope Nintendo pays attention.
Whether or not it’s worth $49.99 (digital) or $59.99 (physical) is for you to decide. There’s also a free demo out on the Nintendo eShop for you to try with no strings attached if you’re curious about the game.
Final Verdict
Star Fox is a gorgeous and solid remake that brings this classic arcade shooter into the present.
