Star Fox Review

Fox McCloud is back, and this time the Lylat System has never looked or sounded better.

If you've been following Nintendo for any stretch of time, you already know that Star Fox 64 is one of those games that refuses to stay buried. Originally released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64, it came at a time when the console was struggling to find its footing with a strong software lineup, and Star Fox 64 stepped in and delivered exactly what the platform needed: a tight, polished, arcade-style rail shooter that felt unlike anything else available at the time.

It was actually packaged with the Rumble Pak, and if you consider its relevance, the Rumble Pak was almost like the grandpa of all those haptic systems that you love today. It has been remade several times since then, even getting a remake for the 3DS way back in 2011.

Now, nearly three decades after the original, Star Fox is back on Switch 2, rebuilt from the ground up by Velan Studios, and the question everyone's asking is simple: Does it still hold up, and does this remake actually bring something new to the table?

The story in Star Fox kicks off with a prologue that wasn't in the original game. You're shown the backstory of James McCloud, Fox's father and the original leader of the Star Fox team, and how his mission to investigate the planet Venom ended in betrayal at the hands of his own teammate, Pigma. James sacrifices himself so that Peppy Hare can escape and live to tell the tale.

Fast forward a few years, and a new Star Fox team has formed with James' son Fox now at the helm, joined by Peppy, the sharp-tongued Falco, and the endearingly clumsy Slippy. The Lylat System is under attack from the exiled scientist Dr. Andross, and General Pepper calls on Star Fox to put an end to it. What's noticeably different in this version is that the characters have been given a lot more room to breathe.

Star Fox on Switch 2 leans into proper character development through fully animated, real-time cutscenes that play between missions.

Whereas the original mostly kept things surface-level and saved its lore for the instruction manual. These scenes change depending on which path you take through the game, so your choices always feel reflected in the story. Fox himself is portrayed as younger and more conflicted here, someone genuinely trying to step out of his father's shadow rather than the confident straight-man of earlier versions.

Falco, on the other hand, has gone from being a friendly rival to becoming somewhat openly antagonistic, and there seems to be some mixed feelings over this change. On the one hand, this tonal difference seems to be interesting and serves as an indication that Falco is going to have a much larger story down the road, but on the other hand, people feel like this has made the team less likable than before.

But regardless, the overall storytelling quality is leaps above the original, and the cutscenes are very well done.
Now, when it comes to what you're actually doing in Star Fox, the core of the game remains completely intact. This is an on-rails shooter, meaning the game moves you forward automatically, and your job is to shoot down enemies, dodge incoming fire, and survive to the end of each stage. 

You're piloting the Arwing for most of the game, a nimble spacecraft with a satisfying moveset that includes boosting, braking, barrel rolling, and banking left or right. The controls are incredibly responsive and feel just as snappy as they ever did, possibly more so, thanks to the updated input options, including simplified button layouts, while still keeping classic controls available for veterans.

Beyond the Arwing, a handful of missions put you in two other vehicles.

The Landmaster is a tank that feels noticeably heavier in this version but with tighter aiming than before, and the Blue Marine is a submarine used for underwater sections that now handles more distinctly from the other two vehicles. Each one shakes up the experience in a way that keeps things from feeling repetitive, and the tank and submarine missions in particular stand out as highlights of the campaign.

The level structure works on a branching path system, meaning a single run through the game only takes you through seven of the sixteen total stages. Which stages you visit depends on how well you perform. Hit certain objectives within a mission, and you'll unlock access to harder, more demanding stages. Miss them, and you'll be routed toward an easier path.

This system has always been one of Star Fox's greatest strengths, and it's still as compelling as ever. The remake makes the route requirements a bit more explicit this time; some additional mid-level dialogue and an updated map help point you toward what you need to do, which is a welcome change for newcomers, even if some longtime fans preferred the mystery of figuring it out themselves.

On top of the branching routes, there's a medal system tied to enemy kill counts within each stage, and a newly added Challenge Mode that gives you specific objectives to complete when revisiting previously played levels. These range from finishing a stage within a time limit to fulfilling requests from your squadmates. Complete all the challenges on a given stage, and you unlock Expert variants that push the difficulty even further.

It's a solid way to extend the life of the campaign without feeling like padding.

Combat itself is built around your laser cannon and a limited supply of bombs. You can upgrade your laser by collecting power-ups scattered throughout levels, and locking onto multiple enemies before firing a charged shot lets you take out several targets at once while racking up higher combo scores. The feedback on hits is one area where the remake takes a small step back compared to the original.

The original used bright color flashes to indicate damage being dealt to enemies and bosses, but the more realistic visual style here makes those cues subtler and harder to read. It's not a dealbreaker, but if you're new to the game, it can occasionally make boss encounters a bit more confusing than they need to be. A similar issue crops up with some audio cues, like the warning sound that plays when you fly too close to lava in one of the later stages.

It's still there, but it's been turned down enough that it loses some of its urgency. There are also All-Range Mode missions sprinkled throughout the campaign, where instead of moving on a fixed rail, you're flying freely within an open but bounded space. These sections are typically used for dogfights and specific objective-based encounters, and they're consistently some of the most exciting parts of the game.

The enemy AI in these sections is genuinely aggressive and will get on your tail and stay there, making them a real test of your maneuvering skills. One critique that comes up across the board is that the levels, while faithfully recreated, can feel a little narrow. The Arwing handles so well that you sometimes hit the invisible walls at the edge of the playfield before you feel like you've had a chance to really open it up.

A bit more lateral space in the linear stages would have given players more room to experiment with their flying and discover more of what the vehicle is capable of.

It's a minor frustration, but one that becomes more noticeable the more comfortable you get with the controls.
Visually, Star Fox on Switch 2 is genuinely impressive. Every stage has been rebuilt from scratch, and the difference is stark. Corneria, the opening city stage, is no longer the relatively sparse environment of the original.

It's now filled with smoke, burning wreckage, dynamic lighting, and enough visual detail that it actually feels like a city under siege. The underwater stage makes great use of volumetric fog and caustic lighting effects to sell the depth of the ocean. Space sections weave through nebula clouds and debris fields with a density that adds real atmosphere.

The game runs at a smooth sixty frames per second during gameplay, with cutscenes dropping to thirty, and the consistency of that frame rate is one of the most noticeable quality-of-life improvements over any previous version. There's no stuttering, loading is fast, and transitions between sections are seamless. HDR support is also present, and the way it handles glow effects like explosions and laser fire gives the image a real punch.

The character designs have been redone to look more realistic and animal-like, which has been a talking point since the game was first announced. Whether or not they work for you is going to come down to personal taste. Some find the increased realism makes the characters feel more grounded and expressive, and there's no denying the animation quality is exceptional, with background characters reacting subtly to conversations in ways that reward attention.

Some may find the designs a bit unsettling compared to the more stylized looks from earlier games.

What's harder to argue with is how much personality comes through in the performances. The voice acting across the board is strong. Every member of the crew feels well-defined, and even supporting characters like General Pepper get more dialogue and more presence than they did in the original.

The new musical score is a full orchestral reworking of the classic tracks, and it genuinely sounds fantastic, richer and more dynamic than what the Nintendo 64 hardware could ever produce, while still feeling faithful to the tunes that have been stuck in people's heads for thirty years. Outside the campaign, Star Fox includes a multiplayer mode that supports up to four players either locally via GameShare or online.

There are three distinct game modes across three maps: a zone domination mode, a collection mode, and a capture the flag mode, each with its own ruleset and a solid range of customization options, including ship speed and enemy difficulty settings. Power-ups like homing rockets and EMPs give matches a chaotic, arcade-y feel that works well with the game's overall tone.

The modes themselves are genuinely fun, but three maps feel light, and whether the online community sustains itself long-term remains to be seen. A co-op option for the campaign is also available, where one player controls the ship's movement while the other handles aiming and shooting using mouse mode, which is a surprisingly enjoyable way to play with someone else.

Speaking of mouse mode, Star Fox supports them as a full alternative control scheme.

Using one Joy-Con for movement and the other as a mouse for aiming, it locks you into a first-person cockpit view, which won't appeal to everyone, but it's genuinely playable in a way that mouse mode on Switch 2 hasn't always been. At the end of it all, Star Fox on Switch 2 is a remake that clearly comes from a place of deep respect for the source material.

It doesn't try to reinvent what made the original special, but it does find smart ways to expand it with better storytelling, more expressive characters, stunning visuals, a well-implemented challenge system, and a multiplayer mode that's more developed than anything the series has offered before.

The criticisms that exist are real but relatively minor: the levels could stand to be a bit wider, some hit feedback is harder to read than it used to be, and the multiplayer could use more content to stay fresh. And yes, if you've already played Star Fox 64 to death across its various releases, this is still fundamentally the same game. The problem is that there isn't a Star Fox game that has been as good as it currently is.

No matter if you are a die-hard fan of the series and returning home, or someone who is brand new to the universe of the Lylat system, this title is definitely the definitive adaptation of one of Nintendo's greatest games, and it shows that Star Fox definitely has an exciting future ahead of it.