Okay, we need to talk about Star Fox 64. It’s a great game, don’t get me wrong, and was certainly pioneering for its time — innovating with not only its novel Rumble Pak integration but also its many branching paths and impressive replay value — but, almost thirty years after its release, it’s time to let it go.
It isn’t some inaccessible hidden gem: it’s been remade and re-released repeatedly over the years. Back in 2011, we got a pretty substantial remake in Star Fox 64 3D on Nintendo 3DS, followed by a virtual console port of the original game for the Wii U. Then 2016’s Star Fox Zero was a 64 reimagining at its heart, with a similar story and some near-identical levels in its campaign.
Now we have the upcoming Star Fox, a complete remake designed for Nintendo Switch 2, and things are just getting silly. With its release, almost half of the series’ nine mainline games will be some version of Star Fox 64, and when there hasn’t been a new game for almost a decade, surely now is the time for something more new and exciting.
Do a barrel roll… again
Still, it’s not hard to see why Nintendo has gone down this route. With protagonist Fox McCloud appearing in the blockbuster Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the company clearly wants to create an approachable entry point for prospective fans — one that doesn’t require knowledge of any prior games. It’s also no secret that remakes like this are much cheaper than having to create an entirely new game, with developers working from an established template rather than having to build everything from scratch.
It makes total sense from a business perspective, and if this remake is a big success, I can only assume that we’ll finally get a new Star Fox game in the next few years. The problem, having played a few hours of Star Fox at a recent Nintendo event, is that its age does show.
It’s also no secret that remakes like this are much cheaper than having to create an entirely new game
There’s plenty good here, don’t get me wrong, and it’s dripping with that usual level of Nintendo polish. The visuals look great in motion, and are substantially upgraded compared to past versions. Zooming through the picturesque first level, Corneria, its initial raft of green hills and shimmering ocean appears genuinely beautiful, with the subsequent city siege being even more impressive.
From the handful that I’ve seen, the new cutscenes are an improvement too (slightly uncanny, bit-too-realistic character models notwithstanding) and do a good job establishing the stakes and introducing the distinct personalities of the main crew. The controls are smooth as well and, while the game still unfolds mainly in an on-rails format, it’s pretty fun to hit barrel rolls and fire laser beams as you dart through the skies. It’s all accompanied by a brilliant orchestral score that makes it all feel super cinematic.
My main hangup comes from the levels themselves. Beyond aesthetics, they’re basically exact recreations of the N64 originals and are really quite short, a fact that’s even more noticeable now they’re sandwiched between lengthy cutscenes. On the standard difficulty, the boss fights I sampled were all comically easy too, which further compounds the issue — shredding a giant mech in four seconds isn’t a very climactic end to an already short encounter.
I can already hear some of you yelling at the screen that Star Fox 64 has always been a very short game — which is of course true — but if you’re going to all the effort to remake the visuals from scratch, I don’t see why some extra encounters couldn’t have been thrown in there to extend the runtime (not to mention increase the appeal for those that have already played through 64 multiple times) a little bit as well. Fingers crossed the full release has some surprises in store.
At least a new co-op mode has been added to take advantage of the Nintendo Switch 2 system, tasking one player with piloting the Arwing ship and the other with aiming its weapons with Joy-Con 2 mouse controls. The results are, as you might expect, pretty hectic, but I’m glad the option is there for younger players eager to dive in with siblings and friends or even older gamers wanting to share the action with a family member.
The online multiplayer is another great excuse to squad up with some pals, and it’s pretty different to the local action in the old game as well. It’s 4v4 now, with one team dropping in as the Star Fox team and the other as the malevolent Star Wolf mercenary squad to battle over control points in a handful of maps.
I really enjoyed my brief time with it (and I’m not just saying that because I got to play as my beloved Slippy) and am eager to try it out some more come release day. I’m hopeful that it will help me spend some more time in the game after knocking out the campaign in just a couple of hours.
Star Fox launches as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive on June 25, 2026.
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dash.wood@futurenet.com (Dashiell Wood)
