The story of Star Fox’s latest outing is one we’ve seen before – both because it’s literally a remake of 1997 Star Fox 64, but also because it follows the familiar formula of so many recent reimaginings like it. More than just a fresh coat of paint slapped onto one of my favorite childhood games, it introduces a rewarding Challenge mode, slightly improved multiplayer options, and a bevy of brand new well-made cinematics that take a deeper dive into Star Fox lore. Add all those elements to an original game that still largely holds up three decades later and it makes for the best 20 or so hours of Star Fox I’ve ever played. Here’s hoping this is the start of a whole new generation for the series.
Let me start where most people will: the main campaign. Star Fox games have always had a relatively unique structure, where a fairly short series of levels are full of branching paths and alternate exits, meaning you’ll never see all 16 stages (or even most of them) on a single playthrough. A full, seven-mission run might only last an hour or less, but it took me about 10 hours to see all the different paths and earn every medal on both the normal and expert difficulties. Some may worry that the shorter campaign might feel lacking, but while it’s not necessarily a Thanksgiving dinner that will leave you stuffed, there was still more than enough meat on the bone to keep me entertained across multiple runs.
Returning to these recognizable stages on the Switch 2 was a thrill, and I was amazed by how great everything looked as my muscle memory returned after all these years. Everything from the reflections on the waters of Corneria to the kaleidoscopic wormholes you travel through look fantastic, which makes identifying any of the alternate path objectives easier than ever. The revamped soundtrack stands out as well; it perfectly captures the vibe of each location and keeps every campaign run brisk and interesting.
The brand-new, fully voiced cinematics also really help to bring the entire cast to life. There is a unique cutscene between each stage of the campaign, and unlocking an alternate route will even give you a different version of that cinematic when selecting the mission you’ll take on next. These scenes are weighted more toward the war against the big bad, Andross, but they also help deepen your understanding of and endear you to each member of the Star Fox team (even Slippy), fleshing out their personalities to a level the original never did. Conversations with Slippy show his love of engineering and how much work he’s put into the Arwings while the oldest member of the team Peppy confidently displays his years of wisdom by offering insight on why a planet might be a target for Andross. Falco’s nonchalant bravado and cockiness comes through with every voiceline, and the cool and confident Fox now has an added bit of wittiness.
Do a Barrel Roll
Star Fox may look like a simple on-rails shooter on the surface, but it’s one of those games where the more you dive into it, the more you’ll find hidden underneath. Each stage hides extra objectives in plain sight – you might need to take down enemy groups quickly to earn power-ups or fly through certain structures to spawn new enemies and boost your score. Its missions reward replayability; finishing a level is just the start, and pushing for high scores is the truly rewarding challenge. Uncovering hidden bonuses or figuring out which paths earn you medals takes time, especially for newcomers, but it provided me with a special sense of achievement I often miss in modern games.
Its deceptive depth goes beyond the goals you need to achieve or alternate routes you can discover and into the actual action as well. Movement and aiming feel snappy and great, and your limited but effective arsenal of weapons makes it easy to always figure out which one will get the job done best in every situation, putting the onus on your timing and execution. I loved rediscovering which enemy in each group I should lock my charged shots onto in order to maximize my bonus points, which e nemy waves to use one of my limited bombs on, and where all the hidden power-ups were tucked away.
The best addition is the Challenge mode, which adds tricky new objectives to each stage. That could be challenging your boost and flight skills to beat Falco through the obstacles towards the end of Corneria, or simply defeating a boss within a time limit or destroying enough of a certain enemy or item in the environment. It took me roughly eight hours to complete all of the challenges, and there are a few inherent strengths to this mode – as well as one small oversight that I think could have elevated it further.
Starting with the good, Challenge mode is a great way to replay any stage you’ve already beaten and practice it to discover all the hidden elements, memorize enemy patterns, and optimize your path to achieve the highest score you can. Some of these challenges can be tough or require zen-like patience, such as giving your itchy trigger finger a break to make sure you only hit a boss’s weak point and not the massive rotating shield that regularly covers it. Admittedly, it can be frustrating when one mistake on that boss means you fail the objective, forcing you to restart the entire level if there are no checkpoints to fall back on. Thankfully, moments like that are mostly relegated to the expert-level challenges, which are explicitly there to test your mastery of the Arwing, so they should have some level of pushback.
Ultimately, I really liked working my way through all of the challenges, but given this mode is already a completely new addition to the original game, I do wish it had pushed things a little bit further than it did. For example, I would have loved a boss rush mode, alternate scenarios like allowing you to play as another team member during the missions where Fox is in the Landmaster tank, or anything else the extremely creative minds working on it could have come up with. The challenges we got are fun, but they do mostly boil down to a fairly straightforward task on a familiar level.
Can’t Let you Do that, Star Fox
The other major inclusion is the multiplayer Battle mode, though I’ve spent the least amount of time here so far – a few hours of bot matches and one half-hour PvP session online, which was hosted by Nintendo ahead of release. It’s a more compact but still enjoyable experience, though it might lack enough content to keep me coming back for extended periods of time.
Multiplayer boils down to a four vs. four deathmatch across only three possible maps, each with its own set of events that occur at randomized locations. Corneria has you competing to capture specific points, Fichina makes you blast and collect meteorites, and Sector Y asks you to deliver cargo captured from space pirates. Each objective occurs multiple times per match (as time permits) and grants a large point bonus to the team that completes it first. There are also a ton of new power-ups to pick up that can excitingly turn the tide in your favor. For example, the Plasma Blast is a giant, far-reaching laser that melts enemy pilots, while the Smart Mines home in on enemies that dare cross your path too closely.
These maps are fine, but the thing that puzzles me about Battle mode is why there are only three total, and why each map’s event is locked to that particular stage. There are 16 levels in the campaign that you are encouraged to play repeatedly, and less than a quarter of them made it to Battle mode, which seems like a major oversight. Nintendo has been pretty good about adding post-launch content to its other games in recent years, so I’m hoping Star Fox gets the same treatment in time, because I do want to play this multiplayer more. But in its current form, it’s doomed to just the occasional match with friends before the inevitable swap to Mario Kart World or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
The final two additions worth mentioning are the Holoviewer and the cosmetic unlockable system. The Holoviewer is Star Fox’s version of a bestiary or logbook that offers a much deeper look into the lore of its characters, planets, and enemies, as well as events like the Venom Incident, which was when Fox’s dad, James, sacrificed himself to save Peppy. It’s just a simple menu with these details, but it’s still a nice addition to a series that isn’t really known for diving too deep on the backgrounds of a world and characters I’ve always wanted to learn more about.
The cosmetic system, on the other hand, is hit and miss. The unlockables mostly include banners, emblems, and VTuber-esque avatars that let you control the head, eyes, mouth, and even tongue movements of a specific character if you have a USB camera attached. The avatars are great in theory, but they come with some weird limitations. There are 25 character options, but you are limited to just the eight playable members of team Star Fox and Star Wolf while in a multiplayer match. My excitement dropped when I realized you can only use avatars like Kat, Bill, and Rob64 on the menu screen or while playing single-player separately in a GameChat party. That feels like a needless restriction for an otherwise cool feature.
In addition to GameChat, the Switch 2 does bring a few other benefits, such as mouse controls, GameShare functionality, amiibo support, and the ability to play co-op by splitting the flight and aiming controls between two players, but none of those amount to much. Mouse controls do technically give you better control over where to aim, and they were particularly useful in the pair of missions where you’re on the ground in the Landmaster – but outside of experimenting to see how they feel, I found myself U-turning back to my Pro Controller before long, as I do with most games that offer mouse controls on the Switch 2.
Meanwhile, Amiibo support is limited to the Fox, Falco, and Wolf Amiibo, which only unlock a handful of character-specific emblems and banners, so sorry for anyone hoping to tap them for a free laser or bomb power-up in a time of need. And while playing co-op with my partner was an interesting experience, it’s not one I’d sign up for in the long run – though I think it could be the perfect way for parents to introduce their kids to the world of Star Fox.