My relationship with the Star Fox franchise is probably described as fragmented at best. Far from a die-hard fan of the series, I have dipped in and out across its 30-plus-year run, leaving each time with, at the very worst, a smile on my face. As for my familiarity with Lylat Wars, that was limited to a quick rental at Blockbuster and a single playthrough of the game’s campaign, so far from well-rehearsed. Which leads me onto Star Fox, a 2026 remake of that same Nintendo 64 game, giving the much-beloved classic a fresh coat of paint, among other additions and improvements.
You play as Fox McCloud, leader of the mercenary team Star Fox, who, alongside his team Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare, take on the job of protecting the Lylat System from disgraced scientist Andross after he unleashes a full-on attack. In the original game, the story felt like somewhat of an afterthought, with any exposition very sparingly sprinkled in the game’s brief conversation between Fox and General Pepper pre-mission and radio chatter mid-flight. Here, things feel fully fleshed out both in and out of the Arwing, and it’s something that’s been heavily highlighted in the game’s marketing (and with good reason).
Conversation is not only more interesting whilst flying but more revealing too. Sure, we’re not talking layers of depth here, but it’s certainly providing more insight into its major and minor characters than the original ever did. Then you have the between-mission segments, these giving us some interesting exchanges between the four teammates aboard the Great Fox, be that Falco’s initial pessimistic attitude toward Fox as their leader or Peppy’s struggle to get his team to work as… well, a team. Not only that, but the planets and points in space you travel to are given justification and reasoning, whether that be strategic or emotional. Even choosing between two routes has the team trying to convince Fox of why one planet may be a better choice than the other. You aren’t simply thrown into the next scenario now, and as a result, it helps Star Fox and the Lylat System war feel more grandiose and impactful.
From a gameplay perspective, Star Fox offers a satisfying mix of corridor and open-based flight combat, with stages taking on one of two forms. You have your linear point-to-point courses and then your open battlefield style affairs. The former are easily my favourite, seeing Fox and team flying through destroyed cities, asteroid fields, fiery stars and more as they contend with waves of increasingly tougher enemies and obstacles. The arena-based dogfights, meanwhile, are exactly that, focusing purely on keeping airborne enemies at bay whilst trying to accomplish a mission often involving protecting a base or destroying a spacecraft.
In your Arwing, you’re able to perform barrel rolls to deflect lasers, U-turns and somersaults to evade tailing enemies and boost and brake to avoid obstacles. As for going on the offensive, you have a laser (with charged lock-on) and a limited number of bombs capable of taking out screenfuls of enemies. Depending on your path, you will also get the opportunity to get in the seat of the tank-like Landmaster and submarine Blue-Marine, and though both handle similarly, there are notable differences, making their stages feel especially unique.
Navigating the game’s array of stages is exhilarating even on repeated visits as you discover things you may have missed previously, be that an upgrade to your laser tucked away or some tightly grouped enemies begging for a targeting laser blast. In fact, this is where Star Fox goes from being merely a fun space adventure to one worth perfecting as you learn every stage’s enemy patterns, when best to make use of your limited bombs and how to maximise multipliers. It’s the very definition of a high score chaser, and due to just how much fun it is hopping in the Arwing, Star Fox managed to do what so few games before have done. It made me care about my scores.
While playing the campaign alone is definitely the way to go, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some fun teaming up with my wife, her shooting, and me piloting. Yes, I felt majorly restricted, only being in control of one of the two major actions you have in the Arwing, but for her, someone who doesn’t play as many video games, she felt it was a nice introduction to the Star Fox game, even leading her to brave the Lylat System for herself.
One area likely to draw some criticism is the game’s short runtime, a campaign run completable in roughly an hour or so. While yes, technically you can roll end credits in less time than it takes to watch a Star Wars movie, that’s not quite the point when it comes to Star Fox. You see, this short and snappy campaign has been designed for replaying, every run only revealing seven stages of its sixteen-stage pool and your performance on each of these often impacts where your team will chart course for next. For example, the game’s opening planet, Corneria, can end in one of two ways: either with you taking on a bipedal mech boss just outside the city or heading out to sea and battling an attack carrier. How that’s determined comes down to your piloting ability, successfully saving Falco from a handful of tailing enemies before then carefully flying through seven archways leading you down the latter path. Not only will your actions lead you to a different boss battle, but also impact your next destination, in this case, a mysterious meteor field or lending a hand in saving General Pepper’s space fleet out in Section Y.
While branching paths in games is nothing new, the way Star Fox integrates them feels organic, not merely being a case of choosing left or right but directed based on your wins, efficiency and even failures.
The game keeps track of all the exits you’ve found across its campaign, while every stage also has a target score to aim for. Secure all these, and you’ll then unlock a tougher expert mode, enemies more aggressive, powerful, and your lifeline’s restricted.
While all of this was present and accounted for in the Nintendo 64 release, what is new is the game’s challenge mode, and it’s here where I found myself getting truly hooked. Unlike the campaign’s chase for high scores, here you’ll be tasked with completing all sorts of tasks ranging from beating stages in set times and taking out every piece of technology you see to defeating bosses in mere seconds and beating Star Wolf without pulling a single U-turn or somersault. Broken up into normal and expert, the dozen missions for every stage will force you to change your playstyle, particularly for the tougher objectives.
Multiplayer makes a welcome return, both local against bots and online in 4 vs 4 dogfights. While my playtime in both has only been roughly an hour or two, I certainly had a fun time. Each of the mode’s three stages not only offers different battlefields but also different objectives. Corneria focused on capturing zones, Fichina collecting crystals and Sector Y retrieving cargo and bringing it back to your base. I love that multiplayer in Star Fox has evolved beyond simply shooting enemies, but the one thing I do worry about is its staying power. Three stages are not a lot to be honest, and I do find it odd that standard deathmatch isn’t an option either. Even four teams of two or free-for-all options would have been great inclusions and a way to extend the mode’s potential runtime. Maybe Nintendo has plans for more content to be added in future updates, but as it stands right now, multiplayer is a decent albeit limited experience.
When initially revealed, I will admit the game’s more realistic art style did catch me off guard, especially since I’d grown so used to Fox, Falco and Wolf’s looks in the Super Smash Bros. games. That feeling would quickly subside, though, as seeing the entire game in motion cemented that this was the right direction to take the series. Not just the characters and their level of detail and animation, though, the different planets and sections of space are truly stunning, a fact emphasised further when you hop back into the original game. Lasers create a glow as they travel down corridors, the Arwing hazes from the sheer heat of Solar and Corneria now feels like a genuine city mid-devastation. That same level of quality bleeds over into the game’s audio, voice acting solid, and music beautifully updated with an orchestral edge to add further gravitas to every location. Even the presentation of the game’s menu impresses as you sit idly in the Great Fox, your plotted route reflected in a holographic map of the Lylat System. It goes without saying, but Star Fox feels like the first Nintendo-published game to truly show what the Nintendo Switch 2 is capable of, and as a result, makes Star Fox feel like an important release and better still, an important series once more.
Before wrapping things up, I must mention the avatar features, players able to literally present themselves as one of the game’s cast of characters using a camera. Is it gimmicky? Sure. Is it impressive? For sure. Watching as Fox blinked, tilted his head and stuck his tongue out in time with me was not only entertaining for my spectating kids but me too, and the fact that you can use this feature with friends, no matter the game being played, is great, and I hope to see more Nintendo games take advantage of this. It would certainly make me want to use the camera more often for online chat.
It may be another trip back to the Lylat System, but Star Fox is a highly entertaining arcade adventure with arguably the best visuals seen from a Nintendo title yet, a more fleshed-out narrative and gameplay that truly stands the test of time. At seven campaign playthroughs and counting, as well as countless attempts at the game’s many challenges, Star Fox well and truly has its claws in me. Sure, my familiarity with the original game is light at best, but remake or not, Star Fox is a great way to kick off the summer and hopefully a sign of more adventures from Fox and crew in the near future.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review Copy Provided by Nintendo
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