Whether it was Star Fox, Starwing, Lylat Wars, or “that polygonal game on SNES” to you, Nintendo knows that this is a game, and a series that matters. Despite already having remade the original game on a later console, playing Star Fox (2026) didn’t make me feel like I was playing an old game at all.
It’ll seem like a cash grab to some, I suppose. Hot off the Super Mario Galaxy Movie featuring Fox McCloud, and with such a sudden announcement leading to a release date this June. But far from feeling that way, attention and care has been lavished upon this remake. Crucially, though, there’s clearly been some thought as to how to make it feel good to both returning fans, and newcomers; of which there will be plenty.
The core game has been untouched, so you can rest easy there. It feels incredibly responsive and if you’re like me, and can’t stop barrel-rolling whenever the action calms down, you can still do that. But my word it’s a looker. Some of the vistas as you zoom in and out of the environments, dog-fighting; loop-de-loop-ing, and engaging in chatter with your fellow Star Fox members, are just gorgeous. The destroyed beauty and luscious mountains of the early missions even somehow made me think of Xenoblade Chronicles, and what a new one of those could look like on Nintendo Switch 2.
Cut-scenes and voices are plentiful and on-point, and one-liners are fired at whip-sharp rate. You don’t need to have been there in the 90s to work out there’s tension between Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi, or that Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare are just stand-up dudes (well, a Toad and a Rabbit-dude) you’d love to hang out and play pool with in a Top Gun-style bar scene. The characters matter outside of narrative, with Falco and Fox’s rivalry creating in-mission challenges you can accept or ignore, creating fresh routes through Star Fox’s story. If they are downed, they’ll be absent in the next mission while their Arwing is being fixed. Your crew matters.
The Arwing is of course the true star, as always. With a first-person view as an option, you can even use the Switch 2’s mouse controls to take aim this time around. While I found some of the controls mapped to the face-buttons slightly off during mouse mode, the aiming itself is spot on. You’ll hit Up on the D-Pad to do a loop-de-loop, or Down to turn and fly back in the opposite direction, which is very useful in both the open zone mission sections, and the multiplayer.
That’s right, multiplayer is part of 2026 Star Fox, and it’s an absolute blast. The competitive mode sees two teams of four face off in an enclosed arena. You will face off in dog fights, but there will be King of the Hill style objectives that require you to control a zone by staying with it, fighting off Team Fox, or team Wolf, depending on which side you’re on. These battles are fast and frenetic, and it really pays to be in control of your lock-on charged shots, because you can take half an opponent’s energy bar down with one if you follow it up with a bomb or other special shot.
There are NPC ships (and bots fill if there’s not enough players) that will get you a smaller amount of points, but playing the objective is the best way to win here. I’m a sucker for fast paced multiplayer modes, and also ones that reward playing the objective, and Star Fox really does appeal to both of those facets. Sadly I only got to try one of the maps available, but I genuinely felt I could have happily sat there and played hours more of this mode, which was somewhat of a surprise, given most people (myself included) probably didn’t have “Star Fox multiplayer being awesome” high on their bingo cards.
But if that was a surprise, the co-op mode is an even bigger one. I’m not going to over-sell this, because it’s very clearly not the mode people will play and return to, but it’s far more fun than I expected. With one person controlling the Arwing and the other on guns, as the missions get more difficult, the challenge itself to co-ordinate raises as well. I can easily see people getting their less-gaming-inclined friends and partners involved with this mode, and it’s ideal for parents and kids, too. The mouse controls are also usable here, for what that’s worth.
Star Fox also includes some GameChat functionality and includes AR filters to use your Switch 2 camera and turn you into one of Team Star Fox. But there’s more I won’t spoil here, and I (a man in my mid 40s) could not help laughing out loud at some of the sheer silliness these AR filters offer. It’ll appeal to those of us who love “daft”, and while it’s not a selling point, it speaks to how much thought has gone into what’s actually on offer. An otherwise short yet highly replayable score attack game has had its life extended with clever, thoughtful modes here.
The most important thing, though, is that it just plays so well. Everything feels great, looks lovely, and the soundtrack (so far, obviously) also feels like a winner. It may be my aging memory playing up, but I seem to remember the charged shot firing upon lifting the finger off the button, yet here you have to charge, release, then quickly hit the button again. That’s pretty much the only negative I could think of, and after getting home and trying Star Fox 64, my memory was proven wrong as that’s how it plays there too.
After spending over an hour with Nintendo’s new take on Star Fox, I can say I’m absolutely in. This is a gorgeous, glorious revisiting of a classic, and a series that deserves more love. The multiplayer left me wanting to spend all day playing it, such was the pick up and play enjoyable nature, while the co-op was way more fun than I anticipated. While I’m not sure the Augmented Reality GameChat based fun will be for everyone, it feels like the cherry on top of a package that feels bursting with content, and as though it’s been created with love and reverence for both the source material and its audience. I can’t wait to play more of this. I loved Star Fox when it first came out, and I think I’m very much ready to fall in love with it all over again.
Star Fox is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 on June 25th.
