Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2
Cleared for Takeoff
Some franchises grow into legend by staying away. Star Fox spent the better part of a decade grounded, and in that silence the Lylat System took on the glow of something half-remembered: a squadron of talking animals in a polygonal fighter that taught a whole generation what a barrel roll was for. The Switch 2 brings them back, and it does so by returning to the exact spot where the series found its voice. This is a ground-up remake of Star Fox 64, rebuilt from the canopy down by Velan Studios, and I think it is the most assured first-party showcase the new console has produced so far. I sat down braced for a nostalgia trip and got up convinced this is the version every earlier attempt was quietly reaching toward.
What strikes me first is how little Nintendo tried to reinvent the wheel and how much it sweated every spoke. The skeleton is pure 1997: corridors of laser fire, branching mission routes, a cast you could recite in your sleep. Everything wrapped around that skeleton is new, and the result feels less like a museum piece and more like the definitive cut of a film you only ever saw on a worn-out tape.
The Mission Briefing
The premise hasn’t changed, and it doesn’t need to. Fox McCloud, son of the lost ace James McCloud, climbs into the Arwing and leads his team against Dr. Andross, an exiled scientist turning the dead world of Venom into a launchpad for war on the Lylat System. Falco Lombardi brings the attitude, Peppy Hare the hard-won wisdom, and Slippy Toad the comic relief that doubles as your shield gauge’s worst enemy. It is a children’s space opera with a surprisingly sturdy emotional core, and this telling leans into that core harder than any before it.
Structurally, the campaign is a constellation of planets reached through a branching map. Clear Corneria and the path forks; do well, take the harder exit, and you are routed toward tougher worlds and a longer road to Venom. Most stages send you down an on-rails corridor where the Arwing flies itself forward and you handle aim, dodging, and survival. Others drop you into all-range arenas, open dogfighting bowls where you wheel and chase enemies freely. The mix has always been the engine of replay value here, and it is still doing its job beautifully.
Hands on the Stick
Flight feels immediate in a way that masks how much is going on. You have your blaster with a charged lock-on shot, a limited stock of bombs for crowds and bosses, a boost and brake for managing your position in the lane, and the defensive staples: the somersault, the U-turn, and the spin that swats incoming fire out of the air. Peppy’s old advice still applies, and the game still cannot resist reminding you to do a barrel roll, which is technically an aileron roll, a joke the series has carried for nearly thirty years and clearly has no intention of dropping.
Rings restore your shield and feed your boost, gold ones more generously than silver, and each stage hides optional objectives that reward precision over panic. Three difficulty settings change far more than enemy health; the harder modes reroute enemy patterns and demand cleaner flying, and they are where this remake earns its keep. The classic Arwing handling is tuned with real care. It is forgiving enough to feel heroic and tight enough to punish sloppiness, which is exactly the balance an on-rails shooter lives or dies by.
The headline new option is Mouse Targeting through the Joy-Con 2. Lay the controller flat, slide it across the table, and its optical sensor maps that movement onto your crosshair, letting you aim independently of where the Arwing is pointing. It is genuinely clever, especially in the all-range arenas, and you can toggle it on or off mid-mission in the campaign and in Challenge Mode. After a fair shake, I kept drifting back to the stick for the main campaign, where decades of muscle memory want a thumb on an analogue, but the mouse turns boss fights into something close to a precision puzzle. Purists will be glad the N64 wireless controller is supported, and there is an optional in-cockpit first-person view for anyone who wants to feel the canopy close around them.
Repainting the Lylat System
This is the best the series has ever looked, and by a distance. Character models render in real time during cutscenes, and the animators have given Fox and company a range of expression the franchise has never had room for. Fur catches the light, cockpit glass smears with engine glow, and the planets each carry a distinct palette, from Corneria’s clean blue skies to Venom’s sickly orange murk. It is the kind of work that makes you forgive the load on the hardware, and the Switch 2 holds a steady frame through some genuinely busy screens.
I should address the elephant in the hangar. When the redesigns were first revealed, the more realistic art style split the room, and I understand why. Stills do the characters no favours. In motion, though, the doubts evaporated for me within the first stage. These are expressive, charismatic versions of faces I have known for years, and the moment the four of them form up on screen, there is no mistaking who they are. The original character designer’s blessing was well earned.
A Family, a War, and a Mad Genius
The story has always been thin on paper and rich in feeling, and this version finally gives the feeling room to breathe. Fully voiced cutscenes and proper mission briefings between stages turn a string of radio one-liners into something with shape: Fox carrying the weight of his father’s legacy, the team’s banter hardening into genuine camaraderie, the rivalry with Star Wolf curdling into something personal. A prologue centred on James McCloud lands the emotional setup before you have fired a shot, and it pays off later in a way I won’t spoil.
The branching routes mean your version of events is partly your own, and reaching the true confrontation with Andross takes effort and a steady hand on the harder paths. That final fight, and the second form waiting behind it, is the kind of set piece that justifies the whole journey. None of this is reinventing storytelling, but it gives a beloved skeleton real connective tissue, and the result moved me more than a Star Fox plot has any right to.
Engines and Orchestra
The score is a triumph. The themes are the ones burned into anyone who grew up with the 64 cartridge, rebuilt as a full orchestral re-recording laid down at Abbey Road, and the difference is enormous. The Corneria theme swells where it used to chirp; boss music has weight and menace; quiet briefing moments are scored with restraint rather than filler. The music shifts with the action, rising as a fight intensifies and pulling back when you breathe. Voice work is mixed cleanly over the top, and the whole soundscape, from the Arwing’s twin-engine whine to the satisfying crack of a charged shot, is detailed enough to reward a good pair of headphones.
Wingmen and Rivals
The multiplayer is a far bigger part of the package than I expected. Co-op lets a second player drop in to share a single Arwing, one flying and one gunning, a delightfully tense arrangement that turns the campaign into a study in communication, and it can run locally or through GameShare with someone on an original Switch. Battle Mode is the real surprise: eight players split into Team Star Fox and Team Star Wolf across objective-based maps, with goals like cargo retrieval and territory control rather than plain deathmatch. The objective focus gives the dogfighting a point beyond the kill count, and the three stages each ask for different tactics. It is the most fun I have had in a Nintendo multiplayer mode in a long while. GameChat support, complete with webcam filters that paste a team member’s face over yours, is a daft, charming touch that fits the tone exactly.
Charting Every Route
This is a game built to be replayed, and it knows it. The branching map means a single run only ever shows you a slice of what is here, and chasing the alternate routes, the hidden objectives, and the true ending pulls you back in naturally. Challenge Mode bolts on a layer of high-score chasing for the people who want to master rather than merely finish, and the choice between stick and mouse effectively gives you two ways to relearn every stage. For a campaign that a determined pilot can see the credits on in an afternoon, there is a remarkable amount of road still to drive afterward.
From the Pilot’s Seat
The pleasure of this game is in its feel. The Arwing responds the instant you ask it to, the difficulty curve respects your time, and the loop of dodge, aim, and clear is as moreish now as it was on a CRT. If I have one real reservation, it is that this remains, at its foundation, a game I have played in one form or another for years. Nintendo has remade Star Fox 64 before, and the new content here, generous as it is, sits on top of a familiar structure rather than rebuilding it. Anyone hoping for a bold new chapter for the franchise will have to keep waiting.
I find that reservation easy to set aside, because the execution is close to flawless. This is a master craftsman restoring a classic painting, every colour brighter, every line sharper, and the act of restoration done with such obvious love that quibbling about originality feels beside the point. It is the most complete, the most beautiful, and the most fun this story has ever been to play.
Final Approach
Star Fox on the Switch 2 is the definitive way to experience one of Nintendo’s finest action games, and a showcase for what the new hardware can do in the right hands. It plays superbly, sounds magnificent, looks better than the series ever has, and finally surrounds its timeless flight model with a presentation worthy of it. It chooses polish over reinvention, and the polish is so total that the trade is worth making. If you own the console, this belongs in your library.
