(Credit: Nintendo)
Nintendo's announcement of a new Star Fox game was an emotional roller coaster for series fans. People, myself included, were excited for a fresh entry on the Switch 2 that looked terrific and included wacky avatars so you can actually be Fox McCloud in GameChat. However, we quickly realized that it's a remake of Star Fox 64, with nearly identical mechanics and level design. So, the new Star Fox isn't really a new Star Fox. My hype became disappointment—until I attended an hour-long demo session hosted by Nintendo. I'm now once again excited for this Star Fox. A rehash of an amazing game is still great, and that's what Star Fox on the Switch 2 feels like so far.
A Familiar Flight Path
My demo started with a run-through of the first two missions: rescuing the planet Corneria and flying through the Meteos asteroid field. Everything was laid out identically to Star Fox 64, with controls and combat that felt virtually the same. I could have flown through the levels blindfolded. There are no surprises, whether doing a barrel roll to deflect lasers or flying under arches and through a waterfall to find an alternate path. Honestly, that's fine because the gameplay still holds up. Soaring through skies, dodging obstacles, and shooting tiny robots and giant bosses felt great to begin with, and none of it needs to change significantly. When the core mechanics are fun, they don't need much expansion. I'm happy to play the game again on a new system, and with welcome improvements.
From N64 to 4K
Star Fox on the Switch 2 looks better than any other series entry, by far. The now-widescreen action is in 4K, with detailed models, textures, and lighting. The blue-and-white Arwing features countless individual panels and detailed moving parts while retaining its easily identifiable, unique silhouette. Shadows cast by buildings and mountains on Corneria fall realistically across the landscape. Clouds of metal scraps float through Meteos. It's all space I've flown through before, but it looks fantastic, a clear two-generation leap over the previous best-looking Star Fox game, Star Fox Zero.
There's a lot more room to show off the improved graphics outside of flying, thanks to lengthy cutscenes between missions that show off Team Star Fox hanging out around the Great Fox, talking about their next moves. Fox, Peppy, Falco, and Slippy all look incredibly detailed and well-animated. I'd say they look downright realistic, as much as bipedal animals wearing sci-fi pilot uniforms can be. Actually, Slippy looks a little too realistic; the fox, hare, and bird all look like cool thirst traps for varying flavors of furry, but the frog's glistening skin and bulbous eyes make him look like he should be on Smiling Friends, not in a cockpit. The few cutscenes I saw during my demo session didn't shed new light on the world or characters (besides somehow making Falco even more of an arrogant jerk)
(Credit: Nintendo)New Multiplayer Modes and Features
Star Fox has new multiplayer-specific enhancements, starting with a co-op mode available for both local and online gameplay. After I beat the Meteos stage, I joined my colleague Jordan Minor for a Corneria co-op playthrough on an alternate route. This mode lets one player control the Arwing's pilot (me in this instance), while the other plays the gunner (Jordan), both using a single Joy-Con. It's a similar idea to Star Fox Zero's cooperative mode, where one player uses the Wii U gamepad for shooting, and the other uses another controller for piloting, but without the two separate screens afforded by the Wii U's design.
Flying using a tiny controller and only one analog stick wasn't a problem since I didn't worry about firing weapons. In fact, there were just enough inputs on one Joy-Con to let me perform all the maneuvers I needed, like barrel rolls and somersaults. For Jordan's part, using the right Joy-Con as a mouse enabled much faster, more precise aiming than steering the ship to move the reticle as a single player would do. It worked surprisingly well, though I hope Switch 2 Pro Controller support is coming, because individual Joy-Cons aren't the most comfortable controllers to hold. Either way, the co-op mode seems like a nice, if small, addition.
(Credit: Nintendo)The original Star Fox 64's Versus Mode featured up to four players as different members of Team Star Fox, competing by either shooting down each other or shooting down the most enemies. It was a simple but fun local, split-screen competition. The bad news is that this mode is gone. The good news is that what replaces it seems much more interesting.
Star Fox's online competitive multiplayer supports up to eight players in four-versus-four formats where Team Star Fox faces off against their rivals, Team Star Wolf. Instead of free-for-all combat, this mode is more objective-based. We played two matches in which we had to shoot down computer-controlled pirates and retrieve their cargo to bring it back to our respective bases. Getting cargo through the goal netted the team 100 points, shooting down enemy pilots earned 30 points, and blowing up their teams' much weaker, bot-controlled starfighters scored five points. And, of course, destroying an enemy pilot carrying cargo back to their base freed up that cargo for us to grab and fly toward our team’s end of the asteroid play field.
It's a more involved game mode than Star Fox 64's free-for-all multiplayer action, and it's excellent. The many new elements are deeper and much more exciting than their predecessors. Nintendo only showed us the single competitive level, and didn't give any details of other arenas or modes that will be in the game, but officially released Star Fox screenshots have shown two other multiplayer mode objectives: "Shoot the Meteorites and Collect Their Energy" and what appears to be a more direct area-capture mission. Even as-is, I'd call the new multiplayer mode a worthy trade-off, losing split-screen combat but gaining an online mode that seems to have more staying power.
I can't speak to any other new Star Fox elements. Still, it's a gorgeous remake of a superb game, with a lower price than bigger, "newer" titles. That has a lot of value in itself.
Another Welcome Blast From Nintendo's Past
For all of the disappointment Star Fox fans might have about not getting a "new" Star Fox game, let's not forget history. After Star Fox 64, the series didn't have much success with anything new. Star Fox Adventures and its Zelda-like exploration and dinosaur planet setting made it feel like it wasn't a Star Fox game at all (and indeed repurposed from another completely non-Star Fox game that developer Rare was working on). Star Fox Assault and its on-foot combat sections saw a lukewarm reception. Star Fox Command and its strategy elements also got mixed reviews. Even Star Fox Zero, a reimagining of Star Fox 64, was panned for the massive changes it made to gameplay and level design to build around the Wii U gamepad.
(Credit: Nintendo)In essence, Star Fox is the video game version of Alien or Terminator. It had a great start, its second chapter was an uncontested masterpiece, and it's been downhill from there. And I say this as a Star Fox fan who didn't totally hate Zero. It's been a decade since then, and if Nintendo wants Star Fox to have any juice as a series, reaching back to further polish the best example of it before taking any big swings makes a lot of sense.
If you're grousing about Star Fox 64 being remade again and Nintendo having the temerity to charge for it ($49.99, digital or $59.99, physical), I'll point out that this isn't Nintendo's first remake rodeo. Super Mario RPG was originally a SNES game, and the Switch remake did little more than overhaul the graphics and add a few bonus bosses. It launched at $59.99, but it's such a great game that we gave it an Editors' Choice award. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door received the same treatment and price tag, but its visual upgrade wasn't nearly as stark because it was originally a GameCube game. We also gave it an Editors’ Choice award. And Metroid Prime Remastered? For $39.99, it featured a new coat of paint and some improved controls over its original GameCube version, and it stands out as one of the very few games we've given a five-star review.
Final Demo Thoughts and Release Date
Not everything needs to be reimagined, overhauled, or turned into something completely new. I'd love to see a fresh Star Fox game in the future, and hopefully, the work on this Star Fox will help pave the way for it. But right now? This Star Fox retread is going to be pretty good when it drops on June 25.