Star Fox Review – Looks Awesome, Feels Familiar

Star Fox Review

Remakes take up a weird space in my brain. It looks and sounds like a brand new game, sure. But then your muscle memory kicks in, and you’re already an old pro. Or in my case, a player of reasonable skill. I played a lot of Star Fox 64 when I was a teenager, so Star Fox for the Nintendo Switch 2 was immediately familiar. While there’s a lot of sweet new bells and whistles, this is definitely the same game you remember from your childhood. Which begs the question, how much does a remake need to really change to be successful? Can you just shine up the old title and still be worth it? Maybe, since Star Fox 64 was such a gem, you don’t need to make many upgrades at all.

You’re playing as Fox McCloud, the leader of the Star Fox mercenary crew. You’re all hopping in your Arwings to take on Andross, who’s been holed up on Venom for several years. You can take several different routes to get from Corneria to Venom, so there’s an incentive to do multiple playthroughs. Which is excellent, because a successful playthrough can take less than two hours to complete. I made it to the credits sequence twice in my first day with this game. It’s extremely short! On the one hand, this is kind of a bummer. On the other hand, I do love a game that I can run through repeatedly until I’ve mastered it.

Quick Ride To The Credits

To be fair, my previous experience might be influencing my average run time. First time players will probably take a tiny bit longer to get to the credits. Back in the day, it took my friend and I several days to figure out the boss battles and stage strategies in the second half of the game. Plus, this remake has some actual cutscenes and expanded dialogue. You get a more complete picture of Fox’s motivations and mannerisms. I’m a big fan of the new voices, with a couple of exceptions. Peppy Hare doesn’t sound right to me, for example. He tells you to do a barrel roll, and it’s just not the same, you know? Conversely, Slippy Toad has both a better voice and a more compelling character in general. You get a much stronger sense of his place in the team.

Another new feature in the Switch 2 version of Star Fox is the mouse control system. If this is your first time playing the game, this might end up your default control scheme. It’s got the potential to be more accurate, and the forced first-person perspective makes things a lot more intense. But if you’ve logged too many hours in the original, the mouse system is a pretty hard sell. You basically have to learn to play all over again, which is obviously rather daunting. I tried it a handful of times and I don’t have the patience to be a total amateur again. But objectively it’s well-implemented.

Very Fiddly Mouse Controls

Once you’ve beaten the game a few times and visited every planet in the Lylat system, you’ve got a couple ways to challenge yourself. The first is the medal system. Every level has similar medal requirements – kill enough enemies and make sure your crew is all intact. It’s a fun way to test yourself, but one that I remember from the 64 game. Then there’s an actual challenge mode, with a long list of tasks for every stage that push you in fresh new ways. Things like taking out certain enemies, completing unique flight tasks, and defeating bosses in specific ways. It’s a great way to make these stages feel newly engaging, even after you’ve visited them half a dozen times or more.

Although the gameplay in Star Fox is familiar, the visuals and the music are a major improvement over the original release. Corneria is a ravaged wasteland amidst a pristine ocean. Sector X is a massive outpost set against a fiery nebula, and MacBeth is – well it’s a normal stage, but the explosions look pretty rad. I also loved the music, which feels like a natural evolution of the original score. The soundtrack is jaunty yet intense, a sort of bombastic, big-energy space battle suite that revs you up without getting too serious. All of the essential standards have been preserved, and the new songs slot in nicely.

Looks And Sounds Fantastic

I played a few rounds of multiplayer in a session organized by Nintendo. Matches are team-based showdowns bolstered by objectives to complete and drones to shoot down. I don’t ‘get’ multiplayer the same way I do solo stuff, but it was a great time. Timed matches combine with multiple ways to earn points so that those last sixty seconds get properly intense. You can also turn off objectives if you just want to shoot down friends and strangers, which I appreciate. Plus, if you’ve got a camera you can turn on avatar mode. This turns your portrait into the pilot you’ve chosen. It’s a puppet-style rig that moves with your face and mouth. You can even stick out your tongue and bug out your eyes. Neat!

Star Fox 64 is an all-timer, a top ten classic that still holds up. So a remake has a pretty strong base to start with. In that sense, they hardly needed to change anything. But then, why make the game at all? I loved this game, but I also loved it back in the 90s. The new challenge mode is a welcome addition, the multiplayer is delightful, and the aesthetic has gotten a serious overhaul. But the gameplay is largely unchanged. It’s still a breezy two-hour ride to the credits once you get the hang of things. All your stored up muscle memory will graft onto this new version with zero friction. If this is your first time playing any version of Star Fox 64, this is an absolute non-optional Switch 2 purchase. Returning fans will have a great time, but be warned: this is fun but familiar territory.

***A Nintendo Switch 2 code was provided by the publisher***