After his guest appearance in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, it’s no surprise that Nintendo is bringing Fox McCloud back to one of its own systems. With Star Fox now heading to Nintendo Switch 2, I was very curious to see how well this Nintendo 64 remake would hold up on modern hardware. Let’s do a barrel roll!
Now you’re playing with power
During my hands-on time with Star Fox, I was able to test a couple of things, starting with three levels from the campaign. Before jumping into the action, I saw the new intro with James McCloud, and it’s here where Nintendo makes a couple of things clear from the start. The game gives you a bit more background, but don’t expect a lot of new campaign content. Instead, Nintendo focused on turning the original into a more cinematic and epic experience, where the gameplay itself stays intact but everything around it gets a true current-generation upgrade. I’m not exaggerating when I say this is, without a doubt, one of the best-looking first-party games on the system. I genuinely love the approach of delivering cinematic, voiced cutscenes in between missions. Sure, there has been a lot of conversation about the character designs, but I appreciate that they kept them close to the original while still bringing them up to current standards. It’s one of those games that reminds you why you bought a Nintendo Switch 2 in the first place. It looks and feels way better than I expected, and that alone made a strong first impression.
The missions I played were Corneria, Meteo, and Fichina. For the sake of the session, I was advised to follow this path, but returning fans know that routes can change depending on what you unlock or trigger in the levels. If you play the retail version, it’s perfectly possible that you’ll end up taking a different route. That being said, I was impressed by flying over the iconic Corneria, dodging space rocks in Meteo, and soaring over the icy open fields of Fichina. As said before, content-wise, there’s nothing really new in these levels. They’re still the same missions you know from the Nintendo 64 original or the Nintendo 3DS remake. If you’ve played those before, you know what to expect, but even for returning players, there’s still a lot of fun here. I’ve played the game multiple times before, so when playing this Switch 2 version, my muscle memory kicked in almost immediately. I was tilting my Arwing, boosting, braking, and doing barrel rolls to deflect incoming shots. What I didn’t remember was how smooth everything could feel. I played with the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, and controlling my Arwing has never felt this easy or responsive. You can connect a Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo 64 controller if you want that extra nostalgic feeling, but I think I’ll stick with the Pro Controller anyway. Besides the visuals, the controls are definitely the biggest upgrade compared to the original.
Time for some co-op
After successfully clearing the three missions, it was time to check out the co-op mode. This mode is new and tailored towards the Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con controllers. One player takes on the role of the pilot, using a single Joy-Con to steer the Arwing, while the other becomes the shooter, using the second Joy-Con in mouse mode. I played as both the pilot and the shooter across two different levels, where we also picked a different path compared to my solo run. As the pilot, it doesn’t feel like a huge change. Controlling the Arwing with a single Joy-Con is pretty intuitive, and you’ll be able to fly around accurately enough to line up your targets so your shooter can take them down. As the shooter, I also had a blast. The mouse mode is very precise, and dropping bombs with the Y-button felt natural. I did notice some slight cramps in my hand after a while, but that’s something I seem to experience rather quickly when using mouse mode on Switch 2. This new co-op mode will only be available locally, which makes sense since there can’t be any delay between the shots fired by the shooter and the maneuvers performed by the pilot. It feels like a fun extra mode, and I’m pretty sure I’ll test it out with my wife once the game releases. If you’re playing as the pilot, it can also be a fun way of introducing Star Fox to younger players who aren’t as skilled at controlling their Arwing just yet. You can focus on keeping the ship alive, while they enjoy shooting everything down.
Prepare for battle
The last part of our hands-on was the new battle mode, which we played locally in 4v4. This is brand-new content and only available in the Switch 2 version. The game launches with three maps, each with its own objectives. We played on Corneria, where we had to take control of colored domes by staying inside them while taking out opponents. This mode was pretty hectic, but it also felt the most like Star Fox. Fighting against human players is very different from fighting NPCs or even the spectacular bosses from the campaign. In multiplayer, taking down other pilots is much harder since they’re also using every trick they have to stay alive. To make things even more chaotic, multiplayer also gives you special weapons like rockets, EMPs, or extra shields when you fly through a question block. This results in you chasing upgrades, trying to stay inside the colored dome, and avoiding hostile fire at the same time. We only played two sessions, but it left me wanting a lot more. I can really see this becoming a fun competitive extra, as it adds a new layer on top of the original game. The matches are short and hectic, but they really capture that Star Fox energy we all love.
The last new thing I played around with was the avatar gimmick, which lets you use Star Fox characters as your virtual avatar through the Nintendo Switch 2 camera. It’s a gimmick, of course, but I was pretty surprised by the huge amount of collectible characters. I’m sure there will be some more obscure and deep-cut characters in there too, and I can’t wait to see online players using those avatars. The technology behind it works pretty seamlessly as well. When I used Falco’s avatar, for example, and turned my head sideways while winking, my virtual Falco did the exact same thing without any noticeable delay. It’s a fun piece of technology, and for a franchise that has a long history with tech demos, it feels fitting that this is the first game that really sold me on the Switch 2 camera.
Early conclusion:
Star Fox feels like more than just a prettier version of the Nintendo 64 classic. The campaign is still familiar, but the upgraded visuals, smoother controls and new Switch 2 features make it feel surprisingly fresh. I still need to see the full game, but after this hands-on, I’m more excited for Fox McCloud’s return than I expected.
