REVIEW: ‘Star Fox’ Has Never Looked So Fly

The Star Fox franchise has been grounded for a decade now. Star Fox Zero landed on Wii U in 2016, tanked the series with forced GamePad controls, and that was it. Nintendo had already remade the original when it released Star Fox 64, then it remade it again for the 3DS before the Wii U release.

So when the company announced a fifth version of the same 1997 story for the Switch 2, with remakes already flooding the market, it’s understandable that people would be skeptical about another one. Thankfully, Star Fox is the best this game has ever been, and it makes a strong case that Fox McCloud still has serious altitude left.

Star Fox is a third-person rail shooter built from the ground up for the Nintendo Switch 2 by Velan Studios, and published by Nintendo. Fox McCloud (Hunter McCoy) leads the Star Fox mercenary squad into battle after Dr. Andross (Hunter Peterson) launches a full-scale invasion of the Lylat System. The campaign sends Fox and his crew across planets, space stations, and asteroid fields to put Andross down for good.

Falco Lombardi (Andrew Russell) is Fox’s abrasive, competitive wingman. Slippy Toad (Jeremy Adams) handles engineering. Peppy Hare (Erik Braa) anchors the squad as the veteran voice of reason. The team dynamic gives Star Fox more personality than any previous entry in the franchise.

Star Fox has never looked better than it does on the Switch 2.

Velan Studios made Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and Knockout City, and that experience with tight, responsive controls shows up all over Star Fox. The game feels completely modern, even though the mechanics underneath are pure arcade. Piloting the Arwing through on-rails stages and blasting enemies out of the sky plays the same as it always has, and it doesn’t need to be anything else.

The new cutscenes between missions give the Star Fox crew actual personalities. Falco is the highlight. Russell plays him as a cocky rival with a chip on his wing, and the friction between him and Fox adds a layer the original never had. Fox plays the confident mercenary leader. The characterization is thin, and that’s fine. The cinematic tone gives the action weight without dragging the pace.

Braa nails it as Peppy. He sounds like a pilot who has lived through a war and showed up for the next one anyway, and his General Pepper is just as strong. The whole cast delivers. The N64’s goofier energy is gone, but the new direction sounds like a Saturday morning space opera with real voice direction behind it, and that trade works.

Star Fox is better played without the Joy-Con 2’s mouse mode.

Traditional gamepad with inverted flight is the way to go. The Arwing is responsive and locked in from the first stage. 60 frames per second on the Switch 2 keeps the action moving at a relentless pace, and levels that would have crawled on N64 hardware now feel like they belong in 2026.

Mouse targeting with the Joy-Con 2 exists, but it’s a gimmick. Setting it up is a hassle, and the small aiming boost doesn’t justify the tradeoff. Stick with the gamepad, trust me.

True Andross, the final boss on the game’s hardest route, is the peak of the entire campaign. The full hard path builds toward that fight, and it delivers. Sector Z’s Copperhead Missiles sit on the opposite end. The missiles are beefy and unforgiving. Hunting all of them down before they smash into the Great Fox takes real patience. It’s the one stretch that can feel more punishing than fun, but it stays on the right side of fair.

The whole game looks great, but Sector Y is something else. Capital ships trade fire in the background while debris and laser blasts flood the screen around the Arwing. The franchise has been chasing a space battle at this scale for 30 years, and Sector Y finally nails it. The Switch 2 handles all of it without flinching. No frame drops docked or handheld, though the docked image is sharper.

This take on Star Fox is a standout. 

The orchestral soundtrack is great too, and it hits hardest during boss fights. The rearranged Star Fox 64 themes add weight to encounters that are already intense. The score during True Andross turns a great fight into one that feels colossal.

A single campaign run clocks in at about 90 minutes. That’s short, and it’s supposed to be. Star Fox is made for replay, and the structure holds up. Branching paths open up based on objectives completed during each mission. Each of the 25 routes reshuffles the stages, swaps in different cutscenes, and ramps up the difficulty.

The action stays engaging because the controls are tight and the levels reward score-chasing. Finding specific routes can be tricky, since the game doesn’t spell out what unlocks what. That secrecy works for players who like to experiment, but it could leave others stuck on the same path, wondering what they’re missing.

Challenge Mode adds 12 objectives per stage for players seeking a tougher challenge. It extends the game’s life without bloating it. Every return trip through the Lylat System feels worth taking, and that’s the highest compliment a 90-minute campaign can earn.

Multiplayer has a strong foundation, but it’s still too rough. 

Battle Mode runs 4v4 dogfights online across three maps. Corneria is zone control, Fichina is crystal collection, and Sector Y is cargo retrieval. The matches are competitive and fast. The foundation is strong enough that a standalone Star Fox multiplayer game built on this framework would be worth playing. Three maps is the limit, though, and it shows. Co-op is also on the table, splitting pilot and gunner duties between two players with the Joy-Con 2 controllers.

It would have been great to see more of these multiplayer options in a game crying out for them. What is there is perfectly enjoyable, but it all feels so bare-bones. A more expanded multiplayer playlist would have better served Star Fox, and it is a massive self-own in an otherwise excellent experience. 

Star Fox is the best version of this game ever made, and it proves the franchise has more than enough fuel left for an original sequel. Velan Studios showed the franchise still flies, and Nintendo’s growing Switch 2 library would be better with a fully original Star Fox in it.

Star Fox is available now on the Nintendo Switch 2.