Star Fox Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
I have such fond memories of Lylat Wars, or Star Fox 64, as it was known in the US. I was having a rough time at school, and one day my parents picked me up to take me to see Galaxy Quest. It was an amazing movie, and on the drive home, I told my parents about Laylat Wars and how Galaxy Quest made me want to play it. My dad spontaneously pulled into the shops and, despite us not being very well off at the time, bought me a copy. I spent the entire school holidays flying the Arwing just above the ocean to watch the wings kick up the water, chasing medals, and doing everything I could to unlock every route through the Lylat System. When I think of the Nintendo 64’s golden age, Lylat Wars sits alongside The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and GoldenEye 007 as one of the console’s defining games. So I was excited to see what a faithful 1:1 remake of Star Fox could look like on Nintendo Switch 2. But nostalgia alone won’t carry a game, if anything, it can create expectations that even the best remakes struggle to meet. What’s It Like? Perform your pre-flight check, initialise the G-Diffuser, switch to All-Range Mode, as we review Star Fox for Nintendo Switch 2.
Star Fox’s campaign on Switch 2 is a true 1:1 remake of Star Fox 64, with additional narrative sequences that help bridge the story between missions and flesh out the campaign a little further. You play as Fox McCloud, leader of the mercenary team Star Fox, alongside Slippy Toad, the team’s engineer, Peppy Hare, who fought alongside your father, and Falco Lombardi, a cocky pilot with a prickly personality. Together, your mission is to liberate Corneria and the Lylat System from the evil Andross and his army by reclaiming the galaxy one planet at a time. The new story sequences do a good job of bridging the action and giving a little more context for each mission. They don’t do much to further develop the team’s relationships or individual motivations, though, which felt like a missed opportunity. Still, I enjoyed seeing the extra interactions and the different cutscenes that change depending on your performance and the route you take through the campaign.
The campaign itself is an on-rails shooter made up of exciting set pieces that alternate between traditional on-rails stages, All-Range Mode, which allows freeform flight within an arena, or a combination of both. Most missions build towards spectacular boss fights that require pinpoint precision as you blast apart sections of enormous enemy machines while weaving through barrages of incoming attacks. The game’s multiple routes form the backbone of its replayability. You can finish the campaign in just over an hour, but each playthrough is likely to uncover something new. A great example appears in the very first level. Threading the Arwing through a series of rock formations keeps the mission on rails and leads to a battle against a giant warship over the ocean. Miss the shortcut, and you’ll instead enter All-Range Mode to fight a towering mech boss. The outcome of each mission determines your path through the campaign, revealing different planets, stages and encounters on subsequent runs. Completionists will have a field day unlocking medals, completing challenges and ultimately conquering Expert Mode.
Once you’ve finished the campaign, you can test your mettle in Battle Mode, which features three arenas with different objectives in a PvP/PvE format. One sees you capturing outposts while battling opponents in a King of the Hill-style match, while another has you recovering cargo from space pirates and racing against rival pilots to steal the most for your own team. It’s a fun extra that gives you another reason to jump back into the cockpit after the credits roll. What I love about Star Fox on Switch 2 is that it feels just as sharp as the Nintendo 64 original. Chaining together multiple enemy takedowns with a charged shot or narrowly avoiding incoming fire still makes you feel like an ace pilot. It captures everything that made the original so exciting, and even though I knew what was coming because I’m such a huge fan of the game, there were plenty of moments that still caught me off guard and had me on the edge of my seat.
But what makes Star Fox on Switch 2 really stand out are the phenomenal visuals, which are among the best on the system. Enemy ships explode in spectacular fashion before crashing into the ocean, lasers light up the battlefield, and breaking into Corneria’s airspace for the first time was nothing short of breathtaking. Developer Velan Studios has done an incredible job reimagining the world of Star Fox. Sure, some people might not like the team’s more realistic look, but I thought it looked fantastic in motion. All of this runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second, and I didn’t encounter a single bug or technical issue throughout my playthrough. Backing it all up is a fully voiced cast, which might take longtime fans a little time to adjust to, and a grand orchestral score that faithfully reimagines the original soundtrack for a modern audience. It’s both triumphant and cinematic, and gives every mission a real sense of scale and urgency.
For my mercenaries looking into accessibility, there aren’t any dedicated accessibility options to choose from. As always, I recommend doing further research to determine whether Star Fox suits your individual needs. Thankfully, there is a free demo available on the Nintendo eShop that includes the tutorial and the Meteo mission, giving you the opportunity to test both the standard control scheme and the new mouse controls before deciding whether the full game is right for you. For just under $85 AUD, this is where Star Fox will become the most divisive. Players who fall in love with its gameplay loop will find plenty of value thanks to its branching paths, unlockables and replayability. Gamers who prefer a more “one and done” experience, however, may not feel they’re getting quite as much for their money.
It’s hard to score a game like Star Fox because it is such a faithful 1:1 remake. I spent a long time thinking about whether it deserved a Certified Exceptional score, knowing how much the original means to me. But when Fox and his crew entered Corneria’s airspace, and I felt chills as the Arwings deployed, I was taken back to that cherished memory that had seemingly been lost in time. For the first time in a long time, I felt nothing but pure joy from beginning to end. Star Fox may be a 1:1 remake in terms of its level design, but its phenomenal visuals, expanded story sequences and remarkable ability to recapture the magic of the original make it a truly wonderful achievement. More than anything, I hope this is the beginning of a new era for this outstanding franchise.
So What’s it Like? Star Fox is like Star Fox 64, brought gloriously to the modern era.
Star Fox is a What’s It Like Certified Exceptional game.
In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by Nintendo ANZ, but this doesn’t influence my score.
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