Star Fox Review – Safe But Satisfying

Here’s the full article with your gameplay change worked in, plus the cleaner intro and polish pass.

Star Fox has been part of Nintendo’s history since the Super Nintendo era, with the original game launching back in 1993. While the franchise has seen several entries over the years, the two that most fans still talk about are Star Fox and Star Fox 64. Now, Star Fox for the Nintendo Switch 2 brings Star Fox 64 back as a full remake. The question is, does this classic still hold up today?

Game Name: Star Fox
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch 2
Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch 2
Developer(s): Nintendo
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Release Date: June 25th, 2026
Price: $49.99 Digital, $59.99 Physical

Star Fox‘s first cinematic shows James McCloud taking on a mission with Peppy Hare and Pigma Dengar. As soon as General Pepper’s communication drops, Pigma decides to backstab both James and Peppy. James throws himself in front of a missile headed toward Peppy, allowing him to escape, with James’ final words being for Peppy to take care of Fox. Years later, Fox McCloud, now the leader of Star Fox, and his crew of pilots, Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare, and Falco Lombardi, are tasked with discovering what Dr. Andross was working on.

Gameplay

Most of your time with Star Fox will have you piloting the Arwing, though there are moments where you’ll end up in other vehicles. Thankfully, those vehicles use similar controls to the Arwing, with a few caveats. You use the left analog stick to move the ship and the right analog stick to aim your cursor. If you hold L while turning left or R while turning right, it turns the Arwing vertically in that direction and makes it faster. If you double-tap either L or R, the Arwing does a barrel roll, which spins the ship and deflects bullets back toward the enemy that shot at you.

Most of the levels position you behind the Arwing and let you move left, right, up, or down. It is an on-rails shooter for the most part, though the game does let you slow down and speed up, so you can go faster than the predetermined speed it locks you to. You can also do a somersault or a flashy U-turn in the open-area maps in case you need to turn around quickly. Star Fox gives you a lot of options for movement and traversal in the Arwing, and once everything clicks, it still feels great.

Since Star Fox is an on-rails shooter, let’s go through the arsenal you will have access to. You have your normal lasers, which you can fire by pressing the A button. If you hold the A button down, you can use a charge shot that can lock on and damage multiple enemies nearby. You also have bombs that can be fired with the Y button. If you press the Y button again, you can detonate it remotely, just in case it doesn’t hit the target the way you want it to.

Campaign, Challenge Mode, And Battle Mode

The first mode in Star Fox is the campaign mode. This is the same story as Star Fox 64, but with added cutscenes. You will have objectives in these levels that allow you to move to different routes on your way to the planet Venom. If you accomplish the more difficult challenges these levels might have, such as saving Falco from a flight of ships while passing through all the rings, you can have different outcomes for these levels. Generally, the easy route happens if you don’t succeed at the harder objectives but still finish the level. If you just want to experience the story, there is an easy mode that you can finish pretty quickly, though it doesn’t let you earn medals or high scores.

Challenge Mode is also available in Star Fox. Challenge Mode has you running through the same stages and planets as you have already seen in the campaign, but with added objectives. These objectives can include defeating a certain number of enemies or fully upgrading your laser cannon and shield. The high score of this mode doesn’t get saved, so it’s best to focus on a specific challenge you want to accomplish and then exit once you’ve done what you came to do.

The last playable mode in Star Fox is Battle Mode. Battle Mode has you going against another team of four, either online, through GameShare, or with bots. You can play on three maps, and you have to beat the other team by fulfilling objectives while also shooting down enemies. They are all open-area maps that can turn into objective-seeking missions or just straight-up dogfights in the air.

Star Fox Is Star Fox

One thing that stays true in this game is the feel. Whether it is flying among asteroids or shooting down robots and spaceships, this is still Star Fox. The flying feels cathartic, the handling is smooth, and the music is fantastic. My favorite part of Star Fox growing up was the soundtrack, and hearing it now in a more refined and polished format makes it feel just like I remembered when I first played it on the Nintendo 64. I still love the Corneria theme, and there is something cozy about shooting down ships, following Slippy, and listening to that orchestral goodness in the background.

The cutscenes do a good job of adding connective tissue between the planets and the route you take to Venom. They also give some personality to all four of the main pilots in Star Fox, and I love how much lip Fox gives General Pepper. There may not be a lot of cinematics, but having them helps the story quite a bit while still keeping the experience quick and breezy. Challenge Mode is tough, but it adds more layers of replayability. The real thing I was excited for, though, was Battle Mode.

Battle Mode is fun because of the dogfights. It is also good training for the final Venom stage on the hard path, where you have to engage and win a dogfight before you can fight Dr. Andross. My only complaint is that there are only three maps. Why isn’t Katina a map when it is already an open-area map in the first place? There are more locations and locales they could have used to build out Battle Mode. The three maps they did choose are good ones, don’t get me wrong, but this still feels like something that could have been expanded and improved.

Star Fox Remade

Overall, I had a very enjoyable time with Star Fox. The new cinematics help give the story more personality, Battle Mode is a fun addition, and Challenge Mode adds more replayability beyond the campaign. This is still very much Star Fox 64 at its core, but that works in its favor because the flying, shooting, music, and quick arcade-style structure still feel great.

I do wish there was more here, especially when it comes to Battle Mode maps and pilot options. With only three maps, that mode feels like it could have been pushed further. Even so, if you loved Star Fox 64 or have never played a Star Fox game before, this remake is an easy recommendation.

Star Fox is currently available for Nintendo Switch 2.

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Review Disclosure Statement: Star Fox was provided to us by Nintendo of America for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.