Star Fox remake is a test for the future of the franchise

Nintendo caught a lot of people off guard last month by hosting a livestream featuring the company’s most famous space canine. Even though Fox McCloud is one of Nintendo’s most recognizable mascots, the franchise has essentially been on hiatus for a decade. Aside from a brief appearance in the latest Mario movie, at this point Fox is probably best known for his appearances in Smash Bros. more than anything else (no items, Fox only, Final Destination, anyone?).

After having had the chance to preview the Star Fox remake, it feels like Nintendo is paying homage to the best game in the series while gauging people’s interest in the franchise before committing to an entirely new release.

There is no doubt that Star Fox the biggest improvement over the original is its new visual treatment. Often, when a company like Nintendo revisits one of its classics, it ends up creating something that resembles the way you remember the game in your head, even if that memory is embellished due to time and nostalgia. However, this time Nintendo has created something even better.

The cutscenes are simply stunning and have been updated with more action and more interactions between characters and events in the game, making the story deeper and more developed. Meanwhile, flying in an Arwing is smoother and more detailed than anyone could have imagined back in 1997. I even like Fox’s more grizzled look in this game compared to the too-cute version we saw in Mario Galaxybecause it reminds me of the old Super Famicom box set.

The gameplay is also very tight, although in this case that works both for and against the overall experience. Maneuvering through levels, shooting enemies with lasers, and double-tapping the shoulder buttons to perform a barrel roll felt extremely responsive. All the old secrets are still there, like the tunnel behind the Corneria waterfall. (I’m sorry if this is a spoiler, but there must be some sort of statute of limitations for a 20-year-old game.) But as Nintendo has stayed true to the original formula, I was quickly reminded that games from the late ’90s aren’t as deep as more modern titles. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as there is a certain kind of enjoyment to be had from a simple rail shooter like Fox Star. But this is not the case with Armored Core VI.

Besides the new and improved graphics, the biggest addition to the new Star Fox is support for “mouse” controls via the Switch 2’s Joy-Con. Instead of a third-person view, this setup gives you a first-person POV from inside an Arwing’s cockpit, with the right Joy-Con serving as a cursor when titled sideways on a table. This gives you even more precision on where you’re aiming, and if you want, you can even use this control scheme to play the game in cooperative mode: one person pilots the ship while the other serves as the shooter. That said, this inclusion definitely requires a bit of a learning curve, and once the novelty wore off I found myself wanting to go straight back to the classic button layout. Unless I’m playing with a child who might need help getting through the steps, I don’t think I’d use mouse mode much.

The other notable update of Star Fox is expanded multiplayer options, which include a new flag-style capture mode in addition to the classic battle royale stages. I was able to try this with three other people while the game filled the rest of the ships with robots to create a 4v4 scenario. You earn points by taking down enemies or capturing cargo escorted by pirates and returning it safely to your flagship. And while I had a good time with this mode, I think it’s safe to say that it won’t be the next big thing for competitive players.

Finally, for people with a camera attached to their Switch 2, you can also overlay Star Fox new character models on your face in Nintendo Game Chat. You can pretend you’re Fox, Falco, Star Wolf, or one of the other big names in gaming. These avatars will match your facial movements like smiling or yawning, and they’ll even work when the person on the other end of a video chat is playing a different game, which can be pretty entertaining. But at the same time, I find it hard to believe that someone would buy a $50 game just for that.

In the end, this new Star Fox looks like a much prettier and better animated version of one of the most iconic games of all time. The new multiplayer modes, mouse controls, and avatars are nice, but also kind of superfluous. For older gamers, you buy it because you want to relive the game that made Fox McCloud one of Nintendo’s biggest stars despite a relatively small game catalog compared to the likes of Mario, Kirby, and others.

The big question is: will this be the title that inspires a new generation of drivers? As charming as this remake is, I’m not sure it’s enough to give the franchise the boost in popularity it probably needs for Nintendo to greenlight a proper follow-up like the one everyone’s favorite monkey got. Donkey Kong: Bananza. But at the same time, I applaud Nintendo for trying, and as a tribute to a timeless classic, this new version of Fox Star 64 was polished in all the right places.

Star Fox will be available as a digital download for $50, or $60 for a physical cartridge, on June 25.