Star Fox for Switch 2’s faithfulness to N64 hides some bold tonal shifts

Star Fox for Nintendo Switch 2 is another remake that’s simultaneously exactly as you remember, but also subtly different in important ways.

On the surface, fans know what they’re getting here. The remake of Nintendo 64 classic, Star Fox 64 (or ‘Lylat Wars’, if you grew up within range of European trademark lawyers), for the most part, sticks staunchly to the game design of the original, with near one-to-one recreations of each stage, offering new players the chance to discover it for the first time, and older fans the opportunity to revisit a favourite with a significant glow-up.

Visuals have been greatly enhanced, alongside a fantastic orchestral soundtrack, and there’s new content in the form of a prologue mission, pre-mission cut-scenes, a Challenge Mode, and a suite of multiplayer scenarios (including online play) which seem like good fun. There’s also Switch 2 mouse controls, and a humorous AR filter, which turns you into a member of the Star Fox cast, for use in Game Chat.

But, of course, this is only Star Fox 64 as we imagine it in our heads. You don’t have to put the two side-by-side to appreciate what a stunning job whoever’s making this version has done updating its visuals. In the stages I played, Corneria’s foggy N64 backdrop was replaced with a beautiful, detailed vista, while Switch 2’s gorgeous asteroid field exposed the 1997 original as more of an asteroid front garden.

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that Star Fox 2026 is one of the best-looking Nintendo games ever, and, for me, it’s this dedication to presentation that really enhances the experience. The N64 original was already pretty cinematic for a Nintendo game, but here the cut-scenes demonstrate a fidelity beyond anything I’ve seen from the company before, with sublime lighting and animation.

(On a side note, I’m fascinated to find out who’s behind this version because, as is modern tradition, Nintendo isn’t telling us).

In the beautiful opening cinematic for the game’s first stage, the camera now shifts to an Arwing-side view as the Star Fox team majestically descends through the clouds, before they extend their wings into attack mode, with mechanical gears and gubbins shifting around through the cracks in its armor.

Not everyone will warm to the jarringly realistic designs of its animal protagonists, but there’s no denying that this is a remake with visual soul, and there’s very little I’ve seen so far that doesn’t look like my dream version of what a modern Star Fox should be.

Where the debate will likely take place, once Star Fox releases on June 25, is around the tonal changes made to the game’s characters and story. For the Switch 2 game, Nintendo has re-recorded all of Star Fox 64’s original dialogue and slightly rewritten it. That means some classic lines won’t be as you remembered them, and, in my opinion, the early stages show some hit-and-miss results.

“Not everyone will warm to the jarringly realistic designs of its animal protagonists, but there’s no denying that this is a remake with visual soul”

One boss sequence, which has an enemy pilot ‘surrendering’ before launching a surprise attack, feels like it’s had its context changed due to the delivery of the actor, who now convincingly concedes defeat, instead of the comedic, blatant fakeout of the original performance, which allowed the player to prepare for the second wave.

More notably, the Switch 2 game replaces the short ‘briefing’ screens with full-blown new cinematics that show Fox and the team conversing with the military hound, General Pepper. While these scenes look fantastic, I wasn’t 100% convinced they enhanced the snappier arcade flow of the original game, and they also present character traits that feel quite at odds with what I remember.

Here, the mercenary status of the Fox Team, implied in the original and more present in later games, is strongly emphasized. Whereas in 64, Fox would chirpily promise to “do my best” and “I won’t let you down, sir”, here he’s presented as a cold, Han Solo-esque ronin, who openly goads Pepper and, even faced with news of an invasion, is more concerned about agreeing on a fee for his services.

Based on the early levels, the good-guy Fox we remember has essentially taken on the role of cynical wingman (bird?) Falco, whereas the latter is now outright antagonistic to the leader, frequently questioning his authority, rather than dropping the odd wisecrack.

This isn’t necessarily a bad change, of course: the Star Fox crew have always been a mercenary unit and bringing these traits to the forefront arguably makes Fox and co. more interesting characters, which is probably a large objective of this remake. But it also highlights how, as faithful as this remake tries to be to the original blueprint, it’s fundamentally different from how you remember.