Star Fox Review: Stunning Lylat Wars revival isn’t quite a perfect remake

Switch 2’s Star Fox is a remake that at times feels so authentic to the original, that its myriads of small changes stick out like The Great Fox’s twin cannons.

Velan Studios’ (Knockout City) update of the classic Nintendo 64 game, Star Fox 64 (‘Lylat Wars’ in Europe), largely elevates the original with its slick cinematic presentation, stunning visuals, and phenomenal orchestral soundtrack, plus the addition of challenge modes and a light multiplayer suite.

It achieves its goal of providing an awesome entry point into a long-dormant Nintendo series, for fans young enough to associate Fox McCloud and Falco more with Smash Bros. and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, rather than their own game series.

However, as with all touch-ups to beloved works of art, fans of the original are unlikely to agree that every update here is actually an improvement over the N64 game. Under the (gorgeous) surface, the shooting doesn’t quite match the satisfaction of 1997, while some odd story, voice and cut-scene changes feel like downgrades.

Star Fox is a remake that, for the most part, sticks closely to its source material. The game comprises near one-to-one recreations of each stage from the Nintendo 64 game, offering new players the chance to discover it for the first time, and older fans the opportunity to revisit a favorite with a significant glow-up.

And as one of the best rail shooters ever made, many will jump at the opportunity. Star Fox (like, to be fair, nearly all of its entries) tells the origin story of the titular flight team, which is comprised of Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad. Following the mysterious death of his father during a mission, Fox has taken over the team and is out to stop the exiled scientist Andross and his evil army.

Star Fox is, essentially, an arcade game, with a single playthrough taking as little as 90 minutes. The game’s value is in its replayability: each mission feels different from the last, with the Star Fox team taking on a wide variety of challenges, battles, and boss fights. Crucially, each mission contains a secret objective, which in turn unlocks a different ‘route’ towards the ending and new missions.

Although the broad designs here are nearly identical to Star Fox 64, this is, of course, only how we imagine the original game looked in our heads. In truth, the Switch 2 version is an impressive glow-up of neon space fields and bustling sci-fi cityscapes. Combined with a fantastic orchestral update to the already-iconic score, this is one of the best-looking and sounding Nintendo games ever.

It’s this dedication to presentation that really enhances the experience. Star Fox 64 was already a pretty cinematic game for its era, but that’s been dialed up a level in the remake with pre-mission briefings that expand the plot, and cut-scenes which demonstrate a fidelity beyond anything we’re used to seeing from a Nintendo game, with sublime lighting and animation.

“Combined with a fantastic orchestral update to the already-iconic score, this is one of the best-looking and sounding Nintendo games ever.”

The game’s opening now shifts to a wing-side camera as the Star Fox team majestically descends through the clouds of Corneria, before their arwings switch to attack mode, with mechanical gears and gubbins shifting around through the cracks in the armor. Not everyone will love the jarringly realistic designs of its animal protagonists, but there’s no denying that this is a remake with visual soul, and everything I dreamed a modern Star Fox could be, in terms of presentation.

As a breezy, cinematic space shooter, Star Fox is a brilliant experience, and as a big fan of the N64 game, it’s a thrill to see it realized through the modern lens. However, I don’t love everything about the new version.

Notably, Nintendo and Velan seem to have spent so much time turning Star Fox into the audiovisual stunner that they’ve missed some important, smaller details beneath the surface. The voice acting has been entirely rerecorded, for example, and follows the broad script of the original, but makes changes that muck up some of the best lines in the original.

One boss sequence, for example, has an enemy pilot ‘surrendering’ before launching a surprise attack. In the N64 game, this sequence was played for laughs, with animation, audio, and voice acting working in cohesion for a fun ‘gotcha’ moment. Now, the context feels changed by the actor’s delivery, who convincingly concedes defeat, turning a fun moment into a stilted and awkward one.

These sorts of little annoyances are littered throughout Star Fox’s missions, in voice acting and cut-scenes. Perfectly-timed explosions from the original will now erupt with a whimper, previously tense cut-scenes will pass with little note, and humorous one-liners land like flaming enemy ships. While they’re far from game-breakers, they gave me pause for thought on whether Star Fox is truly a better overall game than the original, and leave the Switch 2 version looking a bit clumsy when examined under a microscope.

Another complaint is the odd lack of feedback from the shooting itself. In multiple instances during boss battles, I had no idea if I was doing damage to my opponent or even targeting the right areas. When it matters, shooting in Star Fox 2026 feels strangely lacking in tactility, as if its developer has prioritized visuals over gameplay. Countless modern shooters have shown you can have realistic visuals and tangible feedback to projectiles, but Star Fox doesn’t do this as well as it should.

But as much as oldies like me might debate the subtle details of this new version, Star Fox for Switch 2 is likely to inspire far more delight from its higher-billing items, especially from those lucky enough to be playing it for the first time. Nintendo’s arcade shooter remains a classic, and while I’d have liked a little more care put into restoring these smaller parts, the Switch 2 remake is otherwise a fantastic way to discover or revisit it.