Version: Physical retail copy provided by the distributor
Independence & Ethics
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Can you put a price on nostalgia? Nintendo sure seems to think so, and based on the sales reports, they're probably not far off the mark, either.
Star Fox is the third remake of the classic Star Fox 64 game, which came out almost 30 years ago on the Nintendo 64. Since then, we've only got one true sequel to Fox McCloud's adventures, the dreadful Star Fox Adventures, with Fox relegated to cameos in games like Super Smash Bros.
So, right off the bat, the question isn't so much "is it good?" as "do we still care?" After all, Star Fox 2026 exists as a vehicle that has to cater to the aging demographic that still remembers the original, but also as a potential taster for a new franchise that Nintendo could mine for years to come.
Well, for me, the answer is simple: Star Fox 2026 is still a great game, and the updates are more than welcome. But it's also a game I've already completed in 1997, 2011, and 2016. My first complete campaign run took all of 90 minutes. At 60 Euros, that's a hefty price just to feel like a kid again.
Yet when it works, Star Fox 2026 is a wondrous, exciting, and genuinely enjoyable romp that reminds us how perfectly designed that original game was. Every level is a blast, and the boss fights are still some of the best Nintendo has put together.
The level design, with an intricate maze that opens up based on your choices and score within each mission, is equally fun, and it does afford some replayability to an otherwise brief campaign.
Similarly, the new cut scenes bring the static story to life, and I, for one, love the new oddball visual style, which reminds me of a mix between Jim Henson's creature workshop and Peter Jackson's Meet the Feebles. It's just on the right side of creepy to work with the darker undertones of the original universe.
That tonal strangeness is still there, and it's always a welcome sight. Over the years, Fox has become a strong fan favorite, though you'd be hard-pressed to figure out exactly why – or who he even is for any one fan!
In the original games, it was always implied that Fox and his team are mercenaries, and there's even a darker suggestion that they've amputated parts of themselves for space travel! That latter bit isn't here, but Fox and his merry group are just as cutthroat and snarky as you'd expect. It's a nice change of pace from the bright-eyed optimists that pepper Nintendo's greater worlds, especially as the Star Fox crew send a bill to their employer after every mission.
The actual story, with some big soap opera vibes regarding Fox's missing dad, a bitter scientist threatening the galaxy, and double-crossings on every planet, is pure anime nirvana. It has all the trappings of old-school classics like Star Blazers or anything Leiji Matsumoto made, and I'm 100% there for all of it.
The gameplay remains mostly unchanged from the original, though with slight deviations to make life easier for modern audiences. Accessibility options are meagre, though some exist, like control schemes and audio settings, but none of that is the focus in this remake.
Oddly, the graphical updates do cause some unexpected difficulties, as the enemies now blend together far too easily. In the past, thanks to the blocky limitations of the Nintendo 64, it was far easier to make out what to shoot. Now, some of the bigger matches rely entirely on muscle memory. Newcomers might have a harder time at it.
Luckily, the helpful NPC companions will pipe up often to give pointers on what to shoot, and their general bickering is just as fun as ever.
On a downer note, the Switch 2 version of Fox's adventures is completely lacking in any kind of offline multiplayer, and the couch co-op is a pale shadow of what it once was. Now, a second player can control the aiming, while the other one flies, and it's nowhere near as fun as it used to be.
Online multiplayer is OK, though finding company turned out to be surprisingly difficult. The webcam integration is a blast in theory, where your face turns into a Star Fox character with some rudimentary mocap to imitate your movements. But the resolution of the image is so poor even on a good camera, and the placement has to be so precise, that it remains only a good idea, and I rarely found use for it past the first try.
That said, I still love Star Fox, warts and all. It isn't a long game, and it's a shame that much of this new package leans so heavily on nostalgia instead of innovation. But if it means that Nintendo is finally ready to do something new with this classic rail shooter franchise, I'm there for it.
It isn't perfect, but it's still entirely worth a playthrough or two. But maybe wait for a sale first.
