Star Fox arrives on Switch 2 looking and feeling like something fans have imagined for decades: a proper, cinematic space opera that treats its animal pilots and their galactic mission with genuine weight. After a hands-on session spanning Corneria and Meteo, it's clear this is far more than a visual polish of the 1997 N64 classic. The remake expands the script, overhauls cutscenes, and delivers voice acting that matches anything in Nintendo's catalog.
The opening training mission sets the tone immediately. Instead of flying solo through tutorial exercises, Fox joins Slippy, Peppy, and Falco in a virtual reality combat simulation. Within minutes, their personalities emerge: Slippy fumbles and crashes into Fox's Arwing, Peppy scolds him for it, and Falco brags about stealing kills. By the time the four tear off their VR headsets and debrief, you've learned the controls and met characters who feel like they actually know each other. The voice acting is crisp, the lip sync matches the English dialogue (rare for Nintendo), and the facial animations sell every moment.
What makes this work is how the script has been expanded without altering the level design or gameplay that made Star Fox 64 essential. Flying through Corneria still feels like a masterclass in on-rails design: the stage glides along at a perfect pace, enemy placement remains identical, and the updated dialogue responds to your actions in real time. When Falco reacts to your flying, when Slippy thanks the crew for backup, conversations feel earned rather than scripted. Slippy in particular benefits from the expanded characterization, now portrayed as self-aware about his piloting struggles yet completely confident in his teammates.
The presentation throughout matches the sci-fi grandeur Nintendo is clearly aiming for. Crisp, clean visuals keep the action readable while the Arwing cuts through space. Orchestral music swells as the Great Fox descends toward a planet for the next briefing. Cutscenes play out like Star Wars: rebel pilots gathered around a hologram of their general, receiving orders before heading into danger. Fox himself looks somewhere between cartoon hero and actual fox, with whiskers and ears that fold back when he speaks. It's a risky design choice that somehow works perfectly, giving the character a lived-in quality the series has never had.
Gameplay feels responsive and precise. The control stick reacts to minute adjustments as if you're gripping a real flight stick. After years of the Wii U's unintuitive motion controls, returning to traditional inputs brings genuine relief. Destroying enemies with laser fire and bombs still satisfies, especially with the satisfying metal clanks of impacts and explosions. The hidden alternate route on Corneria, which requires flying under archways to impress Falco, now benefits from a touch more guidance in the script. It's a subtle change that makes discovery feel less like trial and error, though some veterans may miss the original's obtuse charm.
The co-op mode allows one player to pilot while another controls aiming and fire with Joy-Con mouse controls. That gunner reported the mouse controls felt excellent, though from the pilot's seat the mode felt limited. It's positioned as family-friendly content, best suited for parents playing with children.
Jumping ahead to the secret route revealed a stunning alternate stage: a rift of purple and orange hues where bombing meteors felt exhilarating. Earning a Medal for the stage proved satisfying, and the promise of optional achievements on each level adds replay value beyond the traditional difficulty-based unlocks.
Multiplayer dogfights represent the weakest element of the preview. Four-versus-four matches tasked teams with stealing cargo from NPC pirates and returning it to base. The coordination aspect had potential, but the all-range flight mode felt less engaging than the on-rails campaign. With only three maps and one mode visible, longevity remains questionable. Bot fill-in options help, and the novelty of Game Chat avatars, which use the Switch 2's camera to map your facial expressions and movements onto Fox in the cockpit, delivered some genuine laughs.
Star Fox hits Switch 2 on June 25. For a remake of a 29-year-old game, the ambition on display here feels almost shocking. The script breathes new life into familiar characters, the production values rival modern action franchises, and the core gameplay still holds the line. Nintendo isn't just refreshing Star Fox. It's finally giving the series the blockbuster treatment it deserved all along.
Author Emily Chen: "This is what a remake should look like: respectful to the original, but unafraid to expand and refine every element until it matches the vision fans always had in their heads."
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