In the pantheon of Nintendo franchises, there are plenty that have been lost to time, kept alive only through nostalgia and endless internet pleas for a revival. One of those is Star Fox, a series many people believe peaked in the late ‘90s and has spent the last three decades trying to recapture that magic. It also doesn’t help that nearly every major attempt to reinvent the franchise since the Nintendo 64 has faced backlash. Star Fox Adventures abandoned the arcade shooter formula in favor of a Zelda-inspired action-adventure game, becoming Rare’s final Nintendo title before the studio was acquired by Microsoft and eventually put to work on projects ranging from Kinect games to Sea of Thieves. Then there was Star Fox Zero, which transformed from one of the Wii U’s most promising exclusives into one of its most divisive releases almost overnight thanks to its controversial Wii U GamePad controls. Now we have the Switch 2 reboot, simply titled Star Fox. This new entry opts for a more grounded, mid-2010s realistic art style that lands somewhere between Ugly Sonic and Movie Sonic. The game arrives after the series enjoyed a surprising resurgence thanks to its prominent role in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Rather than being an entirely new adventure, this reboot largely reimagines the Nintendo 64 classic. After multiple playthroughs, I found it to be a nostalgic blend of old and new that captures much of what made the original memorable.
The biggest thing players should know before jumping in is that this isn’t a game designed to be finished once. A single playthrough can be completed surprisingly quickly, but the campaign is built around replayability. Different routes, hidden objectives, and branching paths constantly encourage another run, with each playthrough revealing new encounters, tougher challenges, and different conversations between members of the Star Fox team. That structure works because the gameplay itself is consistently satisfying. Flying the Arwing feels smooth and responsive, with just enough challenge to reward skilled flying without becoming frustrating. Dogfights move at a brisk pace, defensive maneuvers become second nature after only a few minutes, and boss encounters generally require more strategy than simply firing at a giant weak point. Some alternate routes are stronger than others, and a few slower missions interrupt the pacing, but the variety is enough to keep the experience fresh over multiple runs. Nintendo wisely resisted the temptation to stretch the campaign into a bloated ten-hour adventure and instead embraced the arcade philosophy that made the series successful in the first place.
Visually, Star Fox is both impressive and somewhat divisive. The redesigned characters lean toward a more realistic look that longtime fans may struggle to warm to, but the environments themselves are stunning. Massive fleet battles, colorful planets, and dramatic lighting effects make every mission feel larger in scale than anything the franchise has attempted before. The soundtrack follows a similar approach, remixing classic themes with a full orchestral presentation while introducing new tracks that fit naturally alongside them. Voice acting is also stronger than expected, with Fox, Falco, Slippy, and Peppy sharing more dialogue throughout the campaign that gives the team additional personality without slowing the action. The story itself remains fairly simple, but that’s never been Star Fox’s greatest strength. It serves its purpose by giving players a reason to move from one mission to the next without overstaying its welcome.
Outside of the main campaign, the extra content helps round out the package. Cooperative play is a mixed experience, creating a fun dynamic where teamwork becomes just as important as accuracy, but I get flashbacks to Super Mario Galaxy co-op mode, which was just “here is a Wii Remote and just point like crazy”. Competitive multiplayer is enjoyable in short sessions, even if it lacks the depth needed to become a long-term obsession. The game isn’t perfect, however. Some branching paths feel noticeably more polished than others; completionists will likely find themselves replaying a handful of stages more often than they’d like, and a few experimental mission types don’t reach the same highs as the traditional Arwing levels. None of these flaws seriously hurt the experience, but they’re enough to keep the game from reaching Nintendo’s highest tier of first-party releases.
After years of failed experiments and long stretches of silence, Star Fox finally feels like it’s back on course. Nintendo understood that the answer wasn’t to reinvent the series, but to refine the formula fans loved while making it accessible to a new audience. It doesn’t surpass Star Fox 64, and there are still areas that could be expanded in a sequel, but it’s easily the strongest entry the franchise has seen in decades. More importantly, it proves that Star Fox still has a place in Nintendo’s lineup. If this reboot is the foundation for the series going forward, the future finally looks bright for Fox McCloud and his crew.
Score: 8 out of 10
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2