You could argue that if you’ve played one Star Fox game, then you’ve played them all. The original SNES game didn’t see its direct sequel release until it was included on the SNES Mini, and we instead had a reboot in the form of Star Fox 64 – that’s Lylat Wars to you and me – which was then remade for 3DS, rebooted for Wii U, and is now being remade again for Switch 2. Somehow, I’ve only ever played the SNES duo, so playing Star Fox on Switch 2 was a pretty new-feeling experience for me.
The sections available during our hands on preview highlighted the tried and true Star Fox gameplay, flying the Arwing through a variety of sci-fi war zones to take down Andross and save the Lylat System. As Fox McCloud, the roguish leader of Star Fox, you can fly through rings, shoot down enemies and plot your course through the galaxy to free the various planets from primate tyranny. So far, so familiar, but lavished with modern graphics that 90s N64 kids could barely even conceive of.
The preview did highlight a few new things to shake up the formula, starting with the mouse controls and co-op modes, which are more linked than you would think. The mouse controls are, in a word, weird. I’m sure I’ll get used to them, but in this setting, I was keenly reminded of how few games I’ve played on keyboard and mouse in my life. You direct the ship with an analogue stick still, but then have a free-aiming reticule to point with your other Joy-Con as a mouse, and it takes some getting used to. I will say though that the precision on the mouse input for shooting is top-notch, so I look forward to spending more time with that.
The co-op mode is even more disorienting, with one player piloting the Arwing and the other manning the weapon systems in mouse controls. We didn’t quite get enough time to fully explore this mode, but even in two levels, it demonstrated a required level of co-ordination between the two players that was close to that of games like It Takes Two. Tremendous fun, but will no doubt be the cause of many arguments in my household.
Then there was the battle mode and the online multiplayer experience, which sees eight players split into two teams of four in an all-terrain dogfight to claim territories. The battle mode was frenetic, tense and enjoyable (despite how useless I was to my team). I can also see it contributing to the longevity of the game as you not only have the multiple pathways and score-chasing of the main campaign but this online mode to barrel-roll the hours away.
Finally, we were able to play around a little with the avatar mode, which overlays your face with the characters of the Star Fox universe in GameChat on Nintendo Switch 2. I clocked this immediately for the VTuber software that it is, tapping into the capabilities of the Switch 2’s Nvidia GPU, but it was nonetheless impressive how responsive this tech was. After all, it could tell the difference between an open mouth and a tongue sticking out and map that to the 3D avatars of the Star Fox team. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it does show a level of fine-tuning I wouldn’t have expected from this addition.
And from character portraits to the visuals of the game as a whole, I could tell this is where the greatest amount of attention has been paid to this remake. The new cutscenes ground the story, both supporting and transforming the original tale into something far more cinematic than the previous games achieved. The more realistic animal models themselves still look a little odd to me, especially Fox himself, but these scenes served to flesh out the characters and provide moments of levity too.
This translates over to the arcade-y gameplay too, with the bright and vibrant world being filled with lasers and explosions aplenty. In short, the game looks incredible. This then extends to the sound design too, with the reworked soundtrack broken up by the punchy effects of destroyed ships and collapsing buildings. Like the visuals, this felt both clearly reflective of the past while bringing it to the present.
I’ve not had long with Star Fox, but I’m already excited to get my hands on the full game. The avatar mode had a lot of greyed out options with clues tied to the main campaign, so I’d have a reason to aim to complete the various challenges in the game to unlock more. Plus, with the battle mode adding to the game’s longevity, this is a game I could see myself playing for a decent while. Fortunately, I don’t have long to wait either – bring on June 25th!
