Star Fox review for Nintendo Switch 2

Around 29 years ago, Star Fox 64 was released on the Nintendo 64, and playing this game back then is a core memory for me. I played the Nintendo 64 game a lot, and before I had my own copy I would drive a half hour one way every weekend as a poor college student to hang out with a friend and play. Single player, multiplayer, I didn’t care, it was Star Fox. Now, Nintendo has released Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2, and all the memories have come right back!

Defending the Lylat system from the evil Dr. Andross, Fox McCloud and his team of mercenaries are defending the solar system one location at a time. Five years after Fox’s father James was betrayed by one of his wingmen, James seemingly sacrificed himself to protect his other wingman, Peppy, so that Peppy can warn the rest of the system about Dr Andross’ plans. Now, Andross has made his move and has seemingly taken over every corner of the solar system. Fox and his team are hired to rid the system of the menace of Andross once and for all.

Star Fox is primarily a rail shooter. Fox, Falco, Peppy and Slippy fly their Arwing fighters and take on Andross and his armies. Most stages players will fly in a single direction towards a boss fight at the end of a stage. In a campaign, players will go through 7 stages in a single run. A single playthrough will get you about 60 to 90 minutes of game play from opening stage to credits. But it’s the how you get there is the best part.

While flying, holding down the fire button charges your lasers, allowing you to lock onto an enemy, firing a ball of plasma at them. When it hits and explodes if there are any enemies near the main target, they will also be hit. Upgrades to lasers can be found in each stage, some by destroying specific enemies, or enemy groups, some by destroying obstacles. Lasers can be upgraded two times, and once upgraded they remain so until a wing is destroyed, or you are shot down. Even between stages.

Taking damage depletes your shields and these do not replenish automatically. Players have to fly through silver rings to recharge them. Likewise gold rings are scattered throughout the stages, and if three are collected, shield strength increases. If three more are collected an extra life is obtained.

There are a few other types of stages to be noted, the first are free flying stages, and bosses. Some stages and bosses allow you to fly in any direction you want. The game calls this All-Range mode. There are also stages where you are driving the Lanmaster, a tank, and Blue Marine, a sub. These stages are very similar to the standard stages, where you just keep moving in one direction. In the land master stage, you are the only one driving a land vehicle, while your friends are flying in the Arwings.

Most stages have at least two different ways of completing them. Depending on how you complete the stage will determine what stages are available to you next in the campaign. For example, the first stage there will be a spot where Falco will challenge you to an obstacle course. If you successfully follow Falco, it unlocks the alternate path for you. If the alternate path was unlocked at the end of the level, the player has the option of which stage to tackle next. It also changes the cutscene between stages, something that really didn’t happen in the 64 version of the game.

Nintendo did an amazing job bringing Star Fox to the 21st Century. The environments look fantastic. Flying low to the water at the beginning of the first stage gives a really good looking reflection of the Arwing in the water. The ships, explosions and even the debris from things like asteroids are fun to watch. In particular one of my favorite looking locations, Solar, you can see major improvements between the 64 and Switch 2 version.
The soundtrack has markedly improved as well. The opening cinematic of Fox and crew descending into the first level has heavy Star Wars vibes. Anyone who has played Star Fox 64 will immediately recognize many of the themes and how well they have been improved upon. The voice acting is very well done and the cutscenes between missions add more character and nuance to the cast than ever before.

Once a stage is completed, challenge mode is unlocked giving players the chance to test their mettle in a particular stage (this encourages multiple campaign playthroughs). Once the stage is selected, depending on the difficulty, players get a list of objectives to complete. Most of the time they cannot be completed in a single run of a stage. Once you complete the six challenges in normal mode, expert mode becomes available.
Multiplayer is available, online and through gameshare, unfortunately there is no split screen multiplayer. You can also play the multiplayer stages offline, but it is with bots and not real people. Gameshare allows up to 8 players with a Siwtch 2 to play. Otherwise the only true way to play multiplayer is online.

While not new to Star Fox, multiplayer is quite different from the 64 version. There are three maps total, each with different goals. One map has you flying around a radar tower trying to capture control of it. If you manage it, your team earns a bunch of bonus points. Another, you are chasing pirates and taking their cargo back to your base. While a third has you collecting energy from asteroids. Multiplayer is fun, however, there are only three stages and you have no control over which stage you get when playing online. Hopefully Nintendo will release more stages and the ability to choose the type of game you want to play.

What is new to Star Fox is local Co-op for challenges and the campaign mode. When playing local co-op one person flies the ship while the other is the gunner. This must be played using the Joy-cons. The gunner uses the mouse mode on one joy-con while the pilot holds the other like a controller and flies the ship. To swap roles, players can, at any time, switch the way they are holding the joy-con.
Nintendo shows how it’s done when it comes to remaking games. Take note, SquareEnix, while I enjoyed Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it didn’t feel like it stayed true to its roots. This is how a remake is done. With reverence to the original, Star Fox does a masterful job keeping close to the source material. With a new coat of paint this game soars! Seeing this remake gives me hope that The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is going to be just as good.

Note: Nintendo provided us with a Star Fox code for review purposes.