Star Fox on Nintendo Switch 2 is honestly kind of refreshing

Of the various remasters and remakes that Nintendo has done in the past several years, Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2 is arguably the least needed. After all, it’s a remake of Star Fox 64, which was itself based on the original Star Fox SNES game that has also been remade on 3DS and reimagined for the Wii U as Star Fox Zero.

It’s honestly a little excessive. But classics are often classics for a reason, and playing the latest version of Star Fox on Switch 2 only highlights that fact. In a day and age of bloated games that can take many hours to complete, the tight gameplay loop of Star Fox is genuinely refreshing.

That’s because the rail shooter’s campaign is really only about two hours long. While some would surely scoff at that, it’s actually pretty timeless design. For one, that length accentuates the almost Top Gun-esque action movie plot about Fox McCloud and his allies defending the Lylat System. In the remake, new cutscenes even add a bit more meat to that narrative by fleshing out Fox’s relationship with his war hero father.

All of this, meanwhile, is brought to life through sharp new visuals that enhance the slick sci-fi vibes, from the shiny oceans of Corneria to the sweltering magma of Solar. Your mileage will vary on the character models, though. The Fantastic Mr. Fox-style look of the anthropomorphic animals takes a bit of getting used to, and honestly, I’m still not in love with it. Overall, though, the remade visuals are solid and help make Star Fox stand out even more among Nintendo’s portfolio, especially if you’re like me and never played it before.

The shortness of the campaign also affords a lot of replayability thanks to branching paths. As you fly, laser, bomb and barrel roll your way through seven planets, you’ll have to work together with Fox’s allies, and that can lead to missions playing out differently. For instance, my failure to stop some enemies from shooting down Falco in the first stage led to him being unavailable for the rest of that mission and the next until his ship was fixed, and that means you miss out on his guidance, including a hidden waterfall route that he would help you find. These arcade-style routes always made the game replayable for diehard fans, and it works even better with the portability of the Nintendo Switch 2.

Outside of the core campaign, the remake’s new content consists of challenge modes that present a wide array of special objectives (like defeating X number of a certain kind of enemy or flying through certain targets) to unlock goodies like Holoviewer logs and some multiplayer modes. The latter is especially noteworthy since it focuses on 4v4 matches centred around objectives like capturing zones or a flag. Admittedly, the selection of three maps is rather limited, but it can still be a thoroughly entertaining diversion, especially thanks to amusing new facial filters that use your USB-equipped camera to overlay a Star Fox AR-filter onto your face.

Otherwise, much of Star Fox on Switch 2 is fundamentally the same as the original game, so if you’re someone who’s played Star Fox a lot, there isn’t all that much that’s new here. (If nothing else, Nintendo’s surprisingly flexible new pricing system for less expensive digital games means you can get Star Fox for $69.99 vs. $84.99 physical, which is more reasonable.) But if you’re someone who never played the original and saw Fox’s scene-stealing role in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, or a lifelong fan who really wants to jump back into an Arwing, you can’t go wrong with this remake.

Star Fox is now available on Nintendo Switch 2.

Image credit: Nintendo