This game is a remake, and by its own announcement stated that the game’s levels are built exactly like they were in the original game.
Yet it also feels more than many games I would have had at that point, ones where it was just an HD port, so I figured, why not?
Star Fox is a remake of the game on the Nintendo 64. It was confirmed in the original announcement video that the game wouldn’t receive any changes to the levels. Having played through the game, this is mostly true. Indeed the levels are the same, and I’ll get to what I found that was different later.
This makes it the 2nd remake of Star Fox 64. After the original was a 3Ds remake I never played. Heck 64 is essentially a reimagining of the story of the original SNES Star Fox and then there’s Star Fox Zero on the Wii U that was also a reimagining of that story. Anyway, going into the announcement of Star Fox on the Switch 2 we all said “It looks good, but this is the last time you can do this“, especially when you can play the original Star Fox 64 through the N64 player on the Switch.
Fortunately it is good. But then Star Fox 64 was a masterpiece, so you’re mainly just making sure they didn’t mess it up, which they didn’t.
First up the game feels a lot smoother to play than on the N64 player, it comes to a bit more than just the change in the controls, N64 games being designed to be played with its controller after all. The Arwing (which is cooler than an Xwing) is great to control in both standard form and all range mode. You are introduced to the game now thanks to a mandatory training mode at the very start, rather than being optional and it helps you get a hold of the controls. You can use the mouse mode… which I didn’t so won’t go into.
For the basic run down of the arcade mode, please read the original Star Fox 64 review.
One thing right away is that the artstyle makes the characters look more like the animals, which surprised us with Falco, turns out he’s more a pheasant than a falcon. It took a bit for some people but soon everyone kind of accepted it. You see these new designs most of all in the new cutscenes happening between stages that help flesh out the plot more. Since the game has divergent paths depending on your actions in the game this gives a new reason to replay rather than just getting Medals or higher scores and the true ending.
This leads to the first thing I did in the game. In the original game when you faced Star Wolf in Venom 2 they always acted like you met them, yet there are extremely few routes you can go where that happens. So I challenged myself to do that first thing. Indeed when facing them on Venom 2 they have all the bandages and neck brace due to the earlier encounter. But when I then did an all hard path run and faced them, they did not have those bandages, making it a fun Easter egg for those that put the effort in.
Also while playing I did find it was easier on some levels (SECTOR Z) to get the medal. The score was the same, but little bits here and there made getting to that target easier.
New to this game is the Challenge mode. These have you play through levels you have already completed and give you a number of challenges to complete, upon beating them all of that level, you gain things like the lore for the boss, backgrounds for your gamer tag and the expert difficulty challenges. These ones can go kind of nutty and you will end up having to do a whole level focusing only on that one challenge.
Those customizations show up when you play the online. While the ability to unlock the Landmaster tank and on foot is no longer there, the new multiplayer is also largely improved, going for 4 v 4 instead of the Battle Royal mode of old. The 3 different maps give 3 different kinds of battle scenarios for you to challenge people to. Also you can play against bots if you don’t feel like popping online.
A feature I’ve not tested but have seen people have fun with is the avatars for game chat, these mimic your voice and while initially only Star Fox and Wolf teams are available, there are more you can get by playing the game and completing challenges. Honestly they found a way to make the cameras for the Switch 2 worth getting with this feature and I want to see more of it!
For what is primarily just a huge upressing of a masterpiece, there was a bunch of neat features. This makes it a great game for the Switch 2, the core games arcade more style play works extremely well for the Switch 2s portability letting you get through a full run in maybe an hour, or short bursts on tackling a challenge mode level. Thankfully they didn’t over charge for it as, you do need to ask yourself, is it worth it when you can just play the N64 game on there?
Rating: 🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮
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