A while back, I made a few posts about my thoughts on the Star Fox series. Like many fans, I am also fascinated by this series' potential and frustrated how it's never been able to fully capitalize on this. So when Nintendo announced a new Star Fox project only to reveal it's yet another remake of Star Fox 64, I was... baffled to say the least. Maybe even frustrated. And yet, after that initial shock wore off, I actually got kind of excited.
Because here's the thing, as you probably already know, I do not think Star Fox 64 is a perfect game. The controls are alright in the on-rails sections, but feel stiff and heavy in the all-range stages making all of them very irritating to play. This is especially bad in the Star Wolf stages where the AI is programmed to lock themselves onto your back, and since your teammate's AI sucks, it's not uncommon to have all four Star Wolf members hounding you in a matter of seconds. Add in some annoying gimmick stages like Aquas and you get a game riddled with "that one levels". Presentation-wise, I also think Star Fox 64 really suffers from being a Nintendo 64 games. The stages look drab and sparse, the framerate hovers around a choppy 20fps, and the pretty good score is held back by a dinky-sounding MIDI soundfont. I still think Star Fox 64 is good, it has plenty of great stages and bosses, but I don't love it as much as everyone else does.
And quite frankly, neither of its two remakes so far have really managed to improve on it much. Star Fox 64 3D is shot-for-shot to a fault, and Star Fox Zero while more of a reimagining is held back by its garbage Gamepad controls and drab visual style. So there is actually a lot of room for improvement with Star Fox 2026. We already knew from the trailers that the game was getting a robust visual overhaul and a fully reorchestrated soundtrack, so that's a good start. If this remake could tighten up the controls, improve ally/enemy AI across the board, and maybe even make Aquas fun, it could actually be a worthwhile remake. What also helped my optimism was the reveal that Velan Studios, a fairly new studio composed of Vicarious Visions alumni, was working on this remake which I think made a lot of people immediately realize what Nintendo is planning here. They're basically pulling a Samus Returns or Link's Awakening by having a new team tackle remaking one of their IPs before following it up with an original mainline game. And with the Star Fox hype created by Fox's appearance in the Mario Galaxy Movie and Nintendo's pretty solid advertising for the game, this remake actually had the best chance so far of elevating Star Fox as a series to new heights of popularity.
So, did Star Fox actually manage to live up to my expectations for it as a remake? Absolutely it did. Let me just get the gameplay stuff out of the way first, Star Fox '26 fixes damn near all of my issues with the original game and then some. The controls feel buttery smooth, especially in the all-range missions. The Arwing feels just as agile as it's supposed to be, and I feel like I'm able to line up shots much more intuitively. Dare I say, this version of the game feels much more like Star Fox Assault, which I've always praised as having the best-feeling Arwing controls in the series. The AI is also a lot better, my teammates get shot down far less often because they can actually hold up a fight, and Star Wolf's fights feel a lot more organic than before. You can now restart missions without losing a life which I personally love since it makes getting medals way less tedious. And Aquas... well okay, it still isn't too fun but it is a bit faster-paced and runs so much better. You can tell Velan Studios understood what Star Fox 64 does well and what could be improved, and they intelligently cleanup all the original's rougher edges which maintaining the strong game design at its core. In a similar vein to TTYD, this is one of the remakes that feels like you're playing the original game through rose-tinted glasses. I don't think I could ever go back to the N64 version after this.
The biggest change Star Fox '26 makes is in the story department. Not only has the game been completely redubbed but it also got new cutscenes between each of the stages to flesh out the story. Now, I know Star Fox 64's voicelines are iconic. They're hammy, cheesy, and wonderfully charming and this remake doesn't replicate that in the slightest. But it's also not trying to? Star Fox '26 is trying to go for a more serious, gritty take on the story akin to the tone of Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox Assault, and I'm all for it. Star Fox are more explicitly a team of mercenaries, you get lots more scenes with them hanging out on the Great Fox bantering, and failing a mission actually feels like a genuine setback for the characters in a way that it just didn't in the original. Falco's development from a jerk to a jerk with a heart of gold feels more accentuated, Fox has the snark he had in Adventures but not to the point of stepping on Falco's toes, and Slippy gets a characterization glow-up by focusing more on his tech nerd side. For as quotable as the original 64 is, I can't really take the characters seriously like I can in this version which I think makes this a much stronger jumping-off point for a sequel.
On a presentation level, Star Fox '26 is also an extremely impressive package. The visuals are easily some of the most stunning on the Switch 2, while also running at a smooth 60fps and looking sharp even on handheld. Every stage looks distinct and the colors are more bold and vivid without hurting the original's atmosphere. And the soundtrack, which has been fully redone with a live orchestra, is just perfect. Star Fox always works best with orchestrated music, and this score goes full-on space opera. It's the best OST the series has ever had, and Stephen Barton did an immaculate job with it. There's also a nice array of extra modes and features including an impressively detailed lorebook, a mission mode, Mouse Mode controls, Co-Op mode returning from Zero (its one good idea), and... GameChat vtuber avatars. Yeah that was a bit of a strange choice but it did genuinely a lot of streamers onto the game so I'm not complaining. But of course, I can't go without mentioning the Battle Mode. Finally, we have a Star Fox battle mode with online and bot support, and it's fun! Not as robust as Assault's, but with the great all-range controls, dogfights feel better than ever. That being said, only three maps isn't enough and my biggest wish for this game is for Velan to keep support the multiplayer with new modes and maps because there's so much potential here.
So yeah, Star Fox '26 is a genuinely fantastic remake, the best version of Star Fox 64 bar none. It looks and sounds incredible, adds enough extra content to justify itself as a package, and most importantly, fuses 64 with all the best aspects of Assault to create what is currently my new favorite Star Fox game in the entire series. Velan Studios has proved that they fully get it and with how much publicity this remake is getting, the future of Star Fox is brighter than ever. I just really hope Nintendo actually takes advantage of this opportunity and finally lets Velan push the series forward.
