Following this morning’s Nintendo Direct, we were treated to quite a lot of gameplay footage of the upcoming Star Fox for Switch 2 in the Nintendo Treehouse: Live presentation. From new cinematics to classic stages and new multiplayer content, there was a lot of content to digest.
According to the presenters, the game’s new cinematics aim to build out the team’s relationships and dynamics with one another. We get to see the team in their downtime in the Great Fox, but we also get to see some interesting character beats. In one scene, Peppy tells them that they need to start working as a real team; Falco, who’s sitting nearby with his back to them, says that last he checked, a real team needs a real leader. This comes seconds after he’s already made a thinly-veiled jab at Fox’s combat abilities. Fans are aware of the banter and friendly rivalry between Fox and Falco, as well as Falco’s temper and occasional grandiose boasting. But it was interesting seeing the narrative developed further to suggest that perhaps Falco has reasons for his attitude, reasons possibly centered in feeling that Fox is an inadequate team leader. I’m curious to see how else the team dynamic is built out in this reimagining of the game.
The combat in Star Fox plays essentially the same to the Nintendo 64 original, from what I could see during the presentation: lock-on, charged shots, barrel rolls, somersaults, braking, accelerating, friendly fire, and Smart Bombs are all still part of your repertoire. However, the game is compatible with Switch 2’s mouse controls, which lets the player go into first-person view and get a look at the console of the Arwing inside the cockpit, and also enables more precision aiming.
Players of the original will remember how every time a character is speaking to one another during missions, their image will appear in a small window with a text box at the bottom of the screen. That still happens this time around, but the characters feel more alive as their heads and body move on those small screens as they’re speaking. The game’s soundtrack sounds wonderful, a less common example of a classic soundtrack that’s been rerecorded but understands and captures the spirit of the original. The voicework is a little less successful, and unfortunately continues the Nintendo tradition of being somewhat mid, but it’s at least not as bad as Zelda’s voice in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (I expect I’ll get some grief for that one, but I’m just calling it as I’m seeing it). The actors are definitely trying to emulate the voices from the original game, but despite the campiness of the originals, those performances are better that the new ones, in my opinion, and have a charm that I really appreciate.
The single-player demo showed off air combat in the classic opening stage of Corneria and in the asteroid field of Meteo, as well as ground combat in the Landmaster as it races to take out the Forever Train. The gameplay was simultaneously nostalgic and refreshing, seeing familiar sights and hearing familiar sounds but reimagined in sharp new visuals and audio.
Multiplayer combat was also shown during the Treehouse. Two players can team up, each using their own Joy-Con, one to pilot the Arwing and the other to man the gunning. This requires the pair to be in sync and presents its own unique challenge that some may find fun, though it also presents challenges that can affect how enjoyable that feels to play.
Each stage now offers challenges that players can tackle to unlock an expert version of said stage. Challenges don’t need to be completed in one go; you can keep coming back to check them all off at your leisure.
From the main menu of the game, you can choose to open the Holoviewer to dive into character lore, enemy intel, location information, and a lot more. This is also where you go to engage in Battle Mode, which appears to be online-only and requires a Nintendo Switch Online membership to access. You can customize your own battle banner, choose a character avatar to represent you in GameChat (which will mimic your facial movements using your camera), and customize the parameters of the stage you’ll be playing on, like the timer or bot difficulty. Up to eight players can compete together in either online matchmaking or in a private lobby.
Overall, the game looked very good: crisp, smooth, and easy on the eyes. The world seems more alive in this remake thanks to the increased level of detail on everything from the environments to the vehicles and character models. I didn’t see any stuttering in the single-player mode, and while the action on the main player screen looked smooth during multiplayer, I did notice that it looked slowed on the small screens representing the other players’ gameplay. Not sure if the multiplayer connectivity will have some of the same issues that have plagued Mario Kart and Smash Bros. online and won’t know until we finally get our hands on the game.
A demo of Star Fox became available today following the Treehouse presentation. The game launches on June 25.
Source: Nintendo Treehouse: Live 06.09.26