This surprise Switch 2 game has me pining for an era I never even played
You lucky N64 kids, you
Can we go back to a time before leakers? It would have been really quite lovely to wake up truly surprised this morning to the news that Nintendo dropped possible the latest-notice Direct it's organised in years, announcing and showing off Star Fox for the Switch 2.
Instead, because of weeks of leaks, this basically just confirms what the industry scuttlebutt has been for ages, and is therefore much less of a shock. Still, setting that bitterness to one side, it's fascinating to see Nintendo revive another long-dormant franchise.
The crucial thing to note is that the core of the Star Fox 64 experience remains intact here – it's still an on-rails shooter that lets you move one of a few different vehicles around to try to shoot as many enemies as you can. An iconic quartet of characters returns, including Fox himself in the main role, and they've all been given new designs.
Interestingly, while Fox featured in the latest Mario movie, his design isn't quite the same as that iteration, and he also doesn't have Glen Powell voicing him. Nintendo did update Donkey Kong's design after his own movie version, but that seemingly isn't a hard and fast rule to be followed.
The game looks really quite pretty, with the amount of detail in the environments that you fly, roll and float through all completely transformed by the new power of the Switch 2. There's much more to look at, and more secrets to find, including hidden routes and higher-difficulty challenges.
Nintendo also showed off a co-op mode that splits apart piloting and shooting, as well as a four-against-four online mode that looks like good fun for hectic shoot-outs. It'll use GameShare, too, so that only one person needs to own the game for people to play together, including on Switch 1 systems.
The main game itself, though, is only for Switch 2, which makes sense given it seems to be running at 60fps with decent graphics. It'll release on 25 June, which isn't too far away, so this isn't one that you'll have to be super patient for.
It leaves me feeling jealous of those who grew up with Nintendo 64 systems – as someone who was only allowed into the gaming world with a Game Boy Color, this might be my first foray into Star Fox.
