Star Fox Returns June 25 On Switch 2 After 10-Year Drought

Nintendo brought Star Fox back from a decade in cold storage on Wednesday night, and it did so with almost no warning. A surprise Star Fox Direct broadcast on Nintendo’s official channel announced Star Fox, a cinematic remake of Star Fox 64, launching exclusively on Switch 2 on 25 June 2026 at $49.99 digital and $59.99 physical. The 15-minute presentation went live roughly ten minutes after Nintendo flagged it on the Nintendo Today app, ending a ten-year drought since the franchise’s last mainline release.

Shigeru Miyamoto and producer Yoshiaki Koizumi hosted. Fox McCloud, Falco, Peppy and Slippy got more animal-like redesigns. The game keeps the 1997 mission layout intact and stacks a new prologue, fully voiced cutscenes, an orchestral score, 4-vs-4 online battles and Joy-Con 2 mouse aiming on top.

The Surprise Drop That Ended a Ten-Year Wait

The reveal had no leak runway and no formal Direct teaser. Nintendo posted a notification on the Nintendo Today app on 6 May, then aired the Star Fox Direct ten minutes later. Miyamoto opened the broadcast referencing Fox’s cameo in the recent Super Mario Galaxy movie. “The movie features a certain character who isn’t part of the Super Mario series,” he said before handing the segment to Koizumi.

Koizumi confirmed the obvious: this is the third remake of Star Fox 64, after Star Fox 64 3D on 3DS in 2011 and the troubled Star Fox Zero on Wii U in 2016. The gap between Zero and this announcement is the longest in franchise history. No mainline Star Fox shipped during the entire Switch generation, despite the original Switch selling more than 150 million units.

Pre-orders are already live on the eShop. The digital download lands at Nintendo’s official Star Fox Switch 2 store page with an estimated 14.8GB install footprint, well below most first-party Switch 2 launches.

What’s New, What’s Faithful

The game is a 1:1 remake at the gameplay layer. Stage geography, mission triggers and branch paths from Star Fox 64 stay intact. Everything wrapped around that skeleton is new.

Character models have been rebuilt from scratch. Fox’s fur reads as actual fur, Falco’s feathers separate, Slippy’s skin has a wet sheen and Peppy looks closer to a real hare than the smooth toy-like designs of Star Fox Zero. Koizumi described the look as “more animal-like.” The redesigns deliberately echo the puppet-inspired box art of the 1993 SNES original, not the 64-bit cartoon proportions older fans remember.

The James McCloud Prologue

The most-requested piece of Star Fox lore finally appears in playable form, sort of. A new prologue depicts James McCloud’s fatal mission to Venom alongside Peppy Hare and Pigma Dengar. Pigma betrays the team mid-mission, telling Peppy that Andross “pays better.” James intercepts a homing shot, orders Peppy to flee with the warning, and asks him to look after Fox.

Players hoping to fly James’s Arwing themselves will be disappointed. GamingBolt’s breakdown of the prologue scene confirmed it plays as a long cutscene, not a tutorial level. It’s lore delivery, not a chapter.

Battle Mode and Co-op

The headline addition is online multiplayer. Battle Mode pits Team Star Fox against Team Star Wolf in 4-vs-4 dogfights across three objective-based maps:

• Corneria: a control-point game on the series’ signature city stage
• Fichina: a crystal-collection challenge on the snow planet
• Sector Y: a fetch quest pitting players against space pirates

Local co-op uses a single Joy-Con 2 split between two players. One pilots, one mans the gunner seat. A more inventive variant lets the gunner aim with mouse-mode controls on a flat surface while the pilot uses the Joy-Con as a traditional gamepad. GameShare lets one game card seed local sessions for up to four players, including original Switch systems.

The Star Fox Zero Hangover

To understand why this remake exists rather than a fresh entry, look at the last one. Star Fox Zero launched on 21 April 2016 and turned into Nintendo’s most-cited modern flop. Wikipedia’s sales record for Star Fox Zero puts lifetime sales near 440,000 copies worldwide, the worst result for any mainline entry in the series.

The control scheme killed it. Players had to fly using the TV screen while aiming on the Wii U GamePad, splitting their attention between two displays. Polygon’s reviewer refused to assign a score because he couldn’t bring himself to finish it. The Wii U platform itself topped out at 13.5 million units, a fraction of Switch’s reach.

Personally, I prefer the movie version, but I thought this one was good in its own right. It had a clear direction.

That assessment came from Takaya Imamura, the artist who designed the original Star Fox cast in 1993, speaking to Nintendo Everything in a comment on the Switch 2 redesigns. Imamura retired from Nintendo in 2021 after more than 30 years at the company. His mild approval matters because the new designs split fans on social media within hours of the Direct.

Why a Remake, Not a New Story

Choosing Star Fox 64 as the comeback vehicle is risk management. The 1997 game is the franchise peak by every measure: critical reception, sales, fan recall. Rebuilding it puts the lowest possible burden on a series whose previous original entry tanked.

Glen Powell played Fox McCloud in the Super Mario Galaxy theatrical film earlier this year. That cameo introduced Fox to millions of viewers who never owned a Nintendo 64 or a Wii U. The Direct opened with the movie’s Fox sequence, framing the game as a continuation of that exposure rather than a niche revival.

The pricing tells the same story. Most Switch 2 first-party tentpoles list at $69.99 or $79.99. Star Fox at $49.99 digital signals a smaller production scale and a smaller commercial expectation. Nintendo is treating this as a test of franchise viability, not a flagship.

Switch 2 Hardware Showcase Without the Gimmick Trap

Past Star Fox games suffered from being tied too tightly to whatever new hardware Nintendo wanted to demo. The SNES original needed the Super FX chip. Star Fox 64 sold the Rumble Pak. Star Fox Zero couldn’t escape the GamePad. The Switch 2 remake uses the new hardware as an option layer rather than a requirement.

Joy-Con 2 mouse aiming is available in solo Campaign and Challenge mode. Players can swap between buttons and mouse mid-mission. A USB camera plus GameChat lets players appear as Fox, Falco, Slippy or Peppy with AR filters that track lip movement, blinks and eyebrow shifts in real time. AR ears and a Falco-style beak are also on offer.

For purists, the Switch Online N64 controller is fully supported. That’s a 28-year-old controller layout running on 2025 hardware. Nintendo Switch Online membership and a Nintendo Account are required for online features and GameChat, and the USB camera modes need a compatible peripheral.

The Numbers That Frame the Comeback

• $49.99: digital launch price, $20 below most Switch 2 first-party releases
• 14.8GB: install footprint on Switch 2 internal storage
• 10 years: gap since the last mainline Star Fox release
• 440,000: lifetime sales for Star Fox Zero, the franchise’s commercial low
• 15 minutes: length of the surprise Direct that announced the game
• 3: total remakes of Star Fox 64 across 29 years, counting this one

Difficulty, Mouse Mode and What’s Locked Behind Skill

The campaign ships with three difficulty tiers: Easy, Normal and Expert. Expert is locked at launch and unlocks only after strong performance on Normal, a structural concession to newcomers without removing the punishing 64-era ceiling longtime fans expect. A separate Challenge mode adds new objectives layered onto familiar stages.

amiibo support is confirmed but Nintendo did not detail unlocks. VGC’s coverage of the Star Fox 64 remake reveal noted that the publisher emphasized accessibility additions over hardcore-only features, which fits the broader Powell-movie crossover strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Star Fox come to the original Switch?

No. Star Fox is a Switch 2 exclusive, releasing 25 June 2026. The original Switch cannot run it natively. The only way an original Switch user can play it is locally through GameShare, where a Switch 2 owner shares a session with up to three other players, including original Switch systems. The shared copy stops working when the GameChat session ends.

How much does Star Fox cost and where can I pre-order?

Star Fox costs $49.99 digital on the Nintendo eShop and $59.99 physical at retail. UK pricing is £41.99 digital. Japan is 5,480 yen digital, 6,480 yen physical. Pre-orders are open now on the eShop, Amazon and Walmart, with Walmart price-matching the physical edition to the $49.99 digital tier at the time of writing.

Do I need a USB camera to play Star Fox?

No. The USB camera is required only for the AR face-filter feature in GameChat, where you appear as a Star Fox character with synced facial movements. The campaign, Battle Mode, co-op and all single-player content work without it. A Nintendo Switch Online membership is required for online play and GameChat regardless of whether you use the camera.

Is the new prologue with James McCloud playable?

No. The James McCloud prologue is presented as an extended cutscene, not a playable level. It depicts James’s mission to Venom with Peppy Hare and Pigma Dengar, Pigma’s betrayal, and James’s sacrifice. Fans hoping to fly an Arwing as Fox’s father will have to wait for a hypothetical future entry. The cutscene is canon to the main game.

Can I use a Nintendo 64 controller to play?

Yes. Star Fox supports the Nintendo Switch Online N64 controller, a wireless reproduction of the 1996 pad sold to Switch Online subscribers. The game also supports Joy-Con 2, the Pro Controller and Joy-Con 2 mouse mode. You can swap between control schemes mid-mission in solo play. The N64 controller delivers the closest one-to-one feel to the 1997 original.

Whether the comeback works will be settled by the sales tracker, not the trailer. A franchise that sold 440,000 copies last time around is asking for a second chance on a console with a fresh install base and a recent theatrical halo. Nintendo built the safest possible vehicle for that test, then hid it inside a ten-minute-warning Direct that nobody saw coming. The risk is real, the budget is modest, and the answer arrives on 25 June.