Fox McCloud and friends will return in a new video game, Star Fox for Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo announced Wednesday during a surprise Nintendo Direct showcase for the title. It will be the first new Star Fox release since 2016’s Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard for Wii U, not counting the long-delayed release of Star Fox 2 in 2017.
The new Star Fox was introduced by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Yoshiaki Koizumi, who described the game as based on Star Fox 64, which was originally released on Nintendo 64. The new Star Fox will give the N64 original a massive graphical overhaul, but many of the routes and gameplay elements appear to be close to the 1997 rail shooter. The game’s familiar characters — Fox McCloud, Peppy Hare, Slippy Toad, and Falco Lombardi — look more realistic and more animal-like than ever, and new cutscenes have been added, but otherwise the game appears to hew closely to Star Fox 64 in its design.
But in terms of new features, Star Fox for Switch 2 will include online multiplayer, with 4v4 dogfights in a new Battle Mode. Up to four players can play locally with GameShare, or online using GameShare via GameChat. Star Fox will also feature cooperative play, letting one player control an Arwing spaceship (or other vehicles) while the other acts as a gunner using Joy-Con 2 mouse controls to aim and shoot.
Nintendo’s new Star Fox will be released on June 25, exclusively for Switch 2. Nintendo did not announce pricing or pre-orders for its new Star Fox.
The return of Star Fox was heralded in April when Fox McCloud appeared as a major cameo in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. In the film, Fox — voiced by Glen Powell — comes to the aid of Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach by transporting them across the galaxy. The existence of the new Star Fox game was revealed unofficially by prolific leaker NatetheHate, who outed the existence of a “classic-style Star Fox game” ahead of Nintendo’s own timetable.
The Star Fox franchise kicked off in 1993 with the release of the original Star Fox for Super NES, a 16-bit on-rails shooting game that used Nintendo’s Super FX chip to render 3D graphics. A direct sequel was developed for SNES, but was canceled despite being completed. Nintendo would ultimately release that game for its Super NES Classic Edition mini console and through its SNES Nintendo Classics service for Nintendo Switch Online.
Nintendo and its partners have released a handful of sequels and spinoffs over the past three decades, including Star Fox 64 for Nintendo 64, Star Fox Adventures for GameCube, and Star Fox Command for Nintendo DS. Fox McCloud has been a featured playable character in all of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. games, with his teammate Falco joining the roster in Super Smash Bros. Melee and rival Wolf joining the lineup as of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
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