Dear Nintendo, Please Stop Remaking The Same Starfox Game Over And Over

Nintendo Doesn't Know How To Make A New Starfox Published May 15, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT Jade King is Lead Features Editor at The Gamer and University of Sussex journalism graduate with 10+ years covering the video game industry. She has been seen in outlets such as Trusted Reviews, Kotaku UK, VICE, and more over the years covering everything from the latest releases to major events to in-depth interviews. She loves nothing more than speaking with devs, creatives, voice actors, and so many others about the passion behind their craft and bringing that into the hearts of readers everywhere. I’ve always been perplexed by Star Fox. He’s a Nintendo icon often brought up alongside the likes of Mario, Link, and Samus despite having far fewer games to his name, a much smaller cultural footprint, and not a lot going on since the underwhelming Star Fox Zero for the Wii U. Despite all this, people still love the furry fighter pilot and want more from him. And Nintendo is happy to deliver, so long as his new adventures are somehow related or act as an authentic retelling of the original SNES classic. Whether it’s that game, Star Fox 64, Star Fox 3D, or Star Fox Zero, every single game aside from the polarising Adventures and a couple of spin-offs like Assault and Command have depicted this conflict in some manner. It makes sense to give it additional narrative and mechanical depth, but I think a lot of fans had high hopes that his upcoming Switch 2 outing would finally do something new. I guess not... Star Fox Is A Remake Of The Nintendo 64 Classic Your browser does not support the video tag. I’m not merely projecting here either, with the official product page describing Star Fox as ‘a remake of the Nintendo 64 game Lylat Wars’ for the Switch 2. Now, Fox hasn’t starred in an actual game for almost a decade, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a decent number of Switch 2 owners haven’t played a game starring the character that isn’t Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Fox is heavily featured in several Nintendo products and experiences, but his own library consists of only a handful of games, several of which are reimaginings of the first with improved mechanics, visuals, and other experimental features. And the new Star Fox is shaping up nicely if the recent Direct is any indication, as it introduces deeper gameplay and freshly depicted versions of Fox, Falco, Slippy, and the gang. Yes, they do look like a bunch of terrifying Thunderbirds rejects, but with time, I can see them growing on me. Nintendo has also promised it will expand upon the Lylat Wars story with new cutscenes and character moments, which I would hope so, given how long it’s been since the last iteration. It will have us going to new and existing planets, flying through new stages, and hopefully yeet a few additional set pieces in for good measure. I will play this game and likely enjoy it, but I really wish it was trying to do something more, introducing new characters and narrative ideas, or perhaps even act as a sequel to Lylat Wars instead of retreading tired old ground. Nintendo Should Make Star Fox Adventures 2 Released for the Nintendo GameCube back in 2002 and set eight years after the events of Lylat Wars, Star Fox Adventures is the closest we’ve ever come to a sequel of the original game(s). It also received quite a polarising reception at the time for being so different, as it was no longer simply a dogfighting game across different planets and systems, but a bold Zelda-inspired adventure where Fox explored a new planet filled with new threats, friends, and secrets to discover. I loved it as a kid, and to this day, it’s the most ambitious Star Fox has ever been. Star Fox 2 launched alongside the SNES Mini several years ago after being kept in a vault for decades. Why not remake or adapt those events instead? I played it as a kid, so I was thankfully immune to all the discourse surrounding it, and it was amazing to see a universe like Star Fox finally having room to experiment instead of being confined to a cockpit. You could explore planets, toy with a bunch of new mechanics, before getting stuck on the jetski section and making your big brother get past it for you. Nintendo But maybe it didn’t perform well enough critically or commercially, and Nintendo decided to put Star Fox on ice aside from smaller projects like Assault and Command. It feels like Nintendo is afraid to put any serious money behind Star Fox, but we continue to treat him with massive cultural relevance. Maybe there is too much risk involved in creating something on the level of Breath of the Wild, or a worry that if the on-foot sections returned, we simply wouldn’t view it as Star Fox anymore. It feels like a series that is going to forever be stuck with this identity crisis because it became an object of nostalgia and an immovable part of Nintendo’s brand long before it actually had a chance to evolve on its own terms. Star Fox on the Switch 2 might look and play far better than any iteration before it, but I’m not alone in wishing it would finally leave the Lylat Wars behind. Tell a new story, take us to a new solar system, and boldly go to be something that we’ve not seen countless times before. Star Fox Systems Released June 25, 2026 ESRB Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence Developer(s) Nintendo Publisher(s) Nintendo Multiplayer Online Co-Op Franchise Star Fox