Star Fox (Switch 2) looks like taxidermy but I’m buying it anyway

Star Fox (Switch 2) looks like taxidermy but I’m buying it anyway

The proof, as always, is in the playing, not the puppetry.

By LRG Team

Nintendo shadow-dropped a new Direct yesterday that announced and detailed an all-new Star Fox game. But is “new” actually the right word here? Turns out, Star Fox (Switch 2) is another remake of Star Fox 64, which for those keeping count, was already remade once before on the 3DS. And even when it was first released, Star Fox 64 was an expanded retelling of the story of the original Star Fox on the SNES. Oh, and lest we forget, Star Fox Zero on the Wii U was also a retelling of that same story. 

So, depending on how you look at it, Star Fox (Switch 2) is the fifth time that Nintendo has told this particular “tale” (pun intended) in a game. By my rough count, that means that about half the games in the series are retellings of the first game. Which is OK! Shigeru Miyamoto, co-creator of Star Fox (and Mario and Zelda, I guess) has the tendency to use stories to set the stage, and nothing more. The original Star Fox narrative doesn’t really need expanding upon to give you an excuse to jump into the shoes of these anthropomorphic Han Solo impersonators and shoot down some star ships. 

But what is the story of Star Fox (and Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Zero), you may ask? Well, there’s not a lot to it. An edgy (but not too edgy) mercenary do-gooder named Fox McCloud and his three wingmen (or should we say wingbunny, wingfrog, and redundantly, wingbird) defend the universe from a simian scientist named Dr. Andross who has sent hostile attack vehicles (with both live and A.I. pilots) out to destroy the universe. Fox has a grudge against Andross, because he had Fox’s dad, James, killed. Or did he? If you somehow haven’t had this story spoiled by the multiple other times it’s been told, you’re in for a semi-fun twist should you play through this new version of an old classic. 

And now that we know Nintendo had a new Star Fox almost ready for launch all year, it makes all the more sense that they chose Fox to be a main character in the recently released Super Mario Galaxy Movie. What better way to pre-sell the world on a reboot of the series than by exposing millions of faces to the furry flyboy in a fluffy and fun blockbuster film? The only puzzling part of this “set ’em up with a movie, knock ’em down with a  game” strategy is that Fox look very, very different in these two forms of media. Nintendo, who generally pushes back against normalizing realism in game, have apparently decided that now’s the time to go all in with trying to convince players that these talking animals aren’t puppets or cartoon characters, and are in fact, real flesh and blood talking alien pilots that just look a lot like animals. Seeing the warm and approachable version of Fox from the Mario Galaxy movie at the start of the Direct then jumping to Star Fox’s (Switch 2) bizarrely realistic version was like seeing a beloved pet suddenly transformed into taxidermy in real time. My 10-year-old son couldn’t stop laughing every time the game’s cut scenes were shown off. “It looks so wrong!” he said. I whispered “Chaos Reigns” in his ear at one point, but thankfully, he didn’t get the reference. 

But even more surprising, at least to me, is that I ultimately want to buy the game anyway, showing that realistic graphics really don’t matter much either way. For some, I’m sure the expensive-looking, fancier graphics—which almost definitely couldn’t run on the Switch 1—will communicate that Star Fox (Switch 2) is “important”. And so, they will see it as more worthy of the $49.99 digital/$59.99 price point. Or for others, like my 10-year-old, the game’s look will signal that it’s not for them at all, and they’ll go back to playing Pokopia. But for me, and I am guessing Miyamoto and co., character render styles are no more important than original stories… at least not for this series. I’ve been saying for years that, nine times out of 10, realistic graphics don’t make games more or less fun. Graphics, and even story, are often just a way to deliver play, like someone sticking a straw in your can of soda. As long as the soda isn’t flat, it doesn’t really matter how you drink it. Likewise, as long at Star Fox (Switch 2) is as fun to play as Star Fox 64, but with the promised new challenge modes, difficult options, multi-player stuff included, I’m sure to get years of fun out of it. And maybe we’ll even get a new level or two thrown in as a secret treat! That would most definitely be “OK”.