After nearly a decade of dormancy, one of Nintendo's most beloved franchises is finally making its comeback. Star Fox was announced during a surprise Nintendo Direct in May 2026 as a full remake of the classic Star Fox 64, and it's coming sooner than anyone expected.
Originally released on Nintendo 64 in 1997, Star Fox 64 put players in the cockpit of Fox McCloud's Arwing as he and his team fought to liberate the Lylat system from the exiled scientist Andross. The game previously received a 3DS remake in 2011 (Star Fox 64 3D); then there was Star Fox Zero, released for the Wii U in April 2016. It was developed by Nintendo EPD in collaboration with PlatinumGames and was a reimagining of the original Star Fox story rather than a direct sequel, featuring a dual-screen control scheme that used the Wii U GamePad's gyroscope for aiming while the TV showed the cockpit view. It was released alongside a separate title, Star Fox Guard, which focused on tower defense gameplay
However, this new Switch 2 version is described by Nintendo as a full cinematic reimagining that features redesigned characters, all-new cutscenes, full English voice acting, and an orchestral soundtrack.
Release Date, Platforms, Pricing
The Star Fox reimagining launches exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on June 25, 2026. Preorders are already live, and the pricing will be a welcome surprise for fans: Nintendo has positioned this as one of its more affordable first-party Switch 2 releases, at $49.99 digitally and $59.99 for the physical edition. In Europe it will cost €49.99 (digital) and €59.99 (physical), while UK buyers will pay £41.99 digitally, with the physical edition expected to land at £49.99. In Japan, it is priced at ¥5,480 digitally and ¥6,480 physically.
This pricing is notably lower than other Switch 2 first-party titles. For reference, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book retails at $59.99 digitally and $69.99 physically. Nintendo itself acknowledged the distinction, noting that digital versions of Switch 2 exclusives carry a lower MSRP than their physical counterparts under its new pricing policy, while stressing that "the cost of physical games is not going up". Savvy shoppers can already do even better for Star Fox: both Walmart and Amazon are currently offering the physical edition at a discounted $49.99, matching the digital price.
Genre and Setting
Star Fox is an on-rails third-person shooter set across the Lylat system, a sci-fi galaxy of planets, space stations, and asteroid fields. Players pilot Fox McCloud and his crew (Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad) through branching levels whose outcomes shift depending on in-mission decisions and objectives completed.
New to this remake is a prologue mission focusing on Fox's father, James McCloud, plus expanded mission briefing cutscenes not present in the original. An all-new underwater level has also been added.
Gameplay Features and Mechanics
The core on-rails shooter formula from Star Fox 64 remains intact, with players using lasers, bombs, somersaults, and barrel rolls to survive each stage. Three distinct modes are available:
- Campaign Mode — the main story with branching paths and three difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, Expert)
- Challenge Mode — new tasks layered on top of already-completed levels, not available in Campaign
- Battle Mode — online 4v4 multiplayer pitting Team Star Fox against Team Star Wolf across three dedicated stages, supporting up to 8 players online.
Co-op is also supported in the campaign, with one player acting as Pilot and a second as Gunner via a shared Joy-Con 2. The game supports Joy-Con 2 mouse controls for more precise aiming in solo and co-op play, and is also compatible with the Nintendo 64 Wireless Controller. GameChat integration lets players use AR avatar filters of the Star Fox team members during matches.
Tech and Specs
According to early video analysis of the official footage, Star Fox appears to run at 60 FPS docked, with an underlying 1080p resolution scaled up to approximately 1440p. It is unclear whether the game uses SMAA or NVIDIA DLSS; however, so far Nintendo hasn't used DLSS with its first-party games, so it's likely to be SMAA.
The game file size is estimated at 14.8 GB. All play modes are supported — TV, Tabletop, and Handheld. The game supports Save Data Cloud and launches with eleven languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Dutch, and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. No specific resolution or frame rate targets have been disclosed by Nintendo at this time.
