After months of rumors and years of fan speculation, Nintendo has officially brought Star Fox back.

The company surprise-announced a new Star Fox project during a short Star Fox Direct presentation today, confirming the franchise’s return on Nintendo Switch 2 after nearly a decade without a major new release. Star Fox will launch exclusively for Switch 2 on June 25.

According to Nintendo, this is a reimagined version (once again) of Star Fox 64, rebuilt with updated visuals, new modes, and modern hardware capabilities—including online multiplayer and Game Share features.

While Nintendo has not yet released many details, the reveal appears to validate months of insider reports suggesting a new “classic-style” Star Fox game was in development for Switch 2. Personally, I'm crossing my fingers that Star Fox Assault (the GameCube one) comes to Switch 2 soon.

The return marks a significant moment for one of Nintendo’s most historically important franchises. First released on the SNES in 1993, Star Fox became known for pushing early real-time 3D graphics through the Super FX chip, helping establish Nintendo’s experimentation with cinematic action and polygonal rendering during the early 1990s.

However, the series has struggled to maintain momentum in the modern era. The last major entry, Star Fox Zero, launched in 2016 for Wii U and received a mixed reception, with criticism largely focused on its control scheme and lack of evolution beyond the Star Fox 64 formula. Star Fox was also playable in Ubisoft's Starlink: Battle for Atlas on Switch, which is a shockingly underrated sci-fi shooter.

This new game remakes the entire Star Fox 64 campaign, adds new difficulty settings and modifiers, challenge missions, and lots of Battle Mode intricacies, including online multiplayer. The game will also support mouse control and same-system co-op splitting duties between a pilot player and gunner player.

Nintendo also showed off an avatar feature using compatible USB cameras. In Game Share, you can wear a "mask" that will sync its lips to your face movement. I can imagine V-Tubers will leverage that for sure.

Community reaction online has been immediate and enthusiastic, especially following years of rumors surrounding the franchise’s future. 

We won't have to wait long, with the game coming next month on June 25 for Switch 2.

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