Topic: Nintendo Announces Switch 2 Star Fox Reboot In Emergency Star Fox Direct

[Shaymin]

As in "we got five minutes warning this was happening".

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/75482/nintendo-announces-switch-2-star-fox-reboot-in-emergency-star-fox-direct

Following a Nintendo Direct with five minutes of warning on social media, a new treatment of Star Fox 64 has been announced for Switch 2. Simply known as "Star Fox", the game will release on June 25, with pricing TBD. The game's eShop listing has the game at US$49.99, C$69.99, €49.99, and  ÂĄ5480 for digital with commensurate increases for physical.

The core gameplay is a remake of Star Fox 64, but with added mission mode options for previously completed stages and a new opening cinematic featuring the original betrayal of future (former?) F-Zero pilot James McLeod. A 4v4 multiplayer mode pitting Star Fox and Star Wolf will be available including online play, and GameShare is supported for up to four systems locally. Additionally, a co-op option is available using one Joy-Con for flight controls and the other in mouse mode for combat, and the N64 Nintendo Classics controller is also available as a control option.

The game's GameChat function will also include an option to use the core Star Fox team as avatars.

[Ian Sane]

Such a whiplash.  I find out about this surprise Star Fox Direct, I'm excited to go check it out and... it's a remake of Star Fox 64.  What?  That's so lame.  Star Fox 64 is already on the Switch 2 with NSO.  They couldn't make a new game instead?  It's Star Fox.  You've got the basic gameplay ready to go so make new levels and make a new game!

There can't be a series that at some point was well regarded that has been so badly botched by their publisher as much as Star Fox.  Nintendo's instincts for what to do with this series is always wrong.

[Kairon]

It has bots in multiplayer mode! If it can be all players on one team and all bots in the other I can't wait for some good old fashioned comp-stomps! Whooo!!

[broodwars]

*sigh* You know...the game will probably be fine, but this announcement was fucking lame.

After all these years, we're doing YET ANOTHER remake of Star Fox 64, and mind you...Star Fox 64 was ITSELF a remake, so this is now the FOURTH time Nintendo's remade this game. Hell, considering that Star Fox Adventures also recycles the final boss from 64, I'd say we're up to at least 4.1 times that game's been remade now.

Really? That's really the extent of your fucking imagination, Nintendo? Yeah, screw putting forward any creative ideas and pushing the story forward. Let's just make a cheap and lazy tie-in product for another franchise's movie.

I'd say I expected better of you, Nintendo, but I can't say that I did considering how monumentally Nintendo's screwed up this franchise over the years.

[Evan_B]

Andross’s monkey’s paw curls yet another finger…

[Caterkiller]

YOOOOOOOO!!!!!! This looks good!

I got texts out of the blue from a lapsed gamer like "did you see this?!"

Everyone needs to stop lumping Zero in with 64. Those stages are designed and played COMPLETELY differently. Honestly the stage layout in Zero is better than 64 in some cases. Star Fox Zero was an entirely new game with a similar narrative. The vast majority of you couldn't deal with the Gamepad so here we are again. Same goes for Star Fox SNES, that is not Star Fox 64 in the slightest. Similar story(if you could even call it that) with planets going by the same name. Everything else is completely different.

I would have preferred an entirely new game but holy moly am I all in on this! That fleshed out multiplayer is calling to me! Only 8 players is slightly disappointing but I imagine it will get expanded over time. I have a good feeling people are going to get insanely hooked on this. The base movement in 64 looks to have remained the same and in multiplayer settings it is so satisfyingly frantic. You can increase the speed of multiplayer as well. Not sure what that means but faster is faster!

You old grumps didn't show up for Zero so you need to just wait a little longer for a new game. Fox just got reintroduced to millions of young'ns and old'ns alike. The quality of this game and the expanded multiplayer will earn Star Fox new fans. This will get us a new game in the next 4 years I'm sure of it!

We got the spirit of the uncanny puppets back and a huge expansion on the narrative. This is Nintendo's first game that truly looks next generation. This whole thing seems very un-Nintendo like and I am so here for it!

The new Star Fox crew in the next Smash is gonna be wild!

[broodwars]

Everyone needs to stop lumping Zero in with 64. Those stages are designed and played COMPLETELY differently. Honestly the stage layout in Zero is better than 64 in some cases. Star Fox Zero was an entirely new game with a similar narrative. The vast majority of you couldn't deal with the Gamepad so here we are again. Same goes for Star Fox SNES, that is not Star Fox 64 in the slightest. Similar story(if you could even call it that) with planets going by the same name. Everything else is completely different.

Haven't played many remakes in the last decade, have you? The modern Resident Evil 3 is designed and played completely different from the original PlayStation RE3, with completely different levels and mechanics.

But it's still unquestionably a remake. It's telling the same story with the same characters.

We have the entire concept of a "reimagining" to cover games that divert so drastically from their original that they're practically new games. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a complete overhaul of the original Silent Hill to fit an Adventure Game mold.

But they're still remakes.

It's been 10 years since Nintendo had a bad developer release a bad Star Fox game on a bad console sporting a bad controller with a bad mandate to force players to accept a bad gimmick. You don't have to run defense for it anymore. 

[Evan_B]

We can argue semantics and the like all we want, there’s already a narrative out there that this is “the fourth version of Starfox 64,” and whether or not Zero was an original game with original controls and original ideas, that only reduces this to “the third version of Starfox 64.” That Starfox 64 is (admittedly replayable, but not in a way that modern gaming enthusiasts like to think) a two-ish hour experience makes me wonder why Nintendo is so insistent on doing nothing with this franchise. Sure, this will appeal to the Starfox fans that we all know exist, and it’s arguably a shiny new cost of paint for the game for newcomers, but it shocks me that they followed the super dynamic, cartoony sequence from the Galaxy movie with these slightly grotesque versions of these characters.

[Ian Sane]

I see a lot of comments online of people comparing the graphics to the puppets from the SNES Star Fox marketing.  I don't see that at all.  Never made the association until someone suggested it.

Something that irritates me about this is the timing.  The Switch 2 is just shy of a year old.  It has a high price and while there are outside factors that contribute to that, Nintendo is still asking us to pay a premium for this new system.  But what are they really offering?  For some dumb reason they held off getting Switch 2 dev kits to third parties so the third party support is not as good yet as I would have expected.  In the first year of the Switch they released Zelda, Mario and Xenoblade 2 and also the Switch 1 port of Mario Kart which to 99% of the userbase was a brand new game.  That's an amazing lineup.  The Switch 2 in comparison really only has Donkey Kong that is a comparable level, maybe Mario Kart World though the hype for that died down quick.

So at this point we're wanting Nintendo to really justify the upgrade to the Switch 2 and they go with a Star Fox 64 remake.  Meanwhile there are also rumours of an Ocarina of Time remake.  So this is what the Switch 2 is for?  Spruced up N64 games and framerate updates for Switch 1 games?  Like when Metroid Prime Remastered showed up on the Switch 1 I was thinking "oh, that's awesome for those you haven't played it."  But we already had Metroid Dread and Metroid Prime 4 was still to come.  It wasn't like "here's your Metroid" and that's it.

They go to all this trouble to have new graphics and create these new cutscenes and multiplayer and such and they don't bother to make new levels?  I don't think that would be that hard.  The trickier part would be in making the game seem "new" enough if the gameplay is the same.  But after multiple failed attempts at tweaking the gameplay with weird controls I think the fanbase would be fine with the same gameplay but with new graphics.  And the irony is that they're not calling it "Star Fox 64" so they're kind of presenting it in a way that obscures that it's a remake so a safe sequel would seem like less of a rehash than what they're doing.

But again it's just the timing.  When we're kind of starved for new Switch 2 games why are we dipping into N64 remakes?  You guys don't have new stuff in the works?  To me this is like what you make late in the system's life cycle because your top teams are working on launch games for the new system.  This isn't what you crank out in year one. 

Though part of it might just be Nintendo's weirdo approach these days to announcing upcoming releases.  This is out next month but by keeping things quiet it makes the upcoming schedule look barren.  I think everything would be better if there was some big holiday 2026 game we all were anticipating but they haven't told us about one yet.  Like as part of big direct I think this would go over better, as part of the upcoming 2026/27 lineup.  With this surprise direct and the release schedule for the last half of the year being unknown it draws more attention and higher expectations to this one game.  Star Fox 64 remake as part of a presentation is good but when you set up a whole show just for it, it seems underwhelming.

[Caterkiller]

@Broodwars

I haven’t played many remakes besides Mario RPG lately or I guess Let’s Go Eevee. However the way you describe Resident Evil 3 from my perspective is basically a brand new game narrative or not. That’s how I see Zero. The stage objectives, gameplay, graphics and voice work are all completely new. It’s a brand new game essentially following a similar narrative. Story wise it’s a remake but otherwise it’s a totally different game. If it wasn’t there wouldn’t be nearly as much backlash. I’d much much much rather have a new game but I’d rather have this than another Assault or another Zero(which I had an amazing time with but admittedly the barrier to entry was too much for most).

@Iansane & Broodwars - I’ve been chatting with you two on these boards since we were teenagers. I’ll be 40 in a few weeks. Lord have mercy… The Star Fox IP has been mishandled to high heaven. And there 20 years olds today who never got to experience Star Fox the way we did. I believe I understand exactly what Nintendo is up to and yeah it leaves us old school SF64 players a little high and dry but the bigger picture is setting us up good for the long run. My 11 year old saw this and flipped out. He tried playing 64 on NSO but he couldn’t get past the graphics. Listening to the chatter in my Mario Galaxy viewing Fox got everyone excited.

Judging by interviews I think this game was a done deal AFTER it was decided that Fox was going to be in Mario Galaxy. At that point Nintendo may have had to make a decision about what they could do quickly enough be in sync with the Galaxy release. The game itself already had its core and they built up around it for a relatively quick turn around. This is all my assumption of course.

A new game/new adventure could still accomplish the same things but maybe this was their best course of action to set the series up for the next 20 years. Like Metroid 2 Samus Returns being that remake testing ground for Mercury Steam before Dread. I’m fully expecting a new game within the next 4 years.

Whatever the case you best believe I’m going run defense for this game! As BlackNMild once put it, enjoy the Expect Less Express! My Hype Train is on full speed ahead! These ultra realistic graphics are so unlike Nintendo, it’s turning heads already. The expansion to the story is going to cement the narrative for future games and almost certainly a movie. As the “beginning” with regular aspirin controls, new fans know what to expect going forward. And now with a seemingly good effort in online multiplayer, those who purchase can get competitive with their skills in a way that I used to dream about! I dreamed about it last night in fact! Oh and it’s a budget title! Just purchased mine for $50. I’m going to get it physical as well and make a Star Fox section on my wall like one of the gentlemen from the Nintendo World Report staff. You might think I’m part of the problem but my efforts are going to help make Star Fox great again!

I’m watching y’all’s players log. Iansane are we friends on Switch/Switch2? Soon as I see you got the game I’m inviting you to online matches with my Leon avatar on Gamechat.

[Caterkiller]

Sorry to double post but my last one was so long I thought it best to separate these topics.

I see a lot of comments online of people comparing the graphics to the puppets from the SNES Star Fox marketing.  I don't see that at all.  Never made the association until someone suggested it.

For me it's the overtly realistic and somewhat dirty quality this new game seems to share with the SNES puppets. The new artwork doesn't seem to be as dingy but in game shots depict a dark dinginess that gives it a really cool SNES edge. And honestly I LOVE it! It really separates Star Fox from Nintendo's usual bright and colorful lineup.

[Ian Sane]

"Iansane are we friends on Switch/Switch2?"

We're not but that's not personal.  No one is my friend on the Switch.  I don't have NSO and don't play online games enough to justify it.  Most of the time I'm playing single player RPGs.

Though that's an interesting idea that Nintendo may have rushed this after putting Fox in the Mario movie.  If the goal was to get something out quick, a remake of the most popular game in the series makes tons of sense.

[broodwars]

Though that's an interesting idea that Nintendo may have rushed this after putting Fox in the Mario movie.  If the goal was to get something out quick, a remake of the most popular game in the series makes tons of sense.

Bear in mind that animated movies take years to make, even for a soul-less creativity-bereft corporate machine like Illumination. Fox was inserted into the Galaxy movie for the explicit purpose of selling a product, just like the rest of that movie. The fact that they announced this game just a month before it was scheduled to come out tells me they've been sitting on a completed game for a while now, just as we heard was the case with Metroid Prime Remastered (and have continued to hear is the case with Primes 2 & 3 on Switch).

On a side note, I don't understand why they went the generic "Unreal Engine 5" approach to the game's visuals. Seeing what Fox's part of the Galaxy movie looks like, ans 80s cel shaded graphic style like Hi-Fi Rush would have definitely gone over better.

[Caterkiller]

When it comes to the art style, I’ll tell you this, Miyamoto and presumably others within Nintendo view Star Fox as a “realistic” franchise. The first time I was given this notion was either Smash Melee or Brawl. I believe it was Melee, one of the later Event Matches. Event 33, I just looked it up.  The description is “Nintendo’s realistic fighters!” These
Fighters include Samus, Link, Zelda, Captain Falcon and yup Fox. Teenage me was like Fox?! Then I thought about the war setting and it made a little sense.

Do you all remember the Crystal interviews? How Miyamoto wanted a sexy character in Star Fox? So she was then carried into Assault? Yes it’s out there I promise! Not to mention Miyamoto’s insistence that story for a Star Fox game is ok lol. Despite cartoony depictions the games themselves are played pretty straight as far as their characterizations and story beats involving death and such.

Fox needed to fit in with the Mario cast so of course within that art style he’d look like that. However, ever since Zero’s character renders it looked to me like the characters were getting closer to a realistic art style. Not too much but far and away more gritty than 64 3D’s art style or Commands.

Much like Zelda never really being able to sit too long in a single style I imagine the artists at Nintendo wanted to go ham now that they had technology that is somewhat cutting edge. Remember when Aonuma wanted to convey NES Zelda artwork into a real game? I bet the developers looked back at the real life puppets and realized they could go beyond that now.

At the very least isn’t this at least more visually distinct from Nintendo’s usual offerings? I love that Star Fox is finding a new identity with this super realistic look. Though admittedly outside of the characters being animals this art style might fit in well with any old realistic 3rd party offering. Still, I keep seeing Rocket Raccoon and the other Guardians. Gosh I hope Donkey Kong and Zelda lean in towards the realism. Doesn’t have to be this realistic but more of what I imagined Country and Ocarina of Time would be by now in this day and age.

[Adrock]

Voice acting is really good so far. And $49.99 digital is pretty rad. A friend already preordered; I probably won’t get this myself.

So this is what the Switch 2 is for?  Spruced up N64 games and framerate updates for Switch 1 games?

While this is on brand, it’s somehow still grossly disingenuous even for you.

You guys don't have new stuff in the works?

As soon as I saw this news, I knew the old band was getting back together to play the greatest hits.

Are y’all not living in the same reality where everything sucks badly? In general but specifically: the economy is in the toilet, countless development studios we grew up with simply don’t exist anymore, AI is fucking up [broadly gestures at everything] etc. etc. All this while Nintendo hasn’t closed studios and laid off a ton of people. Relevantly, it’s also one of the few developers still making A and AA games which even a Star Fox remake is.

The options weren’t a remake or new game. They were a remake or literally nothing. This isn’t the 1990s and 2000s anymore. What would have been a best seller decades ago is a moderate success at best today. We are getting a remake because it’s cheaper/faster to develop and keeps people employed.

The current state of the industry is unsustainable, and Nintendo anticipated this all the way back in 2005. In fact, we need more A and AA releases like this. We need games that don’t completely obliterate a developer if they don’t meet some absurd sales target. If studios keep shutting down, who’s left making games?