Nintendo can’t stop being weird about Star Fox

Switchboard is Polygon’s weekly newsletter for all things Nintendo, sent on Thursdays. You can subscribe here.

In one sense, Nintendo’s reveal of Star Fox for the Switch 2 this week was a surprise. In another sense, it wasn’t. The game is a remake, because of course it is. In the Star Fox series, remakes outnumber original games; this is a beloved franchise that seems unable to get off square one.

In 1993, Nintendo made Star Fox, a technically dazzling 3D space shooter for the Super Nintendo. A Star Fox 2 was completed immediately after, but never released — at least, not until it was slipped onto the collectible Super NES Classic Edition console in 2017. (It’s now available to play as part of the Nintendo Classics collection on Nintendo Switch Online.)

Something about this cancellation seems to have haunted Nintendo. In the 30 years since, it’s done everything with the series but release an all-new Star Fox game in the lineage of the original. We’ve had spinoffs like Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox Assault, and multiple reworks and remixes of the original game — none of them better than 1997’s Star Fox 64, of which the new Switch 2 game appears to be an extremely faithful remake. Nintendo’s planners seem to have a collective mental block about what’s next for Star Fox.

Fox McCloud sits in his Arwing saying "Atmospheric entry complete. Extend the wings."

People have great affection for Star Fox — none more so than its co-creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, who often speaks fondly of the series and its characters, and always makes himself available to promote new Star Fox games. (Someone who worked on Star Fox Command for the DS at developer Q-Games once told me that Miyamoto took a highly specific, not to say scarily intense, personal interest in the project.) Yet the series seems to be constantly restarting itself rather than moving forward. Some games are better than others, but it never sticks, and there are frequent, long gaps between new releases. The new Star Fox will arrive 10 long years after 2016’s ill-fated Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard.

If this revival feels a little different, it’s because the surprise unveiling and swift upcoming release of Star Fox (2026) follow hot on the heels of an unexpected cameo for star Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. There’s even a plush toy line coming to Japan. Something coordinated seems to be happening.

Here are a few possibilities:

Nintendo has long been laboring over a strategic master plan for reviving Star Fox, of which the movie cameo and Star Fox 64 remake are just the first phases. Something big is coming. Perhaps we’re finally going to get a real sequel! Or even a Star Fox Adventures 2!
Nintendo is hellbent on exploiting its IP to the max at the moment and considers the Star Fox characters marketable, but underused. The remake is a quick-and-dirty way to get them in the public eye and test the reaction.
Miyamoto simply won’t shut up about Star Fox and everyone is humoring him.
It’s all just a happy accident.

The option we all want to believe is 1. Immediately after the announcement, I found myself cynically leaning toward 2. But, after reading around it a little, I think the answer might be a blend of 3 and 4?

Specifically, I found this Forbes interview, in which Miyamoto and Illumination boss Chris Meledandri explain how Fox McCloud ended up in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Apparently, including the character was Illumination’s idea, but Star Fox superfan Miyamoto was disposed to like it. (“As the creator of Star Fox […] I felt that I wanted to see that,” he said.) Miyamoto expected strong resistance within Nintendo to mixing the two properties but was “surprised” when he found none — seemingly oblivious to the notion that this was because Shigeru Miyamoto was asking.

(It also turns out that actor Glen Powell called Illumination to beg for the role of Fox McCloud without knowing a plan was in place to put him in that movie, or any movie. Like I said, people love Star Fox.)

The Star Fox character poster for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Did Nintendo commission a quick Star Fox 64 remake as a way to cash in on the character’s appearance in the film, in just the same way as it put out some no-nonsense Super Mario Galaxy remasters last year? Maybe, although the timeline seems pretty tight for that. It’s also possible that Fox McCloud’s resurgence on two fronts was just a coincidence. That would be consistent with Nintendo’s long record of not knowing quite what to do with Star Fox.

Hopefully Star Fox (2026) is a big success and Nintendo decides to make more Star Fox games for real this time. That would make fans happy, it would make Glen Powell happy, and most of all, it would make Shigeru Miyamoto happy. And we all want that, don’t we?

eShop game of the week: Mullet Madjack

A dayglo colored warrior leaps toward a blazing gun

This turbocharged, stylishly overloaded boomer shooter has arrived on Switch with a great reputation; it actually cracked Metacritic’s top 20 best-reviewed games on its PC release in 2024, and we loved it when we sampled it on Game Pass. Don’t expect sophistication or length, just a booming good time.

Nintendo Music track of the week: “Mii Creation” from Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

As befits the time-honored ritual of Mii creation, the Wii Shop music vibes are very strong with this one. There is no higher compliment.

Nintendo Classics game of the week: Kuru Kuru Kururin

There’s nothing else like this maddeningly brilliant Game Boy Advance 2001 launch title. It’s an arcade puzzle game about navigating mazes in a craft that is basically a constantly rotating stick; it’s all about spatial awareness, timing, and quick thinking. It might drive you crazy, but 25 years later, its sheer originality is undeniable.