Star Fox
Show notes
In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Clint and Bryan strap back into the Arwing for Star Fox, Velan Studios' remake of the 1997 N64 classic, released for the Nintendo Switch 2 in June 2026. Velan built the game on their own in-house Viper engine, and it's a studio with real pedigree hiding in its origin story: founders Karthik and Guha Bala previously ran Vicarious Visions (GBA ports, Spider-Man, Tony Hawk, Skylanders) before it was folded into Blizzard, where it went on to work on Call of Duty and Diablo 4. Here, they've taken the original Star Wars-inflected premise, animal mercenaries running trench runs through the Lylat System and rebuilt it with a new art style while keeping the level design, story, and rail-shooter structure fully intact.
We talk through what's changed and what hasn't: the new cutscenes, the recut voice work that gives Fox and Falco a little more edge without losing too many of the iconic one-liners, and how well those three-minute, branching missions fit the Switch's ability to succeed with games that allow for a short, staccato pace. The Arwing still flies exactly like you remember, snappy and arcade-tight, and the mission variety, planet-side runs, all-range dogfights, subs, tanks, memorable boss fights, still hold up. We also dig into where the age shows and why the game keeps pulling us back anyway. It's not an experience that reinvents Star Fox 64 so much as it lovingly restates it, and we get into whether that's exactly the right call.
Three Word Reviews:
Clint - Switch 2 Seller
Bryan - Nostalgia, Locked On