The Super Mario Galaxy movie is primed for a predictably massive opening weekend despite mixed reviews, but the biggest surprise may be the non-Mario characters who make an appearance. Just ahead of the film’s opening Nintendo revealed that Fox McCloud appears alongside all the Mushroom Kingdom denizens. If all that fancy flying puts you or your kids in the mood to explore the Star Fox oeuvre, we’re here to help.
Star Fox is a traditional on-rails space shooter starring a team of anthropomorphic starfighter pilots. The team itself is called Star Fox, and Fox McCloud is the team leader. The other pilots–in most games, Peppy, Falco, and Slippy–are your wingmen. The series debuted on the Super NES in 1993, showing off rudimentary but at-the-time mind-blowing 3D effects. So should you track down the original Star Fox and get shooting? Not necessarily.
If you’re new to the series you probably want to start with the absolute peak, and the widespread fan consensus is that the all-time best Star Fox game is Star Fox 64. That game, which was released on the N64 in 1997, utterly nailed the fundamentals of Star Fox. The flying was sharp and responsive, the story was rich, there were multiple branching paths to explore and encourage multiple playthroughs, and it introduced full 3D dogfight stages. You really don’t get any better Star Fox than this one.
Nowadays the easiest and most widespread way to play Star Fox 64 is on the Nintendo Switch with a Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription. The N64 library includes Star Fox 64, and like other N64 games on the service it also includes suspend points and rewinds for convenience. You need the more expensive Expansion Pack tier of Switch Online to access the N64 library, but for Switch or Switch 2 owners it’s a no-fuss way to access the best Star Fox adventure to date. If you happen to have a Nintendo 3DS you could also track down the port released for that system, called Star Fox 64 3D. It’s a very solid port with some new bells and whistles including stereoscopic 3D. But it will probably be more expensive to track down on the secondhand market, and it’s tied to hardware that can be hard to find too.
If you’ve already played Star Fox 64 or just want to venture outside of that to explore more of Star Fox history, it’s worth going back to the original Star Fox, Star Fox Command, or Star Fox Adventures. The original is available on the Switch Online subscription without the Expansion Pack. Command and Adventures will require some hunting down for physical copies, similar to 64 3D. Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Ubisoft’s fizzled toys-to-life game, also included a Star Fox cameo, making it an unofficial and pretty good Star Fox game. That game is still available, often not too expensive to find used, and doesn’t require the collectible toys to actually play.
Looking ahead, there are rumors swirling of a new Star Fox game coming this year, no doubt to capitalize on Fox’s newfound fame from his big screen debut. Check out our ranking of the best Star Fox games for more recommendations.
Finally, if you’ve had your fill of official Star Fox games, there’s no shortage of developers inspired by Star Fox to make their own on-rails shooters starring a cast of animal fighter jocks. Some standouts include Ex-Zodiac, which seeks to imitate the classic SNES aesthetic; Fur Squadron Phoenix, which carries a more modernized look; the roguelike Whisker Squadron: Survivor; and the upcoming Wild Blue Skies.