The Star Fox series has always been special to me. When I turned 8, shortly after the original game came out, my parents surprised me with it on my birthday. At the time, I remember thinking the 3D graphics were incredible and the game was extremely fun. I was addicted to blasting through space and foiling Andross' plans to dominate the universe. Years on, I remember obsessing over my Nintendo Power issues that showed Star Fox 2 - the new characters and crafts looked amazing. Unfortunately, it wouldn't officially see the light of day until I was an adult, but my Star Fox appetite would soon be satiated with Star Fox 64.

I had preordered Star Fox 64 near my 12th birthday, in anticipation of its June release. School ended, and Star Fox 64, complete with Rumble Pak, was now in my possession. I was obsessed. I played through the game over and over, first collecting the normal mode medals and later the expert ones, unlocking the Landmaster and on-foot abilities in multiplayer. While it was clear that this game was a re-imagining or retelling of the original game's story, the overall experience was totally fresh.

After Star Fox 64, things didn't really progress how I would've imagined for the series. Dinosaur Planet, an action-adventure game, would be reshaped to form Star Fox Adventures, where on-rails shooting felt like it was tacked on just to satisfy the re-skin. Star Fox: Assault was disappointing and suffered from some really bad on-foot sections. Later, Star Fox Command would be developed by the original team, revisiting the concepts that 2 sought to explore (which by this point I had played thanks to industrious romhackers), but it just wasn't as interesting and bombastic as Star Fox 64. Eventually Star Fox Zero would release, another re-imagining of the original story, but the non-traditional controls made it more cumbersome than enjoyable to play.

While the initial reaction to Star Fox being remade on the Switch 2 invited plenty of jokes about retreading the same ground once again, I was ecstatic. To me, this signaled Nintendo returning to the roots of the series, hopefully opening the door for new entries made in the traditional style. Having now played tens of hours of the game, I feel even more confident that this is the start of something new.

It may seem minor, and it's admittedly not something I tend to care much about, but the new cutscenes and the overall improvement in the presentation of the game brings the whole thing to life in a big way. Every character in the game has a memorable personality and you come to know what to expect from each of them. Getting to go back to the Great Fox at the end of mission, debriefing, and seeing the team hanging out and conferring with General Pepper provides a sense of time and place that you never got with the basic mission select screen of the original.

And this presentation improvement shines through during the gameplay as well - Star Fox is a visual feast. Whether you play in handheld mode or up on the TV, you're sure to be impressed by the graphics and presentation. I will say, it took some adjusting to get used to the new graphics. Star Fox 64's visual language was much simpler - it's obvious what can be shot and when, what's just in the background, and what targets you need to watch for. As such, my first few rounds through the game didn't go as well as I had hoped. I was constantly charging my shot and rapidly scanning the scene with my reticle just to find enemies to shoot. Eventually, I adjusted to the new graphics and it became a lot easier to start earning medals and racking up big scores.

If you're not familiar with the series, Star Fox is an on-rails shooter - most levels you'll be pushed forward automatically, with barrages of enemies and lasers raining down on you. Your goal: reach the end of the level without dying. Throughout each mission, if you shoot down enough enemies and manage to protect your teammates (Peppy, Falco, and Slippy) from taking too much damage and leaving the mission, you will earn a medal. Usually 150 hits will do it, but some missions require a considerable amount more.

Star Fox is built to be replayable - between the medals and the mission structure, you will be making many passes through the full adventure. Each pass through the game, you can only play seven missions, despite there being a total of fifteen. There are many branching paths through the game, which will offer different mission choices based on the outcome of the mission you just completed. If you found an alternate exit, or completely destroyed all the appropriate enemies or items, you may be presented with more or different choices.

This can make every Adventure Mode playthrough a bit unique, though you will likely play the starting mission, Corneria, more times than you ever wanted. Once you manage to score all of the medals in Normal, you'll unlock Expert, which makes the adventure more challenging, with enemies dealing more damage and more enemies on screen at a time. However, once you've seen all the missions, you can turn your focus to the Challenge Mode, a brand new addition to Star Fox. There's a handful of quests to complete across each mission, first in Normal, and even more that become available in Expert mode after clearing Normal.

Additionally, the game boasts a brand new multiplayer mode, rather than the local up-to-four player deathmatch that was in the original release of Star Fox 64. Other than the bragging rights you could earn back in the day from unlocking the other transport modes, multiplayer wasn't very enjoyable for me and my brothers. The new multiplayer is online, and of course, requires Nintendo Online to enjoy, but what's on offer is significantly more interesting this time around. While it's still not something I find myself gravitating towards, there's even more value packed into this release for those who do enjoy a good multiplayer team match.

For me, Star Fox will always be about the main missions (which can now also be played in co-op) - whether they are in the air and on-rails, all-range mode where you can fly in any direction, on the ground with the Landmaster, or in the water with the Blue Marine - the missions are varied and exciting, every time. Despite the admittedly simple gameplay, every mission really feels unique. The different vehicles and modes of flight provide variety from mission to mission, and completing the alternate pathways is satisfying and exciting. I have always loved getting a faster time, achieving a higher score, or aiming for a higher rank in games - Star Fox delivers that in spades.

If you enjoy arcade, high score attack experiences, or just miss classic on-rails shooters, you really cannot go wrong with Star Fox. Its biggest drawback is that it's once again retreading the highly familiar ground of Star Fox 64. With only fifteen missions, if you don't jive with the score attack gameplay, you'll probably be pretty underwhelmed by the experience, no matter how gorgeous it looks and how good it feels to play.

For me, Star Fox is still special - this release revives one of my all-time favorites and breathes new life into the series. I desperately want to see more from this series and this team. With all of the new assets created here and the familiarity the team has built with the franchise and the gameplay, I can only hope they are primed to create more. This remake is absolutely top notch and Nintendo needs to strike while the iron is hot to get Switch 2 owners even more Star Fox action.