Ranking The Star Fox Series

Its inclusion on this list is somewhat up for debate, as it shares little in common with any of the other Star Fox games in terms of mechanics, but it is called Star Fox and features Star Fox characters. It’s a bonus game included with Star Fox Zero and could also be purchased on the Wii U’s eShop, and there simply isn’t much there. The game stars Slippy and his uncle Grippy as they play tower defense with a series of turrets connected to security cameras. It’s a relatively shallow experience that can be skipped.

Nintendo can be a bizarre company, but the saga of Star Fox 2, its development, and eventual release, is arguably the strangest way Nintendo has ever released a video game. Following the success of the 1993 Star Fox, development on a sequel began fairly quickly. The game was reportedly 95 percent complete and nearly ready for release, but Nintendo decided to shelve the game and focus on the upcoming Star Fox 64. And it lived on that shelf for about 20 years until it was included in the SNES Classic Edition, the miniature Super Nintendo console that included a collection of beloved SNES games. And now the game is also available on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service.

But how is the actual game, and how does it rank compared to the rest of the Star Fox series? Technically, it’s a very impressive game considering it was being created right before the transition into widespread 3D gameplay, but playing it today feels dated even when you put yourself in the headspace of the potential timeframe it would have released. As a point of reference, the PlayStation would have already launched before Star Fox 2 was released. We are glad it was finally released and wasn’t cursed to never officially exist.

Star Fox Zero is half remake of Star Fox 64 and half series reboot, but the pieces don’t quite fit together. There are moments where the awkward motion controls come together to create a compelling space-combat experience, but those moments are intermittent and difficult to consistently recreate. But even without the motion-control barrier, Zero often feels dated. It does fly closer to the true classic Star Fox experience fans want, however, than Star Fox Assault or Adventures’ entries in the franchise.

Developed by Namco, Assault served as an almost-return-to-form Star Fox sequel after Star Fox Adventures. The game featured some on-rails Arwing sequences, but was pulled down drastically by its myriad on-foot segments. Those sections were hampered by loose controls, bad AI, and repetitive mission objectives. There was some fun to be found in the multiplayer, but overall, Assault ranks low in the Star Fox series.

Directed by Dylan Cuthbert, who was instrumental in the creation of the original SNES Star Fox and its sort-of-cancelled sequel, Command is the Star Fox game that many often forget. It’s part strategy game, as you have to map out your Arwing’s routes turn-by-turn, and part standard Star Fox shooter, as all the encounters play out like all-range-mode fights of other Star Fox titles. The game features a hefty amount of story, with Slippy preparing to get married, Peppy’s daughter Lucy making an appearance, and a struggling romance between Fox McCloud and Krystal from Star Fox Adventures. The game uses touch-screen controls for the action, which was an understandable barrier for some, but it’s the Star Fox game many skipped that’s worth a look.

Star Fox Adventures started its life as a different game called Dinosaur Planet before Team Star Fox injected themselves into Rare’s reptilian adventure. The Arwing moments are few and far between, but the Adventures portion of the game is a solid experience that holds up today. It shares some commonalities with the puzzle-solving and exploration of Zelda and offers the closest look at these characters and their world that the series has ever offered.

Seeing the original today may not impress those who didn’t grow up with it, but at the time of release, Star Fox was a mind-blowing powerhouse. No one knew the Super Nintendo was capable of rendering three-dimensional objects, but here was a whole game dedicated to the surprising technology. Today, the game’s framerate is laughable, often clocking in at the single digits, but it is still a highly playable and impressive game.

The 2011 3DS game, Star Fox 64 3D, is a remake of Star Fox 64, but it’s a good update that goes the extra mile to add new elements. The game received a complete visual overhaul, and its on-rails nature made it an excellent showcase of the stereoscopic 3D capabilities of the fairly new-at-the-time 3DS handheld. The game also included the option to use motion controls, but those could thankfully be turned off at any time.

After a teased Star Fox 2 that disappeared, and rumors of a Star Fox for the doomed Virtual Boy, 1997 finally saw the release of a new Star Fox game four years after the original. The game came about a year after the launch of the Nintendo 64 and proved to be well worth the wait with no reliance on gimmicks (though it did come included with a Rumble Pak), great controls, realized personalities with full voice acting (a rarity for Nintendo 64), and plenty of surprises down each of its assorted paths. The game continues to be fun to replay today as it relies fully on what Star Fox does best.

Another remake of Star Fox 64 wasn’t exactly what we wanted when Nintendo unexpectedly announced it was going to share some Star Fox news earlier this year. We also weren’t sure what to do with the new look of the characters. But, we couldn’t deny the power of Star Fox 64 when we finally got to play through the whole game.

Star Fox (2026) is a great remake of a great game, and the result is that we’re happy to award it the number one spot on our Star Fox ranking list. When the re-orchestrated music kicks in while firing lasers that cast beautiful modern shadows against the giant spaceships that just can’t hit me, and the bad guys complain about how cool and good we are at flying a spaceship right before they blow up, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t having a great, nostalgic time.