'Star Fox' for Nintendo Switch 2 features controversial new designs for the Star Fox Team
Nintendo
Nintendo just unveiled a brand new Star Fox exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2, startling fans with uncanny redesigns of the Star Fox Team.
Perhaps new isn’t the right word, because the upcoming game (set for release on June 25) is based on Star Fox 64, marking the third remake of the 1997 Nintendo 64 title.
The Switch 2 version of Star Fox contains a notable new feature—character avatars—allowing players to take on the likeness of their character during voice chats, a bit like a VTuber.
However, it was the new, oddly realistic redesigns that got the internet talking.
Fox McCloud has fallen victim to one of the most common afflictions in video game art direction—realism—the anthropomorphic fox and friends risk veering into the uncanny valley.
Like a Disney live-action remake that can’t quite capture the magic of hand-drawn animation, Fox’s cartoonish features have been surgically removed, giving him an air of menace.
Video game graphics have been defined by technical limitations ever since the invention of the art form, with photorealism only becoming possible within the last decade.
However, as is the case with VFX in film, realism isn’t the end goal—it’s just another art style.
Technical limitations can lead to the emergence of new, distinctive styles that remain popular long after said limitations have been surpassed, such as pixel art and pre-rendered backdrops.
Following Fox’s cute, cartoonish appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (in which he was voiced by Glen Powell), many fans expected Fox’s next game to resemble his big-screen counterpart, like Donkey Kong did in Donkey Kong Bananza.
However, the Star Fox Team have become aggressively realistic, and their new look sparked mockery on social media.
Several compared Fox’s new look to “Ugly Sonic,” a legendary misfire that aimed for realism, and was hastily updated to a more accurate Sonic after online backlash.
Fans posted screenshots of the new Star Fox alongside unsettlingly realistic fan art of iconic video game characters.
Some referenced a classic meme known as the Bad Taxidermy Fox.
The new direction was widely compared to Nvidia’s DLSS 5, an AI-generated realism filter that was announced as the future of the industry, but was immediately torn apart on social media.
Gamers pointed out that DLSS 5 smothered the original work in a generic skin, all for the sake of photorealism and mercilessly mocked the “AI-slop filter” with memes.
However, fan reaction to the new Star Fox wasn’t entirely negative.
Several fans spoke up to say they loved the new look, and some pointed out that the realistic redesign resembled the iconic puppets that were used to promote the Star Fox Team in the original SNES game.
Even for fans who hated the new look, the remake doesn’t define Fox and his friends forever—Nintendo is known to experiment with flagship characters, tweaking art styles and making tonal adjustments via sequels and remakes.
Link and Zelda have undergone countless incarnations—even Mario has been adjusted for spin-off titles.
No doubt, Fox McCloud will eventually return as a more expressive, less realistic creature—perhaps his next adventure will be a solo movie.
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