Nintendo just shadow-dropped a Star Fox showcase to finally announce a new game in the franchise

Nintendo took to the skies today with a surprise Direct to showcase Star Fox announcements 10 minutes before they aired.

The Star Fox Direct began promptly at 5pm CT, shocking everyone watching along with the out-of-nowhere surprise presentation. Earlier this year, leaks suggested a comeback for the long-dormant franchise, and it appears they were correct. Nintendo turned it into a big thing, too, with Miyamoto posting an announcement at 4:50pm CT.

Star Fox made his triumphant return to screens last month in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which now looks a lot like a soft-launch for the series' revival, which is centered around a new Switch 2 game simply called Star Fox, which Nintendo said is inspired by Star Fox 64.

But the excitement quickly changed to bewilderment once the gameplay footage began, showing some disturbingly realistic-looking designs for the characters like Fox, Falco, and Slippy Toad, which makes for a kind of awkward debut since these are anthropomorphic cartoon characters.

Star Fox on Switch 2 features updated visuals in gameplay, too, as Star Fox flies around and does battle across many alien planets in both singleplayer campaign and multiplayer matches. That part looks pretty cool, but the character designs had many in the live stream's chat room disappointed and even angry. What else is new, I know, but their designs are kind of jarring.

The decision to go for realism instead of a different kind of art style, like the cartoonish once Fox is known for, is definitely a controversial one just minutes after the game was revealed. I'm sure it'll subside over time, but yeesh. Not to be outdone, Nintendo revealed that Switch 2 Game Chat video will support filters that make you look like the characters in the game. Because why not.

Star Fox is launching soon, coming exclusively to Switch 2 on June 25, 2026.

This is a breaking news story.

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