By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Two similar circumstances... but different outcomes!
When the Star Fox for Nintendo Switch 2 Direct was broadcasted on May 6, 2026, my first thought was comparing it to Punch-Out!! for the Nintendo Wii. Punch-Out!!, which released 17 years ago (May 18, 2009) and has a lot in common with Punch-Out!! for NES, had a lot of circumstances in common with Star Fox, which is heavily based on Star Fox 64. Let's set the scene...
In March 2008, Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii released. While many would consider Brawl the launchpad for Kid Icarus's revival for 2012, it also was the first appearance of Little Mac (as Little Mac, not that weird blonde guy from Super Punch-Out!!, which was a game that played much differently than its predecessor) since the NES. Then it was announced in October 2008 that Little Mac would get a new game, developed by Next Level Games, with an updated design and art style that was marketed as heavily based around the NES game that he's famous for. That Little Mac would be back, returning to the ring after a long absence.
Compare that to Star Fox. Fox McCloud had a major appearance in April 2026's The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which was very shortly followed up by the announcement and release of Star Fox for Switch 2, developed by Velan Studios, on June 25, 2026. Star Fox did get a release as recently as Star Fox Zero for the Wii U (versus Punch-Out!!'s generational absence—generational in a human lifespan sense, not a console lifespan sense), but... Star Fox Zero was better off forgotten (and is also directly based off Star Fox 64). Before that, there was Star Fox 64 3D in 2011 (which is... also directly based off Star Fox 64), and then 2006's Star Fox Command, a game that played much differently than its predecessors and had much of its cast behaving out-of-character.
But what about the details on the games themselves? How were people expecting them to come out, and then what actually happened? And why does it make sense to compare Star Fox and Punch-Out!! specifically, from a game design point of view? Besides that they both have names that are already the names of the first games of their franchises. For some definitions, check out Mustering the Remasters from 2014 for the differences between a remake, a remaster, and a port. Back then, I cited Star Fox 64 3D for the 3DS as a remaster of Star Fox 64—my position in this article is that Star Fox for the Switch 2 is a remake, and Punch-Out!! Wii is not a remake. I guess you could say it's a reimagined parallel universe story-wise, and with far more going on that makes it more than a remake.