10 BIGGEST Differences Between Star Fox 64 & Remake

10 Biggest Differences Between Star Fox 64 & Remake

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 10 of the biggest differences we’ve noticed between the new “Star Fox” remake and the 1997 classic, “Star Fox 64”.

Prologue

So, by now, you’ve probably seen the prologue. It was at the Star Fox Direct when the remake was first revealed, and the demo even opened up with this magnificent intro. But for those youngin’s who never experienced the original game or even the 3DS remake, it wasn’t like this at all. We never had a direct depiction on how things went down on Venom before the Lylat Wars. What we had in the N64 game was a text crawl brilliantly narrated by Ja Green, who also voiced a number of different bosses. There is a part of me that will always prefer the text crawl, but the cutscene in the remake helps paint the tone and visual style that Nintendo and Velan Studios want to take the franchise in.

Main Menu

A neat aspect of “Star Fox 64” was the calming, serene main menu. It was so simple and minimal in design, but in a way that it doesn’t feel lifeless. The music especially makes the entire menu beautifully captivating. The 2026 remake maintains its own level of simplicity and peace with a basic layout and the Star Fox team’s holoprojector showing icons of the different game modes. Just setting the main menu inside of the Great Fox winds up making the main menu feel oddly nostalgic, though not for SF64. Anyone else feeling like taking a trip to Dinosaur Planet?

Training

There are probably a decent amount of SF64 players who may never have bothered with the Training mode. This was under a separate mode, completely outside of the main campaign, where players could learn the ins and outs of “Star Fox 64’s” controls and mechanics. However, the main campaign did instruct players on how to perform most of the Arwing’s abilities, so the Training mode seemed pointless even though it was basically its own level. The remake brings the Training mode forward as a required tutorial. After the prologue, the Star Fox team takes part in their own training simulation with the same music as the N64 game. And once again, Yaru de Pon serves as the instructor.

Dialogue

In case you haven’t seen much of the game already, the “Star Fox” remake changes much of the dialogue seen in the N64 original. Some classic lines, such as Granga’s last words to Andross and Star Wolf’s introduction on Fichina, are still here. Unfortunately, the voice acting doesn’t always deliver these lines in the same corny fashion we love. Heck, some lines are completely removed, some characters have different personalities, and other lines are added in for storytelling purposes, which is nice. Even with all of this in mind, I do love how Fox throws some shade when downing a Star Wolf member.

Multiplayer

As many of us might recall, “Star Fox 64” did feature a multiplayer mode, but it wasn’t anything super remarkable. It was a 4-player PvP mode where you and your friends engaged in dog fights around empty spaces based on Corneria and Sector Z. The 3DS remake did a much better job with elaborate maps. But this new remake? Well, we just have three maps, each being a different game mode. The lean content tells me this was likely an afterthought during development, so I don’t want to be too harsh on it. Still, it would have been nice if there were a few more to keep things fresh.

The Music

Honestly, the “Star Fox” remake has the absolute best renditions of the historic “Star Fox 64” soundtrack! Yes, we have heard many renditions of the theme song, the “Meteo” track, and a few others, but the score here is incredible! And you wouldn’t guess who composed it. Stephen Barton took charge of the new arrangements, and the man has quite a portfolio! In the realm of video games, Barton worked on a ton of music for games such as “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare”, “Titanfall” and its sequel, “MultiVersus”, and the “Star Wars Jedi” games featuring Cal Kestis.

Katina

Katina was one of the harder levels of “Star Fox 64”. Enemies were fairly aggressive, but the biggest pain in the neck was trying to shoot the enemies. Only the pilots of the Cornerian Army emitted exhaust, but when facing forward, they blended in with the enemies. The remake manages to remedy this problem by making enemies stand out a little more from our allies, giving them a more prominently green color scheme and light trail. It may not seem like much, yet it really does go a long way and helps in getting through Katina quicker.

Challenge Mode

At first, Challenge Mode may not seem like anything new. After all, when “Star Fox 64” was remade for the Nintendo 3DS, there was an extra game mode to jump in and out of different levels at our leisure. Thing is that it was a simple “Score Attack” mode. The Challenge Mode seen in this remake actually gives you different tasks. Some tasks you may have already done at some point during your normal campaign runs. Do them again under this mode, and you’ll unlock even harder challenges to truly test your skill. And the best part is you don’t have to do them all in one go; you can focus on multiple or even do them one at a time.

The Cutscenes

This is, of course, the most obvious change between the 1997 game and the 2026 remake. However, we want to note it because of how much it adds to the story. “Star Fox” manages to add a ton of context to why you’re hopping from planet to planet across the Lylat System. Originally, “Star Fox 64” had you doing that because, well, video game logic. We got levels and a simple plot - what else do you need? But these cutscenes reveal how Andross has been affecting the Lylat System and even hints at details about the Cornerian Army’s operations. This amount of care may even open the franchise up to future installments focusing on a specific planet or two.

The Endings

Now, the final fights against Andross aren’t super different. His attacks have been reworked to make him a more devastating foe, but that’s not the part of the endings we want to focus on. What’s interesting is that if you do the Easy route first and end with Robo-Andross, you don’t get to see the end credits. You get the bad ending and are told to look for the alternate routes in order to truly defeat Andross. What’s even cooler is that after beating Andross, the end credits will show the Star Fox team travelling back to Corneria while passing by all of the planets you visited in your playthrough. Bill even shows up for the team’s award ceremony!

What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in “Star Fox”? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to MojoPlays.