With the remake of Star Fox 64 on the rise for Switch 2, it had me thinking about this 3DS remake and some of the odd decisions that I feel like few people talk about. Don’t get me wrong, this is probably my favorite game in the franchise, but I just wanted to talk about some of the things few people seem to discuss.

I never thought much about this before, but this game actually has a whole new art direction completely unique to it. I looked at the manual of Star Fox 64, and noticed how it never had renders or art for the characters and only used the in game art. Sure, Ocarina of Time 3D also had a new art style, but it was based on illustrations of the game. Here, we got new designs for everyone, and they look good, but definitely a little generic and lacking in detail and expression. Like, no one here really emotes at all, which is kinda odd considering how they went to the effort to remake this game’s art. I guess modernizing would have been a little nice, but they chose to stay faithful.

Another thing is how heavily advertised the multiplayer mode was. I was watching the trailer for this game and noticed how half of the trailer was about the multiplayer. The reality is that I almost never played local multiplayer ever on my 3DS. So of my 50+ hours of playing this game, 0% of it was spent on this heavily advertised feature. I think the use of the 3DS’s camera is actually really cool, but almost no one will ever use it. I don’t think I have actually seen another major 3DS release use the camera, so that’s kinda neat even if it’s locked behind something I can’t use.

The gyro controls are kinda bad. I don’t know why anyone would use them other than for a novelty. When playing the game, you would want to control fairly precisely, and though aim works well with gyro, not moving the whole shop.

Correct me if I am wrong, but they removed the first person cockpit from the game. I really odd considering how immersive the new 3D feature is supposed to be and that the first person would have been a nice option for that. I mean Mario Kart 7 even included that.

Also, correct me if I am wrong on this, but I don’t think there is a reward for getting all medals in this game. They don’t even have that on-foot multiplayer option unlocked anymore. It wasn’t great or anything, but it is strange to remove content from Star Fox 64 in the remake.

I also very much miss the interactive title screen. That was so iconic, but now it just has the standard static screen.

I know that they remade the voices and music, so the direction in specific cases might be odd depending on the person. I do think it was off how the voice direction wasn’t updated to feel more modern. When comparing how the banter feels when compared to Kid Icarus Uprising, another on-rails shooter for the 3DS, it is no contest which game has the better voice direction. I guess they prioritized authenticity over modernization in many cases here.

What about you? Anything about this game feel odd to you? Maybe there is a specific example from the game that I didn’t mention. Obviously nothing here is a dealbreaker, but these are all things that crossed my mind that I thought were odd. I still love this game!

Oddities About Star Fox 64 3D