Star Fox On Switch 2: 5 Beginner Tips To Get You Off The Ground Fast

Star Fox throws several pilotable vehicles your way as the campaign rolls forward. The Arwing remains the franchise’s signature fighter and the one you’ll spend most of the campaign in. The pull to try every vehicle the moment you can is strong, but resist it. The Arwing is where the whole skill foundation gets built, and locking in its handling first sets you up for everything else.

The Arwing strikes a balance between moderate speed and excellent maneuverability, which is exactly what you need to learn the firing and dodging systems. Every introductory mission puts you in the Arwing cockpit to ease you into the controls. The other vehicles only show up on a handful of specific stages later in the campaign. You’ll have plenty of room to explore them once flight fundamentals click.

The Barrel Roll has been Star Fox‘s signature defensive move since 1997. It deflects incoming laser fire and slips you past obstacles when projectiles flood the screen. Peppy‘s legendary « Do a barrel roll! » line that ships out early in the campaign isn’t just a meme. It’s the single most important piece of tactical advice the game throws at you. Ignoring it means eating shots you should have brushed off.

You pull off the Barrel Roll with a quick double-tap of the lateral controls on either side. The move triggers a spinning rotation that bounces enemy fire off the Arwing for a few seconds. Drill the motion across the early levels until it becomes muscle memory. Once the move feels automatic, you’ll blast through the heaviest projectile zones in the game without taking a hit.

Your squadmates Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad are way more than cockpit decoration. They keep the radio open throughout every mission to feed you tactical info that changes how you play. Falco calls out hidden enemies, Peppy drops tactical advice, and Slippy breaks down boss shield mechanics. Tuning them out means missing important game systems that the radio chatter is literally there to teach you.

Just like in Lylat Wars, when a squadmate gets jumped, their shield status flashes on your HUD. Peel off and take down whoever’s chasing them as fast as you can. Saving your squad regularly unlocks end-of-mission bonuses and pushes your rankings up. A squadmate that goes down vanishes from your team for a stretch of later missions, which hits your performance hard.

Star Fox isn’t a linear game even if the first few levels make it feel that way. The branching path system inherited from Lylat Wars sends you to entirely different planets based on how you perform mission to mission. Almost every stage offers both a regular and a secret exit that opens up alternate routes on the galactic map. Reaching the final planet Venom is just one of several endings you can unlock.

The hidden requirements that unlock these branching paths shift from mission to mission. Saving a squadmate, taking down a specific boss, flying through a warp gate, or completing a hidden objective can crack open new routes. Sweep every corner of each stage and clear out every enemy to bump up your odds of finding the secret exits. This deeper exploration pays off with bonus missions and unique boss fights that the rushed route never sees.

Star Fox on Nintendo Switch 2 ships with a local co-op mode that’s brand new for the series. 2 players share the same Arwing and split the cockpit roles between them. The pilot flies the ship with their Joy-Con 2 and handles all the movement at a smooth 60 FPS. The gunner controls weapons and the rear turret with their own Joy-Con 2.

Co-op clicks best when both players communicate constantly throughout the mission. The pilot has to read the dodging patterns while the gunner stays locked on the enemies chasing your tail. Swap roles regularly so both players master the 2 positions across different runs. This division of labor turns standard missions into real coordination challenges, perfect for couch nights with a close friend.