Star Fox is back in the Nintendo conversation, and of course the internet immediately started arguing about Fox McCloud’s face. Very normal gamer behaviour, honestly.
After Nintendo revealed its new Switch 2 release of Star Fox 64, fans began comparing the updated character presentation with Fox’s recent appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. One person who noticed the debate is Takaya Imamura — the original creator of Star Fox’s cast.
Imamura is not some random commentator here. He spent 32 years at Nintendo before leaving in 2021, and he helped shape Star Fox from the beginning. He worked as a graphical designer on the original Star Fox in the early 1990s, then served as art director on Star Fox 64, the game many fans still treat as the definitive version of the series.
So when he gives his take on Fox’s design, people listen.
Posting on X/Twitter, Imamura reacted with surprise and excitement after receiving a flood of messages about Star Fox’s return. Through machine translation, he joked about waking up, seeing all the messages, and wondering if the comeback was real or just a dream.
When fans asked what he thought about the new character designs for the Switch 2 version, Imamura sounded positive but also very honest. He suggested that this is the kind of result you get when he is not supervising, while still saying the concept itself was good.
In another post, he made his preference clearer: personally, he likes the movie version of Fox more. That said, he also felt the Switch 2 design had its own clear direction and worked in its own way.
That is actually a pretty fair take. The movie design leans more animated and cartoon-friendly, which makes sense for a big-screen Nintendo film. A game version, especially one tied to Star Fox 64, has a different job. It has to trigger nostalgia, look clean on modern hardware, and still feel like the character older fans remember from the N64 era.
For Malaysia and SEA Nintendo fans, this kind of design debate matters more than it sounds. Star Fox has never been as mainstream here as Mario, Zelda, or Pokémon, but it has a loyal old-school fanbase — especially among players who grew up with emulators, import consoles, or later Virtual Console releases. If Nintendo wants Switch 2 owners in our region to care about a Star Fox 64 port, the presentation needs to feel premium enough, not just like another retro drop.
There is also the pricing angle. IGN notes that Nintendo has shared official pricing for Star Fox on Switch 2, with the digital version apparently coming in lower than some expected, while the boxed version costs more. That physical premium will hit SEA collectors harder, since imported cartridges and limited local availability usually mean Malaysian buyers end up watching Shopee, Lazada, or specialist game shops for the best deal.
Imamura has also recently commented on another major Nintendo adaptation: the upcoming live-action The Legend of Zelda movie. As someone who previously worked as art director on The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, he said he was slightly worried about the moment fans hear Link speak, suggesting it could affect the personal magic many players have built around the character.
Basically, Imamura is still watching Nintendo’s legacy characters closely, even from outside the company. And when the guy who helped create Fox says the movie design hits better for him, that is not just fan noise — it is a reminder that Nintendo’s oldest icons carry a lot of visual baggage.
For now, the Switch 2 Star Fox design is not a disaster. But between movie Fox, retro Fox, and modernised Fox, Nintendo clearly has to thread the needle carefully. Malaysian fans may not all agree on which version looks best, but if the game plays well and the price is reasonable, plenty of us will still be ready to barrel roll again.
Source: IGN