Every Star Fox Game, Ranked

Rumors abound that we’re getting a new Star Fox game in 2026, which means fans’ interest is at an all-time high. After all, it’s been a few years since we’ve had a new Star Fox game, and his cameo appearance in the Super Mario Galaxy movie brought the fan-favorite character back into the spotlight. While you wait to see what Nintendo is planning for Fox‘s big return, you might be thinking about which games to go back to. Thankfully, there are a few good ones.

Here is every Star Fox game, ranked from worst to best.

10) Star Fox Command

This 2006 DS game isn’t necessarily a bad game, despite earning the bottom spot. There are a few nifty additions to the classic action gameplay, including the more strategic turn-based commander mode. It also has online multiplayer, which could be fun with your friends. However, it’s one of the more hated games by the fanbase because of the horrible story additions. At the end of the day, Command is just a middling Star Fox game, and we wouldn’t lose much if it didn’t exist.

9) Star Fox Zero

Nintendo partnered with Platinum Games for this 2016 Wii U game. Like Command, it’s a fun take on the formula with some of the better boss battles in the series. However, fans were turned off by the lack of innovation and its short run time. Plus, it didn’t help matters that the unwieldy Game Pad caused many players to play in discomfort. Not exactly an ideal situation for a big comeback.

8) Star Fox Guard

Guard was bundled with Zero on the Wii U when the two games first launched. It eventually got its own skew, but this tower defense game is a neat spin-off from the main series. Playing as Slippy Toad, you have to defend your uncle Grippy’s business from hordes of robots. It’s kind of like a mix between tower defense and Nintendo’s version of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Not a great game, but an intriguing experiment on the Wii U.

7) Starlink: Battle for Atlas – A Star Fox Reunion

Ubisoft’s Starlink: Battle for Atlas was a Toys to Life game that tried to create an ambitious action-adventure game filled with activities for players to complete across a large galaxy. The Nintendo version included Fox McCloud and his Arwing. While it’s not technically a Star Fox game, this open-world space adventure did get a full Star Fox DLC mission pack. It’s the closest we’ve had to a good re-invention of the franchise in at least a decade.

6) Star Fox 2

Star Fox 2 is nearly impossible to rank. The Super Nintendo game was completed in 1995, but Nintendo decided not to release it. There were always rumors about its existence, but Star Fox 2 didn’t get an official release until 2017, when it was included with the SNES Classic Edition. Had it launched in 1995, it might’ve felt more like a revelation for the franchise, thanks to some of its ambitious design. In 2017, it felt a little dated, but it was still worth playing for fans of the series.

5) Star Fox Assault

Assault was Nintendo tossing aside the direction the series took with Star Fox Adventures to go back to the space-based third-person shooting fans know and love. Unfortunately, this GameCube game from Namco lacks some of the polish of Star Fox 64. It’s a solid game, but it doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from 64.

4) Star Fox 64 3D

I’ll talk more about Star Fox 64 below, but the 3DS version deserves its own entry. Sure, the gameplay and storyline don’t do much to change things up, but the 3D visuals were phenomenal. If only Nintendo had included online multiplayer to give 64 3D a bit more of its own identity. That would’ve really sold fans on this being a perfect update of the all-time classic.

3) Star Fox

The original Star Fox won’t wow modern fans with its visuals. Nintendo was really trying to push the Super Nintendo to its limit with this polygonal shooter. However, it has to have a high placement on this list. It was such a visually ambitious game, pushing the industry forward in a major way. I’m not saying we won’t have 3D games without Star Fox, but the original game showed players and developers a compelling vision for the future.

2) Star Fox Adventures

Star Fox Adventures was overhated when it launched in 2002. Players were expecting something that played like Star Fox 64. Instead, Rare took things in a completely new direction, turning Star Fox into a Zelda-like adventure game. Fox still jumps into his Arwing periodically, but you’ll spend much more of your time exploring the world from the ground. That means tons of puzzle-solving and melee combat. It was a weird choice for the series, but not a bad one. We just needed more time in the Arwing.

1) Star Fox 64

It couldn’t be anything else. Star Fox 64 was a massive hit for Nintendo, giving the Nintendo 64 one of its killer apps. The rail shooter gameplay was easy to pick up and fun to master, and you had plenty of reasons to jump back in, thanks to the branching paths through the campaign. Star Fox 64 also looked gorgeous on the Nintendo 64, and largely still holds up today. Hopefully, whatever Nintendo is working on for the series’s future will take plenty of cues from this stone-cold classic.

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Every Nintendo Console, Ranked