Nintendo has a monumental task in front of it. Later this year, it will try to iterate on perfection with a full remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Considering that the Nintendo 64 classic is still regularly cited as the single greatest video game of all time, the stakes are higher than your average double dip. Even a short teaser that showed nothing more than a slumbering Young Link was enough to drum up discontent among fans.

I’ve been a little skeptical about the project ever since it was a wee rumor. Part of that is because I revere Ocarina of Time as a foundational piece of video game canon that feels too sacred to mess with, but also because remakes can be a crapshoot. For every truly transformative reimagining, there’s a superfluous glow-up that doesn’t offer much beyond a graphical overhaul. We’re still not sure which camp Ocarina of Time will fall into, but we got a potential hint this week in the form of another Nintendo 64 remake: Star Fox. Despite enjoying it, my skepticism about Nintendo’s approach to remakes remains on high alert.

Developed by Velan Studios, Star Fox is a very respectful remake of 1997’s Star Fox 64. Classy, even. Rather than tearing down the original game’s arcade-style shoot-’em-up action, Velan faithfully recreates every classic stage in one-to-one fashion. That’s an understandable decision, considering that Star Fox 64 is a design marvel that has stood the test of time for nearly three decades. It’s still fun to blast your way through a campaign that you can beat in one sitting, experiencing a movie-length story about a vulpine pilot who’s trying to live up to........

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