This week, Nintendo shocked fans with a surprise reveal of a brand new Star Fox game. Simply titled Star Fox, it’s a full-on remake of Star Fox 64 that adds new story content and features a multiplayer battle mode. It should have been a cathartic moment for fans who have been waiting a decade for Fox McCloud’s return, but the reveal sparked a heated discourse instead: Is 2026 Fox hot enough?
The tension comes from the Switch 2 game’s already polarizing art style. Rather than leaning into the toon look teased in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Nintendo went in a new direction that skews more towards CG realism. You can count the hairs on Peppy Hare’s face, and Slippy Toad looks a bit like a wet Ninja Turtle from Jonathan Liebesman’s 2014 live-action film. It was a little jarring to see, and fans wasted no time dunking on it before the Direct was even over.
Having combed through the reactions, I found three common memes that have emerged since the reveal. The most common one compares Fox’s new look to that of Sonic the Hedgehog in his recent film trilogy — not the one we know and love now, but the “ugly” version that was so hated that it prompted a full redesign before the first film’s release.
The more damning of the three draws a parallel to the Stoned Fox, a 2012 art piece by Welsh artist Adele Morse. If that sounds a little obtuse, there’s a good chance you know what I’m talking about; it’s since become an iconic meme of a taxidermied fox sitting in a chair. The resemblance to Fox McCloud is, unfortunately, uncanny.
Some of the memes are a little more charitable towards the design. Many have evoked The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson’s 2009 animated film, noting similarities to the movie’s taxidermy art style. I’d call that a more positive spin.
