Star Fox 1.2.0 on Switch 2 Adds Free Four Player Split-Screen Battles

When Nintendo announced a free Battle Mode update for Star Fox during the September 9 Direct, the promise was simple: get four people around one Switch 2. That update is now live. Version 1.2.0 rolled out on September 29 in the Americas, and Nintendo's regional sites list it for September 30 elsewhere, so wherever you are, your Switch 2 should be offering the download today.

The headline is local split-screen for up to four players in Battle Mode, something the June release did not have. Until now the game supported two players on one system and up to eight online. Alongside that come three new arenas, new pickups during matches, a batch of quality of life changes and a long list of bug fixes that Nintendo has published in full on its support site. The base game is still $49.99 on the Nintendo eShop, and nothing in this update costs extra.

Video: Nintendo of America on YouTube

Four on a couch, and three new places to fight

The split-screen mode works the way you would hope. Up to four players share one console, each with their own controller. Nintendo says Joy-Con 2 and original Joy-Con controllers are fine in solo horizontal grip, so a single pair of Joy-Con 2 already covers two people. You can dogfight against each other locally, or the whole split-screen group can queue into random online matches together as one team, which is the part we like most. Playing ranked strangers with friends on the same sofa is a very Nintendo idea, and you need a Nintendo Switch Online membership only for the online half.

The three new stages each come with their own objective rather than a plain free for all. Katina is a fight for control of a powerful laser that punishes the other team once captured. Sector X asks you to destroy asteroids while dodging destructive energy waves. Venom has you scan data modules and then get out before a deadly surge sweeps the area. That doubles the arena count, since Battle Mode launched with Corneria, Sector Y and Fichina. Nintendo also mentions new items that appear during battles, without detailing them. It was all teased in the Direct trailer above, and you can read how it fit into the wider show in our September Nintendo Direct recap.

The fixes matter as much as the new stuff

For a lot of players, the bug list is the real news. The patch notes confirm crashes that people had reported since June: the game could crash if you hammered Restart on Corneria, and it could freeze if your Arwing was shot down at the exact moment you beat Bacoon in Aquas or Gorgon in Area 6 and then beat them again after restarting. Goras in Titania could fail to resurface after burying its arm, which also froze the game. All of those are fixed.

Battle Mode had its own problems. A scoring bug meant that once your score passed roughly 1,200, about 1,000 points were not counted. Wing durability could carry damage over from expert Challenge Mode sessions, and after quitting Venom 2 you could sometimes lose somersaults and U-turns in Battle Mode. Online lobbies now survive when the host leaves, and a bug that stalled matches on a host disconnect is gone. There are smaller touches too: a confirmation prompt before abandoning a campaign after a game over, clearer damage feedback on certain bosses, a recolored weak point on Bolse Core, easier goalposts in the tilt training challenge, and third party USB cameras now work inside the game. If you use a camera in GameChat, your feed pops onto the screen when you shoot someone down.

Our take

A free update three months after launch that adds couch multiplayer for four, doubles the arenas and clears a page of freeze bugs is exactly what a $49.99 remake of Star Fox 64 should get. It also makes the game a much easier recommendation for anyone who mainly wanted a party shooter rather than a solo campaign. If you are a franchise fan looking for more of that rail shooter feeling, the indie Wild Blue Skies revived the Star Fox 64 formula back in August. And if you have Switch Online with the Expansion Pack, Star Fox Adventures is sitting in the GameCube library already.