Star Fox is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 in only two weeks, rebooting a franchise that had been dormant for a long-time (10 years since Star Fox Zero on Wii U) right after Fox McCloud appeared in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. This remake of the Nintendo 64 classic was briefly highlighted in the Nintendo Direct, confirming that a demo is now available.
Beside the demo and new gameplay, a surprise announcement was made... by Velan Studios, an American studios based in New York that has revealed themselves as the developers behind this game. "Collaborating with Nintendo and bringing Fox McCloud and crew to Nintendo Switch 2 is truly an honor."
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Velan Studios, made of former Vicarious Visions devs, has worked with Nintendo
We didn't expect it: Star Fox is not being developed internally in Nintendo, but by a little-known third party studio, one that however has a history of working with Nintendo. Founded by brothers Guha Bala and Karthik Bala in 2016, both also founders of Vicarious Visions back in 1991, Velan Studios developed the unusual Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit for Nintendo Switch, a mix between a video game and a toy (a real RC car).
Velan is also behind Knockout City, a short-live dodgeball online multiplayer games published by Electronic Arts in 2021... which was shut down two years later.
Before that, the Bala brothers in Vicarious Visions worked on the Skylanders franchise, and Karthik Bala even appeared in the Nintendo Digital Event of E3 2015, talking about Bowser and Donkey Kong figures exclusive to the Wii U version.
From working with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro and all kinds of licences games in the 2000s, to now rebooting Star Fox for Nintendo Switch 2, quite a story for Guha Bala and Karthik Bala and the folks at Velan Studios!