What engine is Star Fox 2026 running on?

Learn more about the proprietary engine being used by Velan Studios to create the Switch 2 Star Fox 64 remake.

With the Star Fox 64 remake coming out on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026, it was a delightful surprise to learn that Knockout City and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit dev Velan Studios were the team behind this one, and the developer brought along their own engine to work with on the game. What is that engine? We have that answer here.

What is the Viper Engine?

Star Fox™ on Nintendo Switch 2 is developed in VIPER, our in-house game engine at Velan. It allowed us to bring Fox and his crew back in higher fidelity than ever before, with gameplay running at 60fps and all cinematics rendered in real-time.

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— Velan Studios (@velanstudios.bsky.social) June 9, 2026 at 10:15 AM

Star Fox 2026 is running on the Viper Engine. It’s a proprietary engine developed in-house at Velan Studios. It was built from the ground up to provide better fidelity on Star Fox than ever before, as well as rendering cutscenes in real-time and delivering consistent 60FPS gameplay.

Out own EiC Asif Khan was stunned by the graphics and performance he experienced when playing early builds of the game. It’s clear that Velan has found a perfect foundation on which to bring Star Fox back into the gaming conversation. Stay tuned to the Star Fox 2026 topic for more news and coverage.

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