Takaya Imamura, creator of the original Star Fox characters, praised the realistic designs shown in Nintendo's recent Star Fox 64 remake announcement, calling them exactly what he had envisioned, while reiterating his preference for the cuter Fox McCloud from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Imamura, who retired from Nintendo in 2021, posted on X after the remake reveal that he had woken up to many messages about the announcement. He expressed pride in the series returning and noted he was not involved in the new designs, writing, “I guess this is how it turns out if I’m not supervising… or something like that.” He described the overall concept as good with a clear direction. Imamura added that he absolutely loves the incredibly realistic character designs for Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare, saying the new game is exactly what he had in mind when creating the Nintendo 64 version in the 1990s. Despite this, he still prefers the cuter Fox McCloud design from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie because the expression when Fox meets Mario is just brilliant.