Knockout City Devs Revealed as Star Fox Remake Studio

Knockout City went offline and took a piece of me with it. The 3v3 dodgeball game from Velan Studios was one of those rare multiplayer experiences that felt original, a game where the skill ceiling kept climbing and every match had a rhythm all its own. When EA pulled the plug and the studio tried to self-publish before eventually shutting the servers down, it felt like one of the decade's best competitive games just evaporated. So when Velan Studios announced today that it's the team behind Nintendo's upcoming Star Fox remake, I went from barely paying attention to completely locked in.

The studio confirmed the news on Bluesky, writing: "We've been passionately working on this for a while, and we're so proud to finally share it with the world: Velan Studios is the developer of Star Fox." The game is built on Velan's proprietary engine, Viper, and is due out exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on June 25.

Nintendo rarely reveals who's actually developing its games until the credits roll, so learning the studio's identity this early is unusual. And the identity itself is a surprise. Velan is a New York-based team founded in 2016 by the same people who built Vicarious Visions, the studio behind Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Skylanders. Before Knockout City, Velan partnered with Nintendo on Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, the toys-to-life experiment from 2020. They also developed Hot Wheels: Rift Rally. It's a varied resume, but the throughline is clear: this is a studio that understands physics-driven gameplay and isn't afraid of unconventional ideas.

From Dodgeball to Arwings

What makes this pairing interesting is how well Velan's strengths map onto what Star Fox needs. Knockout City succeeded because its movement and projectile mechanics felt precise and satisfying in a way most arcade games never manage. Star Fox, at its core, is a rail shooter built on tight controls and split-second targeting. If Velan can bring even a fraction of that mechanical polish to the Arwing cockpit, this remake could be something special. I'm not just cautiously interested here; I'm excited, which is not something I expected to feel about another Star Fox 64 remake.

The game itself is a full cinematic overhaul of Star Fox 64, featuring redesigned characters, fully voiced dialogue, orchestral music, and revamped stage visuals. According to Nintendo's overview, it also includes optional mouse-controlled targeting using the Joy-Con 2 controllers and a new GameChat feature that puts players in the cockpit as their favourite Star Fox characters. Online multiplayer is confirmed as a new addition.

A free demo went live today on the Nintendo eShop, including the tutorial and one of the game's opening stages. If you have a Switch 2, you can download it right now and get a feel for what Velan has built.

VGC's hands-on coverage described the remake as "different from how you remember," noting that the game brings the mercenary identity of Fox McCloud and crew to the forefront in ways that make them more interesting characters. That framing lines up with what I'd hope from a studio like Velan: not just a visual upgrade, but a rethinking of how the game communicates its world.

Why This Matters Beyond Star Fox

There's a bigger story here about what happens to talented teams after a live-service game dies. Knockout City's closure wasn't a quality problem. It was a business model problem, a brilliant game that couldn't sustain the player numbers EA wanted. The studio lost its flagship product, and plenty of developers in that position either dissolve or get absorbed into a larger publisher's support structure. Instead, Velan landed one of Nintendo's most iconic franchises. That's a remarkable trajectory, and it says something about how Nintendo scouts development partners.

I'll be honest: Star Fox as a series has been coasting on nostalgia for a long time. Star Fox Zero on Wii U was a mess of forced motion controls and muddled design. The franchise needed a team that could bring fresh energy without losing the identity of the original. Velan, a studio that built one of the most mechanically satisfying multiplayer games of the last decade and then watched it get taken away, feels like exactly the right kind of hungry.

Star Fox launches on Switch 2 on June 25, with the demo available now on the Nintendo eShop. The game is priced alongside other first-party Switch 2 titles, and the console itself retails at £395.99 in the UK.