Skip to main content

‘Starlink: Battle for Atlas’ teams up with Fox McCloud on Switch in October

Starlink: Battle for Atlas

The legendary Shigeru Miyamoto was on hand for Ubisoft’s E3 2018 press conference to celebrate a very special announcement. Fox McCloud, of Star Fox fame, and his beloved ship, Arwing, will be featured in Ubisoft’s upcoming space combat simulator Starlink: Battle for Atlas.

The Nintendo tie-in is only available in the Nintendo Switch version of the game, but boy, this gives us an excuse to get very excited about a plastic toy that attaches to our Joy-Con controllers.

The latest Starlink trailer showed Fox, his trusty Arwing, and even Falco. Switch users can play as Fox in the campaign, and there’s even exclusive Switch add-on content that’s designed specifically around the Nintendo hero.

Starlink was originally unveiled at E3 2017. While it initially presented itself as a somewhat generic spaceship combat sim, the neat twist is that you can attach model spaceships to your controller. The model shows up as your ship in game. You can then mix and match parts and watch your ship change in-game, corresponding to your adjustments. While you don’t need to attach ships to play the game, we imagine Nintendo Switch owners will want the Arwing. Ubisoft’s plan, as of last E3, was to release additional ships that you could buy in stores.

Starlink is an interesting experiment, as the toys-to-life genre has died down in recent years. Starlink‘s success will probably hinge on whether the game is more than just an elaborate gimmick. The game takes place in the Atlas star system, which is located approximately 400 light-years from Earth. Your job throughout the campaign is to eliminate a group of nefarious aliens.

The partnership between Ubisoft and Nintendo on Starlink has some precedence. Last year, Ubisoft released Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, a glorious and zany take on the Mushroom Kingdom, which featured piles of well-timed humor and excellent XCOM-style strategic gameplay.

Starlink launches on October 16 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch.

We know fans of Star Fox would probably prefer an actual Star Fox game. Let’s be honest, though, Star Fox Zero for Wii U wasn’t very good. Perhaps Starlink will scratch the Star Fox itch before Nintendo makes the next proper entry in the series.

Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
How to buy and customize ships in Sea of Thieves
The name King of Red Lions floats above a red, customized ship in Sea of Thieves.

The newest season of Sea of Thieves is here to take you back to your favorite swashbuckling adventure world. And whether that means you're checking out the series for the first time or you're having trouble remembering everything from the last time you played, you're probably aware that you'll need a ship to find a transport your booty around. Here's how to get a ship in Sea of Thieves as well as customize it to your liking.

Read more
Quick! This PS5 bundle just got an unprecedented price cut
The Playstation 5 system standing upright.

We didn't expect the PlayStation 5 Slim, the updated version of Sony's video game console, to go on sale this soon, but you can already get the PlayStation 5 Slim Marvel's Spider-Man 2 bundle from Amazon with a 20% discount. From its original price of $559, you'll only have to pay $449, which is a fantastic price for this gaming machine. PS5 deals always attract a lot of attention, so we expect this offer to get sold out quickly. If you want to take advantage of it, you're going to have to hurry in completing your purchase.

Why you should buy the PlayStation 5 Slim Marvel's Spider-Man 2 bundle
The PlayStation 5 Slim is more than just a slimmed-down version of the original PlayStation 5 -- though the difference is noticeable with 18% less weight and 30% less volume for the disc version. There's no performance upgrade between the PS5 Slim and PS5, and you'll be able to play all of the PlayStation 5 games on either model, but the PS5 Slim comes with a 1TB of storage with around 842GB usable, compared to 825GB with 667GB usable in the original PS5. That's nearly 200GB of extra space for your installed games, save data, and screenshots.

Read more
How to change your Steam username
Steam library.

Unless you've got an absolute premium username or have too many linked accounts to name, there's no reason to stick with the same username forever. Unlike some services that offer limited username changes or charge to change your tag, Steam allows users to adjust their usernames at any time.

You don't have to keep that awful username you picked on some random Tuesday before hopping into a game. Here's how you can make a change.

Read more