When Star Fox Zero comes to mind, I remember the announcement made during the Nintendo Direct at E3 2015 and how excited my coworkers and I were. It’s been awhile since the Star Fox series received a new game, and with the updated graphics of the Wii U it seemed Nintendo had a surefire winner on its hands.
Months of waiting and several delays later, Star Fox Zero is finally set to release on April 22. But that excited feeling has disappeared and been replaced with feelings I can’t even describe.
But I’m here to review Star Fox Zero. So, I’m going to do an emotional barrel roll and navigate my feelings to give you readers my thoughts on why Star Fox Zero is remarkable in its mediocrity, and how it missed a golden opportunity to send off the Wii U in style.
My first game time with Star Fox Zero was at the aforementioned E3 2015, and my immediate thought was how terrible the controls were. Handling the Wii U gamepad was tedious as you moved it around to aim at your targets, and the constant back and forth between watching the screen on the gamepad and your television set seemed so unnecessary.
Thankfully, it wasn’t long until Star Fox Zero producer Shigeru Miyamoto delayed the game in order to “not betray your expectations.”
I was glad. Hopefully the team would fix the controller issues and everything would be ready for the next release date. Fast forward to April: oh boy, are my problems with the controls still present. What Miyamoto tried to do, and I appreciate the thought, was make the player’s use of the Wii U gamepad feel like they were in the pilot’s chair.
It’s in a first-person view and your aim is dictated by motion controls, but when you are constantly having to recalibrate your aim with the Y button you know the controls just aren’t good. It took the enjoyment right out of me. Luckily, Star Fox Zero allows you to turn off the motion controls and relegates it to only while you’re charging your laser. I recommend doing this if you are just starting out.
It’s a simple but much needed compromise that made the rest of Star Fox Zero more enjoyable to play. And despite all of my bitching about the controls, I couldn’t help but be immersed in the game.
Star Fox Zero is a beautiful game with a fantastic score. The soundtrack is a pure nostalgia trip while the updated graphics really bring Fox and his gang to the next generation after years of being absent. Platinum games really did an awesome job.
Jumping into the first stage of Corneria and seeing the Star Fox team in their Arwings enter the atmosphere and kick up water as they fly over the ocean took me back to being a wide-eyed little boy.
Without noticing, hours would pass as I made my way to Venom to defeat Andross, traveling through different terrains and utilizing returning and new vehicles.
I do give credit to Star Fox Zero for differentiating the gameplay even if it becomes frustrating at certain parts. Getting into the Landmaster again was great, and the new Walker transformation for your Arwing is pretty nifty especially when you get the ability to change between the two in the middle of a fight.
The new Gyrowing, a drone-like vehicle, is tough to handle. Especially when the game forces you to drop down a robot scout to unlock gates. It’s boring and tedious.
And when you get to change to the all-range mode, which allows for full movement and control of the Arwing and not just the aiming, you’ll wish the rest of the game was played this way because who doesn’t want to have intense dogfights in space?
The boss battles are pretty great too and the difficulty level is perfect. If you want an easier or tougher challenge you can always change the settings, but the default level is just right.
However, the story of Star Fox Zero is exactly the same as Star Fox 64. In fact, at times it feels more like an HD remake of 64 than its own game, a fact that Miyamoto himself says was the purpose of Zero: to return to the roots of the story instead of creating something new.
If that leads to more Star Fox games with an advancing story I’m all for it, but as it stands Zero seems like a cop-out, especially when the initial run through the story is so short, clocking in at less than 10 hours. To make up for this, Zero has introduced portals that are scattered throughout the game levels that unlock new paths to Venom (albeit more difficult) and boss battles.
Those gamers who like to replay the same levels to unlock these new paths will appreciate the little wrinkle in the game, but after a few runs of searching for portals in the same levels, it got stale.
Ultimately, Star Fox Zero is just fine - not bad, not great, but somewhere in between. It tries to change up the formula of previous games with the motion controls and new vehicles but in the end feels so much like Star Fox 64 that it could easily have been a HD remake.
Perhaps my expectations were too high, but Star Fox Zero feels like it’s missing something. That’s why it’s been difficult to pinpoint my feelings toward the game.
Through sheer nostalgia, I’ve found myself immersed in the gameplay and the environment. Even so, lackluster controls and a lack of any new story and post-game content really hampers Star Fox Zero and are why it falls short of becoming the great game we really wanted.
