Star Fox Zero will release April 22 and the long-delayed inclusion to the Nintendo Wii U library will bring back a lot of what fans love about the Star Fox franchise while also adding new features.
During the March 3 Nintendo Direct, it was revealed that Star Fox Zero will have teleporters scattered throughout levels, which lead to different routes in the story. The Project Guard game being developed by Miyamoto was revealed to be Star Fox Guard, a separate game set in the Star Fox universe that will be free alongside Star Fox Zero.
However, in a new interview in Time, Star Fox Zero producer Shigeru Miyamoto dished out a lot of information regarding the game’s development and what players should expect when it releases.
While the story has a lot of juicy details, the subject of the game’s difficulty level was brought up --specifically whether Nintendo is purposely putting transparent tutorials in its games -- and Miyamoto had this to say:
“I think that’s a very good question,” says Miyamoto. “One thing that I think is a misunderstanding, is that I’m not very supportive of simply making a game easy so that people who don’t play games can play the game themselves. Obviously part of the fun of taking on a challenge is that the challenge has to be a hurdle that you overcome. Simply lowering the hurdle doesn’t necessarily mean that the challenge will be fun. What’s fun is you mastering the skill and having that sense of accomplishment—of achieving something that’s difficult.”
“So I think that action games like this have to have a certain level of difficulty to achieve that satisfaction. And particularly with Star Fox Zero , if you try to complete this game, I think you’re going to find it to be quite challenging. But it’s because of that, that we have things like Star Fox Guard and the cooperative mode in this game. What those do, is allow people who maybe can’t deal with that level of challenge or difficulty to easily be a part of the gameplay and enjoy this universe.”
Miyamoto also explained how Star Fox Zero will cater to both beginners and returning players by including game modes with differing difficulty levels, which includes an “invincible” mode.
“And then beyond those modes, we have additional ones for people who like the game but find it too hard to get past certain levels. So for instance there’ll be a way for them to get an invincible Arwing, so that they can fly through and see the levels. But at the same time, we’re also preparing modes for Star Fox fans looking for an even harder challenge, such as a ship that does more damage, but which also takes more damage.”
So what do you think of Star Fox Zero’s new difficulty levels? Do you want more games to cater to both beginners and veterans? Let us know in the comments section below.
