Star Fox Zero

Well, though it pains me to say this Nintendo messed up royally here. Game-play is the cornerstone of every Nintendo adventure, this company often gives so much value to it's game-play design that it often forgets about other elements like narrative and presentation. It's very rare for a AAA Nintendo game to fail on the promise of game-play, and Star Fox Zero's gyro/gamepad focused game-play flops like a fish out of water! This game is barely playable, You're given the task of piloting your vehicles (utilising everything from brakes, boosts, and special maneuvers) whilst flailing your gamepad around like an idiot trying to aim your lasers at enemies, it's like trying to play piano with one hand and the drums with the other! Using the gamepad is totally uncomfortable especially if you usually sit down to game (but who games standing up???), and the game forces you to use the gamepad controls against many enemies and bosses, so there's no escaping this!

And the presentation here is borderline offensive, the prospect of a brand new Star Fox on the "next gen" WiiU had my imagination soaring with wonder, but I was totally disappointed when I saw this game at E3 last year. They're calling it an "N64 inspired look", but I think that was just an excuse to put zero effort into the game's aesthetics! The polygons sure do look like they were ripped right from the N64 alright! Everything in this game looks blocky and there's no detail or scale to much of anything. The audio here is not bad, the dialog is really simplistic and the most you'll get is classic lines being repeated from Star Fox 64 ("Do A Barrel Roll!!!"), The game's score is quite impressive and well orchestrated though I must say, that seems to be a trend for this series.

Let's talk about the game's narrative, because Nintendo sure knows how to deliver...... Star Fox Zero is essentially a reboot of Star Fox 64, which if you didn't know; is a reboot of the original Star Fox for the SNES. So..... THIS IS A REBOOT OF A REBOOT! Nintendo, I love you guys!!! But is it really that difficult to come up with a unique story for your games??? So in terms of the campaign everything is structured similarity to that of Star Fox 64, you even revisit many of the same planets! Thankfully the majority of the familiar planets are reworked and unique to this game, though you can bet that you'll be doing the same iconic things you'd expect to be doing in a Star Fox game (the Star Wolf battle(s), the missile defence level(s), the Andross battle, ect.). Though the bosses were a pain to fight and mostly generic, I did appreciate the rather glorious return of the Monarch Dodora from the original Star Fox, and it's always a treat to duel with the bad a** Star Wolf! ("Can't let you do that Star Fox!!!")

The two planets I was disappointed to see missing here are the submarine level Aquas and the classic train battle of Macbeth from Star Fox 64. The submarine is actually gone entirely, in place of the new Walker and Gryowing vehicle modes. The walker was pretty cool in concept but a disaster to control, and using the Gyrowing is slow and tedious. Zoness was a friggin epic stage from Star Fox 64 and I kinda died a little inside when I found out that it was turned into a crawling stealth mission for this game. Definitely one of the more unique levels in the game but pretty lifeless compared to the N64 version. The landmaster returns (hurray!!!) but you're stuck using the gyro controls to fire (NOOOOOO!!!) and the result is quite chaotic once again T_T I swear that Scrapworm boss from Titania was one of the hardest bosses I've faced in a video game this year and it's for all the wrong reasons! >:(

I will defend this game a little bit though, sure the controls require a great amount of dexterity, but hey, switch this thing to 2-player mode and have a buddy pilot the vehicle while you shoot, believe it or not it makes the game way more playable (and pretty hilarious! XD)! And the on-rail sections in this game are actually pretty fun given that you're not really forced to use the gamepad. The game is not buggy by any means, and there's just something really charming about the Star Fox universe! XD The problem is that the frustrating controls and the lack effort put into nearly every aspect of this game really keeps me from enjoying myself. They really failed to recapture the sense of action, immersion, and fun that 64 brought to the table, which is why 64 is still the best Star Fox game. Sorry Zero, I really hope this isn't the end of this poor franchise.....