Star Fox: Zero E3 2015 Preview
It has been ages since we had a Star Fox game where the entire purpose is to shoot things in a spaceship, and I was excited to see Nintendo finally return to form. But when I played Star Fox: Zero , my heart sank, as Nintendo simply couldn’t hold themselves back from fiddling with a formula that they already know works. A case of, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Star Fox: Zero is a game with a lot of potential that is inevitably ruined by Nintendo’s strict adherence to including motion controls in every game they make.
Here’s how the game frustratingly controls. You have to use both the TV and the Wii U GamePad at the same time. One is used for steering your Arwing, while the other is used for aiming your Arwing’s weapons. You use the left stick to control your position and the right stick to control your speed. Meanwhile, you have to tilt the game pad to control your aiming in a first person view.
I want to make very, very clear how dumb this control scheme is. Movement, which is inherently a defensive tactic as you are attempting to get out of the way of things that would damage you, is controlled on one screen, and aiming, which is inherently an offensive tactic as you are trying to damage your enemies, is handled on another screen. The result is that you cannot attack and defend at the same time, something you were able to do in the very first Star Fox for the SNES.
This is what frustrates me so much about this game. Star Fox , and for that matter any aerial dogfight simulator, is fun because it runs you through the epic dance of outmaneuvering your opponent, while still attempting to take them down. Heck, one of the core multiplayer tactics of competitive Star Fox 64 was learning how to brake, dodge, and bomb at the same time, catching your opponent in the blast. In Star Fox: Zero you CANNOT DO THAT! You have to literally sit still and switch your focus in order to do anything offensive.
I know I’m ragging on this one gameplay element a lot, but there are good reasons for it.
First, the rest of the game is basically just more Star Fox , which is a good thing. You can transform your Arwing into a walker and several other forms, but it’s not particularly clear what benefit they give you, and the Arwing itself is more fun to control anyway.
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