I wrote something to defend the game in another thread and I realized that, after some changes, it turned into some impressions I wanted to share with you:
Star Fox Zero is basically Star Fox 64 on steroids and an obvious case of blatant and objective evolution from a gameplay standpoint. As a arcade game, it gets better the more you play with it. Each level has hours worth of replayability, allowing for a high level, well-crafted arcade gameplay and the gamepad allows for a more organic aiming and opens up the possibilities in level design, enemy placement and scoring. It may appear akward during the first hours, but learning the ways of the gamepad is also part of the experience, which is funny, because I was being let down by the game until I started to individually replay each level.
It's ten times more frantic, more satisfying and more organic than any Star Fox so far and after 20 hours it's really difficult going back to Star Fox 64. It can make such a fantastic game as Star Fox 64 look genuinely boring in comparison, which for me is a sign of a huge leap forward.
I cannot comprehend how can such a genuine labor of love towards the franchise and arcade gaming in general can get so much hate and badmouthing. It's what people has been asking for years: a good classic Star Fox that embraces its roots while also expanding on the originals. A very good arcade 3D shooting game. This is exactly that. Whenever I get caught obsessively replaying one level I get vibes from NiGHTS and Out Run, games that require you to invest in order to receive, that get more engaging as you get to know more about how they work and that are designed around scoring. I even find weird that a game like that was born from Nintendo, because it's closer to what SEGA used to do at its prime. It's simple and straight to the point arcade fun like in the old times, with no fluff or extraneous elements that do not contribute to gameplay. Truly a rare sight nowadays.
Once you put some serious time on Zero and try to get high marks on some of these levels, the game just metamorphoses into something completely different. You start seeing the levels as a macrostructure of enemy squads that intersect, that hide around corners, that require subtle micromanagement of homing and not homing charged shots, finishing enemies in midair for extra points, carefully dissecting cruisers while collecting power ups and avoiding damage to keep the most powerful laser active, accelerating, braking, doing barrel rolls and loops... classic gaming bliss at its purest. There's nothing like it. And all this vitriol makes me sad.
This game made me understand that people do now know what they want or has some unatainnable expectations around their favorite games. If you like these types of games you should give the motion controls a chance with an open mind, with a humble attitude since you will probably struggle with them at the start as everybody did.