1 year later: your thoughts on Star Fox Zero

Was your experience more like this?:

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Or more like this:


My thoughts on the game aren't much different from shortly after the game came out. Even now, I completely understand the problems people have these controls, while learning them, using them after getting used to them, just on a conceptual level, and from an accessibility perspective. This game currently has no true options for controls (not even sensitivity sliders or button remapping) and it would've only been a better experience for everyone overall if there were more options.

That said, to anyone who's a strong fan of Star Fox and/or Star Fox 64: you owed it to yourself to try this game. Couldn't recommend that anyone buy this game without trying it first, but it's absolutely worth seeing whether you'll like it if you've been pining for another SF game of this ilk as I have — I have some qualms with the game and the decisions and circumstances surrounding it, but the meat of the game and its controls are probably the strongest aspects. I'm truly glad I played it, and have pretty thoroughly enjoyed most of it as a traditional Star Fox/64-type game, something I couldn't say for the past few SF titles.

Before release

I was disappointed learning about the strange controls and found the "aim in a different direction from where the ship is flying," off-putting as it meant gyro aiming would be unavoidable, something I'd never used comfortably in a game. I was also put off by the visuals, speed, amount of enemies and various comments from Miyamoto about the game's features (no bombs [which suggested a lack of concern for high scores and options], no plans for multiplayer, only planned for a short turn around, no plans for branching paths, etc.). Just a bunch of things Pretty down on the game, even up to release.

Post release

All of this is after playing for 20+ hours, getting all medals and playing a few hours with friends/family.

Arwing:

The Arwing controls clicked for me to my surprise, and much quicker than I expected. I did two runs through the training for the Arwing. I got used to glancing between the two screens and while I wasn't going to be comfortable doing any involved steering while shooting in other directions, I could wrp my head around moving in a general direction while shooting in another, or doing complex maneuvering, then focusing on shooting. There's nothing in the game that outright demands simultaneous complex movement and complex aiming, but it would theoretically be doable.

Barrel-rolls on the right stick seemingly don't affect directional movement that much, so the problems brought on by having "double tap joystick," as an input are mitigated because it usually doesn't matter which way you're rolling (that that does affect the Walker). These can also be done by quickly hitting left-to-right or vice versa, and joystick inputs like that tend to be wonky for a lot of reasons (hard to reliably move a joystick directly back-to-forward without it registering as diagonal-back-to-foward or something else, and double tapping non-digital inputs leaves too much room for the game misreading them). All that said, they work okay, though I'd rather have the left shoulder button be a "hold, then move left/right to roll," unput — that is currently only used for canceling the lock-on, something I don't find much use for since I don't go for super-high scores.

Loop-de-loops and u-turns being on the sticks actually is good in my eyes as I like not having to move my thumbs/fingers away from their default positions — I seem to accidentally perform loops/u-turns more now than when I first started playing the game, for some reason. It can be easy to do them on accident (breaking while tilting upward has close inputs to the u-turn, same with boosting while tilting up) and it'd just be better to have an option to turn off stick maneuvers altogether (those can be done with face buttons). Still, I appreciate that they're doable in that way, and I never have a problem performing them, it's just that they sometimes happen when I don't want them to — not sure what could be done to mitigate that problem. PvE isn't quite so demanding that the accessibility advantage by not needing to move one's right thumb to the face buttons is really needed, so it's not a big deal. If there were multiplayer, that would be a different story.


Arwing on-rails:

Arwing on-rails is great in that it's very close to Star Fox 64's gameplay with the added ability to aim within a half-sphere field ahead of the ship. I came to genuinely like using cockpit view, (in part because it doesn't actually flip all the way around when barrel-rolling like it did in 64. That view no longer being locked to the ship's orientation means it isn't as restrictive and becomes useful in myriad situations, rather than a novelty that puts the player at serious disadvantages. It's still a bit occasionally hard for me to get a feel for the ship's presence in that view and I find myself clipping scenery that I would more easily avoid in 3rd-person view, especially when tilting the ship on its side to pass through tight spaces. Still, the cockpit view is good for most situations, and I've played through every (non Gyrowing) level entirely through the cockpit view.

The vehicle/3rd-person view in on-rails missions is great too overall, classic SF 64, but the way the reticule works can make it seem really off — the cockpit view reticule is always dead-on of course, but since the 3rd-person reticule shows the angle of the cockpit view, that can sometimes be almost useless for far away targets from the 3rd-person camera perspective, even with the gyro aim centered and held stationary. I've seen a few ideas as to how that could be mitigated, and I believe the best way would be to focus on making the 3rd-person view's reticule give a better representation of where shots will land, first and foremost, as opposed to showing the angle/direction the cockpit view is facing, since the latter isn't useful when using the 3rd-person view. Switching between views is ideal, but I still see no inherent good in having the cursor be as off as it is in the vehicle view — it doesn't need to somehow show the extreme side-views possible using the cockpit view (e.g. all the way to the left/right, which would be impossible), but it should be better than it is.

Arwing all-range mode:

While the on-rails gameplay gyro aiming is helpful and neat at times, it's when in all-range mode that the controls justify their existence. The all-range dogfights in 64 and even in Assault and Command felt pretty rote and simplistic against NPCs, and other people alike, in that players could only u-turn, loop, or turn sharply, and you could only boost for a short time and do either of those special maneuvers with a predictable cool-down.

Zero's gyro aim allows for enemies to be more mobile than before, and I really came to like being able to turn and break sharply, then shoot an enemy chasing behind me without needing to resort to a loop-de-loop. Being able to aim more accurately and leading shots is much more exciting, and those dogfights can be made to be more demanding than before with more enemies and more aggressive opponents (i.e. Star Wolf's special attacks in some scenarios). There's enough boost in the boost meter to do two loops or u-turns back-to-back, and breaking/boosting can be done for much longer. This is the main reason I lament there being no multiplayer, because for the first time the Arwing vs. Arwing gameplay (not including the Star Fox: Assault ship exiting/switching shenanigans, which was fantastic) could be genuinely engaging by being less predictable and stilted. Having a high degree of control (or at least, a much higher degree of control than in previous SF games) would make for a fun multiplayer. the 3rd-person view can let you keep track of the ship/boss you're locked onto and once I got used to it, I could make good use of it by seeing where an enemy started flying while I was doing a loop or u-turn, then quickly aiming the cockpit view at their location while turn toward them. Before I would've just lost track of them for a bit, and in a couple fights in Zero, this is really useful.

Weak points on bosses can actually be challenging to hit now that the player can have more control over aiming. I appreciate enemies with hard-to-reach weak spots (like the spider walkers top/bottom spots) and it's a welcome change of pace (in that you're still shooting things and maneuvering a fun-to-use ship) to have to do bombing runs, passing over them, looking down and landing shots.

Doing loops and u-turns shouldn't lock the players view during their duration though — I want to be able to still aim around while looping, and so forth. It's nice that it's a way to reset the view, but I can do that at any time already with the left joystick, which is always going to be at my disposal.

Walker


Only a few instances where the Walker on-rails used can happen actually, but it's fine there.

Most of the time, it's all-range mode for it. I like using it when locked onto something — the ship will adjust to face what you lock-onto, and you can then strafe around it while aiming with the gyro. You can hold the lock-on button to strafe when not targeting an enemy, though I didn't use that too much, and only found it useful to mitigate problems while moving in tight spaces.

I found the Walker's movement fiddly, and still do. Having turning left/right be on both joysticks (can use both to turn quicker) has led to me barrel-rolling when I didn't want to, and since rolling in Walker form is a side-flip, that can be a problem when trying to maneuver onto small platforms or enemies (which is needed to hack a few control panels in the game). The "left-to-right," right joystick input has messed me up too many times since that will do a flip, even though I'm just looking from one direction to another quickly.

It's a neat addition to the arsenal, but I don't find the walker much fun in tight spaces, one of the only few places where it's useful over the Arwing. It's faster on land than the Landmaster, but not fast enough to be faster than the Arwing low above the ground. It isn't like controlling a traditional on-foot character since it seeks to emulate controlling a ship, but it's too fast and too fiddly for me to accomplish that feeling (something I find the Landmaster to do very well). I'd have preferred this to essentially control like Vanquish, and move extremely fast on land, yet provide functional dodging and snappier aiming to allow dancing around enemies. If this ever comes back, that's what I'd hope for — it should feel liberating and exhilarating when using it.

Gyrowing:

My biggest criticism of the Gyrowing is how it's used. I don't especially like using the ship itself, but it's functional. There are some quality-of-life improvements it could use, namely being able to move while reeling in the Direct-i bot and not being locked in place and just faster movement. That said, it's fine.

The level it gets all to itself is meant to be a stealth mission, but it's mostly just open space that you drift through — really dull and uneventful, and isn't even demanding as a stealth op. Had where the level lacked in high-speed action, it made up for it in being a tense stealth situation that demanded precise movement and timing, it would've been more engaging. As it is, even when trying to avoid spotlights, it's just slow and empty. This is another area I think multiplayer would allow aspects of the game to shine more — a mode where other players have to cover a Gyrowing user while they do a bombing run or something would be inherently more exciting, especially if it allowed two-player-one-ship co-op.

Was a better experience in the level it makes a brief appearance since that scenario had a soft time limit.

Landmaster

Has virtually nothing I dislike. Just feels awesome to use and has better aiming than its 64 counterpart, yet still feels like steering a heavy, cool tank thing where you have to manage strafing while firing missiles, and so forth. The addition of three lock-on missiles at a time is great and a welcome advantage over other ships. Its levels make good use of what it offers — the spider boss makes evident how nice it is to be able to precision-aim through the cockpit while doing the hover/strafe to dodge its legs/laser fire. Then, when it tries to land on you, you have to switch to the Gravmaster (flying Landmaster, essentially) to outrun it. Just a high degree of control, and a situation that demands some mastery of those controls. Makes each portion of the Landmaster sequences engaging.That the Landmaster is slower than the Arwing helps with selling the use of gyro aiming too — while one could argue classic "locked to ship's nose direction," aiming in the Arwing could be just as fast as gyro aiming (aside from really far up/down/to the sides), in the Landmaster, there was no way to aim this well in 64.

Co-op:

I posted about my experiences playing co-op with my dad in another thread; here's an excerpt pertaining directly to the controls:

Fast-forward to the present, and I finally get him to sit down and play Zero with me. I was super apprehensive about how he'd react to the controls, and I warned him that they were way different from before. By this point, I'd already played through most of the levels and was used to the controls of the Arwing, but I wasn't sure how he'd react.

Turns out, he was doing pretty well on his own, at least in the training mission. He seemed to do better in that than my first time. I had to show him the timing for the somersault and U-turn with the joysticks, and getting used to resetting the gyro and the lock-on took a bit, but overall, it wasn't bad. I could see him doing okay in some of the actual levels. I was really surprised, because this was a man who barely touched a game for almost three whole gens.

We then palyed co-op and had a blast. He was the gunner, and we played the first three stages and the two landmaster ones, which was a lot of fun. Splitting up the shooting and the steering between two people seemed like it would just halve the fun, but each is involved enough to be interesting on its own. There's the added challenge of coordinating with the other person, but just maneuvering the ship fun enough, especially in all-range mode situations. The Fichina boss was great, and I think letting the less experienced person shoot is the best bet. We were having real Star Fox-style banter, calling out plans of attack in real time.

That about sums up my experience with the controls themselves. I would've preferred a much better showcase for the Gyrowing, or to just not have it featured tbh, and the Walker should be more swift and more like Vanquish, in short. The Arwing and Landmaster could've carried this game entirely, and with a few tweaks to the controls, they would be pretty perfect for what they are.

There still needed to be more options (or options, full stop), maybe have a demo stage for people on the fence, and a better way of teaching players how to use them (not that the training missions are bad, they could just be better). A refinement of what Zero has done could make for a truly great sequel, but that's really up in the air because of the skimpy content and negative feedback the game has received as a result. Multiplayer would be the best way of validating the higher degree of control, and would make evident how functional they are to everyone just from seeing others use them well in matches.
 
I thought it was pretty enjoyable. Managed to master the controls and get all the medals. Also really liked the tutorial stage and doing it faster and faster. It feels super low budget and it most likely was, but I liked it. I imagine The franchise will go on break until Nintendo embraces VR since this is basically a VR game but with a control set up people will have much more trouble with.
 
The controls provide an interesting amount of depth that's I now find sorely missing from SF64 and they are fun. But they are really difficult to wrangle and not precise at all.
 
I paid 30 dollars for it. I want my money back.

Bosman hit the nail on the head when he said Miyamoto failed to give the gamepad any value. Its baffling to think that we only got this game because of a controller's existence.

The constant comparisons to other games motion controls is laughable by the way. Everybody just assumes if you hate one games implementation of them you hate all of them.

I wonder why its so hard for franchises like Star Fox and Paper Mario to hit a medium between not just being the same game again and being so different its not the same series anymore.
 
I tried the demo and it didn't seem entirely offensive. But then I'm pretty lenient on weird control schemes. What really rubbed me the wrong way was what looked like a lazy copy-paste of Star Fox 64's plot. I wonder if the game will climb back up in price after awhile, considering it'll probably stay Wii U exclusive, or if it'll middle out because of its failure.
 
I really enjoyed it, BUT I can totally see why it had the backlash it received. Star Fox has always been a pick-up and play experience, with cheesy dialogue and fun shoot-em-up combat, with quite a few "advanced" techniques for those who wanted more out of the game.

The problem with Zero is that it asks the player to learn and play against their muscle memory. Fans of 64 and others are alienated because they used to play the old one so much, and new players are confused by a completely new way of playing.
 
It still controls like garbage and I'm tired of playing the same SNES game that was remade and rebooted, like, three times. I prefer Assault and even Adventures over Zero any day.
 
Holy crap that was a lot of exposition for a marginal game with horrible controls.

I really feel like they missed the mark. This is the problem with a lot of these older ips and Nintendo.

Personally, and I think a lot of people may agree, I wish they would not try to hew so hard to some series's tenets or classic aspects. For some reason Star Fox is one of those series they've become really afraid to give the Metroid Prime treatment. There is so much area to be mined there, but I guess the mishandling of Star Fox Adventures scarred management.

I don't want them to shoehorn in new ways to play old games, or to come up with some gimmick. I want them to make new types of games with their IPs. I'd love another Starfox adventure game, in the same vein of a no man's sky, where I explore planets and solar systems. The in between fighting would be a lot better, they could weave a coherent story and they could lean on a lot of the BOTW work to make several interesting worlds. Or even a SF rpg...
 
As someone who personally was never enamored with regular rail shooter Star Fox games I really like the uniqueness they brought.

I'm hoping the next Star Fox game stays in this continuity so they can use those portals and connect to the universe of Star Fox 1+2 and the universe of 64, Adventures, Assault and Command.

Just please don't have a fourth version of the Star Fox 1 story.
 
This game and Skyward Sword were held back by the worst controls ever.

What a complete waste and embarrassment.

Skyward Swords controls for the most part were fine. Hell, I'd argue that it has the best sword combat in the series because of it. The problem with Star Fox Zero isn't the motion controls. I honestly wouldn't mind a gyro controlled Star Fox done right. The problem was the weird asymmetrical gimmick they forced in. It breaks immersion, and it makes the game more convoluted than necessary.
 
I still think people can't get past their percieved expectations of the game instead of trying to learn it. I find the motion controls to be really intuitive and making perfect sense for the Wii U. I honestly find them very immersive, but maybe letting people choose controls wouldn't be a bad idea. I just don't think it's bad at all.
 
Arwing sections were good and fun.

Walker sections were frustrating as hell due to controls.

Those guide the robot sections were boring as hell.

Overall, it's an average game which is disappointing considering one expects a ton more from a Nintendo IP.
 
Controls are still shit.

It makes me sad when people write long, in-depth posts like the OPs and then people respond with quips like these.

OP, I am impressed and glad that you liked the game as much as you did. I personally only played the demo and I think I agree with many of your opinions, even if I didn't become quite as comfortable with the controls as you did. I especially agree that the On-Rails stuff was solid stuff and compared pretty well to SF64. Do I remember correctly that there was a way to play with the target locked in front of the Arwing?

In the end, I liked it but didn't like it well enough to add it to my massive backlog.
 
I was excited when it was announced and thought it was some brave new game design stuff to try - because it was unclear where Star Fox had to go next beyond just being a prettier SF64 and if it worked was a good use of the WiiU gamepad.

However, I didn't finish and really fell out of love with it due to the controls. I realize I probably just didn't ever get it, but I hated the space battles. I had a bad enough taste in my mouth not to go back after the 6 or so sessions I had with the game. Was saddened.
 
It was decent at first when I was just going thru the missions, but then I thought about getting all the medals like you OP and I just got way too frustrated with the controls. They were decent when I didn't care if I killed every enemy, but when I tried to they were infuriating and they were also infuriating during the final boss.
 
I still think people can't get past their percieved expectations of the game instead of trying to learn it. I find the motion controls to be really intuitive and making perfect sense for the Wii U. I honestly find them very immersive, but maybe letting people choose controls wouldn't be a bad idea. I just don't think it's bad at all.

I got good with the controls after i realized you can just press the minus button to show the cockpit view on the TV but my experience was still "why am i investing time into learning controls for this worse version of SF64".

That final boss is atrocious by the way.

I didn't have much of a problem with the controls, the graphics were bad but that's not important to me. But the level/encounter design is bad and boring.

This too since every regular boss is all range mode.
 
I didn't have much of a problem with the controls, the graphics were bad but that's not important to me. But the level/encounter design is bad and boring.

In my mind I wanted Starfox 64 2, and that's half what I was expecting. And even then I expected the world at large to dismiss it because basically Starfox 64 doesn't fly as a $50 game in 2017. I decided I would have been happy if it was at least similarly repayable and fun with modern graphics.

So when they release this turd of a game that has LESS content than Starfox 64 did over 20 years ago, I genuinely felt insulted. I was mad. It completely lacked any of the smart dynamics of the original. The branches were all bullshit, you played 90% of the content in the first run. Going back and replaying for secret levels, only 1 was even a full level.

Even just thinking about this game now makes me angry.
 
Either the controls click or they don't. If they click you enjoy the game for what it is. If they don't then the game is shit to you. Same with Skyward Sword.
 
Pretty decent game, but light on content compared to some of its predecessors, and the controls are abject garbage. That the company who added so many control schemes to Pikmin 3 didn't patch this with different controls despite the backlash really lends credence to Bosman's notion about how the game tried really hard to justify the gamepad. In theory I get what the controls are supposed to achieve, but they just fail to do it. Sure, you can spend time with them and get good at them, but doesn't change the fact that they're awkward, uninviting and could have been handled better in different ways.

Either the controls click or they don't. If they click you enjoy the game for what it is. If they don't then the game is shit to you. Same with Skyward Sword.

Nah, I can see that there's a decent game hidden behind the awful controls. It's just that it's not playable.

This wasn't what the series needed after some questionable titles and many years of absence. They just needed to make a regular entry that played well. Get experimental later.

I didn't have much of a problem with the controls, the graphics were bad but that's not important to me. But the level/encounter design is bad and boring.

In my mind I wanted Starfox 64 2, and that's half what I was expecting. And even then I expected the world at large to dismiss it because basically Starfox 64 doesn't fly as a $50 game in 2017. I decided I would have been happy if it was at least similarly repayable and fun with modern graphics.

So when they release this turd of a game that has LESS content than Starfox 64 did over 20 years ago, I genuinely felt insulted. I was mad. It completely lacked any of the smart dynamics of the original. The branches were all bullshit, you played 90% of the content in the first run. Going back and replaying for secret levels, only 1 was even a full level.

Even just thinking about this game now makes me angry.

In other words, pretty much this.
 
Drone and Chicken killed the game's momentum for me.

I could get by the controls but the redundancy in the level design (re: drone and chicken) was just so prominent.
 
Even once you master the controls, which are annoying but not game-ruining, it is still a fairly boring, badly-paced, and pretty ugly Star Fox game.

I got halfway through and just had no desire to touch it again.
 
absolutely loved it. easily the best star fox game and a top ten wii u game for me. It like a greatest hits of cool space battles referencing the like of star wars and robotech and more. My only gripe is not being able to fly Kat's ship.
 
Even once you master the controls, which are annoying but not game-ruining, it is still a fairly boring, badly-paced, and pretty ugly Star Fox game.

I got halfway through and just had no desire to touch it again.

I actually like the visual style, but yeah. If you somehow get past the horrendous controls, it's decent but not great. Basically, it's not worth the hurdles you'd need to jump.
 
Played a few levels and never touched it again. Didn't outright dislike it though. Controls were only a real problem with the fixed camera 360 boss stages. Being forced to track on both screens because the tv suddenly removes your behind the ship viewpoint was rotten.

But really it was just a third remake of the exact same game with marginal adjustments to the same planets and formula. Star fox deserved better in HD.
 
This has got to be one of THE most devise games. I LOVED it, when you nail the controls it really feels like your doing more than just pointing and shooting.

It most remind me of Kid Icarus uprising. Very high lurning curve but when you get it, man it's a good feeling.

I will say, enough rebooting Star Fox. Let's get a decent simple story behind it.
 
I played for a couple hours, and the controls never clicked for me. I had no fun whatsoever with the game because the entire time I felt like I was fighting against the controller. I died so many times because I just couldn't do what I wanted to, especially in the walker. I'd be running into walls trying to shoot shit and die.

Also had a bug on the mission where you had to destroy the big thing going into the portal, it skipped the scene showing you what to do. So I couldn't follow the directions the game was trying to give me during the mission because I had no context for them.

I really wanted to like the game and felt like one of the only people positive on it pre-release.
 
Awful like every star fox game post 64. Even when you get used to the almost game breaking controls it still isn't that good. Nintendo normally do a great job maintains their IP's but it would be hard to fuck up star fox more than they have managed to.
 
I only ever turned it on once. I got the controls pretty quickly, beat the entire game and unlocked every level. Had a decent time.

I never felt compelled to turn it on again.

It's the definition of a soft 7 to me, and I'll give it that because I actually somewhat appreciated the unconventional, sim-like dual controls.

However, it was almost everything I didn't want a new star fox to be. If they ever return to it, please Nintendo, just give us an arwing-only white knuckle action-romp with branching paths and a decent online multiplayer mode.
 
In all sincerity, it might be one of the worst games Nintendo has ever published.

The controls are certainly a dumpster fire, but the rest of the game isn't much better. Mostly bland, uninspired, and somewhat empty, levels.

It's like a bad indie game.
 
I enjoyed collecting all of the medals. The controls took some getting used to, but it all eventually came together.

My biggest issue with the game is lack of dialogue. It feels like the characters barely speak.
 
In all sincerity, it might be one of the worst games Nintendo has ever published.

The controls are certainly a dumpster fire, but the rest of the game isn't much better. Mostly bland, uninspired, and somewhat empty, levels.

It's like a bad indie game.

It was published and co-developed by Nintendo. Is it one of the worst games they have ever developed?
 
i couldnt click with the controls at all. not being able to make fine adjustments with the stick like in Splatoon made the gyro too unwieldy for me, and often both screens had viewpoints that were awkward to play with. then on top of that, even in moments where the controls/camera were gelling for me i just wasnt having that much fun with it.
 
It still confirms that we're in the Miyamoto's downfall timeline. All joking aside, I really hope that we get a Starfox sequel that is designed around being a Starfox game rather than around a gimmick, and that the franchise is not dead already.

Core concept was flawed.
Gameplay wasn't fun.
Graphics were meh.

It gave us Starfox Guard though, which I thought was better than the actual game.
 
absolutely loved it. easily the best star fox game and a top ten wii u game for me. It like a greatest hits of cool space battles referencing the like of star wars and robotech and more. My only gripe is not being able to fly Kat's ship.
It is striking to me how often I see your posts and how strongly I disagree with nearly every one of them, lol. Guess our tastes are polar opposites.

Personally I think the game is incredibly mediocre. The controls work ok, but they don't improve the experience at all. Some of the levels, especially out of the Arwing, are just awful. It has some cool moments, the dogfights are fun, but as a package it's just really barebones and not very interesting.
 
I hate this game and rank it alongside Other M: a crap entry that has put the series on hiatus.

Bought it for $30 sold it a few days later for the same price. Fuck it.
 
Gyro aiming > dual analog by far. Even the gamepad thing that was unintuitive at first actually worked well, you never really bumped to stuff while you were looking at the gamepad. This is one of the rare times I felt a Wii U game made relevant use of the controller, basically it had "next-gen gameplay"


Now why is there very little reason to play this over the 64 game? It's simply not a fun arcade-style shooter when you have a bunch of one off mechanics or mission objectives that totally change the pace(gyrowing). It may have technically more levels than 64 but most of them are simply boss battles, some of which you unlock by doing half a level. In 64 picking a route was intuitive, even if you opted to not pick one that optimized your high score, you were rewarded with very distinct and memorable levels. The game doesn't even work well as an action game either(kind of like Assault) because it doesn't have enough content and variety for that. Mastering the game just feels like grinding too, a lot of these medals are hidden in very specific spots that often imply sacrificing your high score just to get the medal. Unlocking stuff was much more natural in 64: you play well, you are rewarded. When the game's pacing is so erratic, it either feels too exhausting to grind medals or not rewarding enough when you do a classic mode run due to the few amount of good levels. People like to blame Miyamoto or Nintendo for this game but this feeling is similar to what I disliked from the Wonderful 101. It had very great core gameplay but it's too exhausting of a game to bother 100%ing or replaying for high ranks: very long chapters, unintuitive ways to unlock features(ex backtracking in a linear level), sudden genre shifts when the core combat is already a lot to handle, there's so many ways to defeat enemies in this game). Nintendo usually doesn't have trouble in having a good balance between harmonies and dissonances like that. Platinum might have a lot of passion but even at their best, it seems like there's always some kind of clumsiness on that aspect. It apparently had less than two years in development, should have been a 2016 holiday game at this point
 
What a mess. Miyamoto with all his 2nd screen projects can go to hell. It's "workable" at best, it's just not fun. The walking sections should be canned. Never bring back anything from the Star fox 2 concepts ever again. Just pure on rail arwind mode.

I'd rather play Star fox 64 100 times over this.
 
This game also makes me glad the Switch has no major gimmicks. It had some cool uses but the gamepad was a solution to a problem in controller inputs that did not exist.
 
Kinda how I feel about Assault: flawed, but not nearly as terrible as its worst detractors would have you believe. It was a good first step to reviving the franchise, but for all its control ambitions it does feel samey.

I'd like to see Miyamoto and co. give it another shot with what worked; there's definitely potential to be mined, here.
 
Controls are so bad. It feels like they took Lylat Wars, added some polygons and threw away the fun and simple mechanics for a bunch of gimmicks.
 
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