1 year later: your thoughts on Star Fox Zero

The Wonderful 101 was another Platinum Wii U game that had - to me - shit controls, but it was a really weird, but occasionally cool game. Star Fox just had shit controls.
 
Mostly I feel sad about it. I enjoyed the game a great deal and I'm a huge Star Fox fan but I think it deserves a new lease on life with accessible controls on Switch
 
I forgot it existed.

Now that I've been reminded I do remember being underwhelmed by it. I didn't put that much time into it though. Controls were a sore point I think.
 
I beat it, and having done so, I'd say:

I regret buying it.
I regret playing it.
I regret spending enough time to beat it (and that wasn't a lot of time).

It was terrible from start to finish. The exact opposite of what I wanted. I wanted classic Star Fox gameplay in an all-new setting. Instead I got a retread of previous Star Fox games with horrible 'innovations' in gameplay.

I never adjusted to the dual-screen setup, I never enjoyed the gyrowing sections, I never thought the visuals were more than poor... it was just a really desperately mediocre game. By Nintendo's first party standards a terrible game. And yeah, I reckon it has killed off the series for good.
 
I thought it was overall good, but not great. A real 7/10 game. I don't regret playing it, but I don't miss it now that I don't have a Wii U anymore, not one bit. But I still think about playing games like Mario 3D World, Bayonetta 2, and Wonderful 101 at least once a week, so I certainly don't hold it in high regards compared to the classics in the Wii U lineup.
 
Of course this thread is just going to be an alternating "loved it" "hated it" "loved it" "hated it" viewpoint regarding the controls.

I personally loved it. Then again, I also loved Gunvalkyrie.
 
It was a quickly cobbled together tribute to 64 but the experience was not robust enough to be satisfying. It had some good levels but never felt right.
 
The controls are fine; it's the lack of content and short levels that really kill it. SF64 had better mission design and more original courses than Zero.
 
Has it been a year already?

I played maybe three levels with plans to get back to it "soonish".

In reality, I tried to convince myself that the gamepad controls weren't that bad, but they really are and it kills my urge to play even though everything around it is almost exactly what I ever wanted out of a modern Star Fox game.
 
I enjoyed about 10 hours with it, but there's too much jank for it have lasting appeal.

It also has other problems, like terrible dialog trying too hard to evoke SF64 feelings by being annoying referential at times and incredibly dull otherwise, an outdated mission selection system and not that much content from the start. Also I hated the free camera boss battles.

I liked the on rails levels and the gyro controls.
 
It's easily my favorite game in the series and made trying to go back and play SF64 afterwards a total slog. I just can't go back to the aim system of the other games without wanting Zero's instead honestly. The controls took me only three runthroughs of the first level before clicking and the rest of the experience was golden after that.

THAT SAID, I totally can understand how people can feel let down by both the controls and the game itself as it admittedly leaves quite a bit to be desired. It's very much not a game for everyone and I say that in a way that doesn't mean that those who get it are on some sort of higher level of gaming or something. Personally though I'm a bit annoyed with how the only talk that can ever seem to surround this game is the "Love it/hate it" debate. I get there's a strong divide concerning the controls but it's all anyone ever talked about in the OT and any time it was brought up elsewhere conversation just devolves into "The controls suck" "Naw just get gud :lol" pretty much turns me off of ever trying to talk about the game outside of my friends who I've played it with from time to time.
 
Very disappointed with the control scheme. I'd rather have a console port of SF64, but a true successor would have been a dream come true.
 
I would love a remaster of the first game. With exceptions.
Do not retouch the music AT ALL. Better frame rate and a bump in poly count and textures and id be happy.

As for the last SF game, that game was not good
At all.
 
I think the game would have been better with standard controls, but I beat it a few weeks before the Switch came out and the way they used motion controls, when they worked well, felt really good. Being able to aim one way while shooting the enemy's weak points in another direction felt amazing, and really put you in the gunner's seat.

Plus, at one point, you get to shoot missiles at a giant robot monkey's butt and then hack his butthole with your spaceship.
 
Roadmaster is the real MVP.

This game has such incredible highs, undoubtedly my game of the year last year (and for those curious, I have put at least 50 hours into Overwatch).
Tookay said:
The controls are fine; it's the lack of content and short levels that really kill it. SF64 had better mission design and more original courses than Zero.
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The game could have been so much better paced had it gotten a good DLC level.

And half of each arcade run is the exact same thing. No Venom 2 makes it a pain.
 
For all curious, I would say that sector Beta is probably the big hook of the game. If you don't like the game by then (even if you're not good at it yet) you probably never will. Probably the most universally liked level that is 100% Zero style.

Man, now I want to start it up again at 1 am.
 
I finished the game 100%, loved it to bits but I can see where people's criticism comes, specially if you don't want/don't have time to learn a new control scheme just for that game.

But let me tell you, the comment the controls click, you realize this is one of the best arcade shooters ever made.
 
My thoughts haven't changed one iota. As far as I'm concerned, Star Fox Zero is the Sonic 4 of Nintendo games.

"Let's make a sequel to Star Fox who hasn't had a new original game in ten years, but get the point of a sequel completely backwards."

Forcing the GamePad gyro controls/dual screen setup to the point of nuking the traditional controls and single screen setup completely was a big mistake. Making the story/presentation and a majority of the game's content yet another Star Fox SNES/64 retread was another big mistake. The result was Star Fox rehash #12 (somewhat joking) that had an even better or an even worse control scheme depending on the individual.

The absolute worst thing of it all is that this was supposed to be a return to Star Fox's arcade shooter roots after the series had been mishandled so badly for years and they still screwed it up, with the resulting reviews and sales reflecting that hard. At this point, we'll be lucky if we ever get a proper Star Fox game that doesn't change the focus of the gameplay and/or bank its entire game design on "justifying" a gimmick, let alone get any new Star Fox games period.
 
I love it and I have no issues with the controls.

Don't really know what some of you are on about.
 
I beat the game once and never want to play through it again. Fuck gimmicks, just make the game people want to play!
 
I'm not hard to please when it comes to Star Fox and it just made me depressed. I defend gyro controls in almost every game that uses them but Zero had me rethinking that whole stance. The level design was also some ass and it had some really horrible boss fights (and one good one with Wolf).

I'd agree that even Other M has more to offer in the way of entertainment.
 
My opinion about it veers wildly from thinking it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be and thinking people aren't nearly critical enough for its flaws. Like, I think both those things in the same 15 seconds. It's weird.

When it's good it is definitely as good as the series has been. But it seems like a lot of stuff is shoehorned in. It's weird because the problems this game has aren't problems with the GamePad itself, but strange development decisions that are meant to show off the GamePad. Making it so you can properly use the reticle on both the TV and the GamePad really wouldn't detract from the controller itself, so why did they make it like this?

StarFox Guard meanwhile is just awesome, zero apologies needed there.
 
Honestly, I have a hard time understanding what is so bad about the controls, in most cases it felt to me like SF64 with added gyro controls. That made All-range mode and the one-to-one fights so much better as you could aim much more precisely while moving. You use cabin mode for precise shots. Period.

The problem is that some levels are quite bad, the final level and the final boss, Zoness is too slow for this kind of game (much better when doing it with the Arwing). Otherwise I thought it was very enjoyable.
 
It was, hopefully, one of the last holdovers from Miyamoto's pestilent "I'm going to make what I want---I don't care what kind of game fans want" era of Nintendo. When you put out half-hearted products that also constitute the very opposite of what the fanbase has been asking for for years, you deserve all of the accompanying critical backlash and disastrous sales figures. Kimishima did the right thing in soft-demoting him. He knew the guy's philosophies had become regressive, inhibiting, and toxic. I'm happy Koizumi and Takahashi are running the show now. Miyamoto can stick to theme parks.

With that said though, Star Fox Zero wasn't all bad, and I enjoyed the sparse good parts while thinking about what could have been (as I often do with Nintendo software in recent times--what a refreshing change in direction BotW is!).
 
I had no issues with the controls, but the Gyrocopter levels were so unbelievably not fun compared to the rest of the game.

Overall though I really enjoyed it and have played it several times since release.
 
Wasted opportunity instead of re-hashing the story again, they could have taken it in a fresh direction, new plot twists, ie Fox McCloud getting double-crossed or something, or a new mysterious alien race has come on the block..
 
I haven't played. And since people crush the gameplay factor, I wish they could fix this and release it for the Switch.

My father (who hates video games) played over 100 hours of Star Fox 64. I wish I could handle a Switch at his hands with a game that he played years ago just to see his reaction.

(He hates video games because I love to spend my time in front of a TV playing)
 
The game lacked some serious polish from a gameplay perspective. While the game looked outstanding trying to control it was a slog, it hurt my hands incredibly. If they ever went back and allowed classic controls and took out the all range mode where you had to aim at specific targets it would have been a lot more playable. After beating it I never felt the need to go back and was somewhat upset for buying it digitally.
 
Dont know how anyone could possibly defend the shizen controls. Absolute hot garbage. They literally killed the game dead for me. Cumbersome and unnecessary. Gyro was just shit.
 
It's the best game in the series in my opinion, but I get why people didn't like it.

I enjoyed it BECAUSE of the controls. I love games that have a "divided attention" mechanic like that. The World Ends With You is one of my favorite games of all time partly for the same reason. It is unfortunate that the controls make it super niche, but I loved it and it was everything I wanted in a Star Fox game.

At the same time, I would have no complaints if they went back to traditional controls in the next Star Fox game.
 
Incredibly disappointing on several levels. Which is even more of a shame since it looked initially somewhat promising.
 
Options Nintendo, that's all we ask for. Don't force your gimmicks down our throats. Also can you guys stop remaking Star Fox and actually make a damn sequel.
Guess we gotta be grateful, Switch's biggest gimmick is HD rumble.
 
I really liked the game at release. Today I still like it but replaying it revealed a large number of small problems (chiefly among them, the terrible and underwhelming way branching paths were handled) that, when all combined, really drag the game down.

This review I don't entirely agree with (because well I liked the game, the author didn''t) touches on pretty much all of the problem I have with the game people don't talk about, and articulate it in a manner far more litterate I could ever manage.

Once you're actually playing the game you'll notice they made some changes to very basic Star Fox fundamentals, the biggest being that your bombs and lasers reset at the beginning of each level. You always start with three bombs and can hold up to five, and your laser gets knocked back down to a single. I'm okay with the bomb situation but not so much the lasers due to further changes in how they both work. Bombs aren't really your big screen-clearing attack anymore. They just don't have the blast radius. Your charge shots are more effective for clearing out groups of enemies, probably to emphasize getting bonus hits. Bombs are better used on bosses, and getting three to five per stage is much better than potentially being able to stockpile nine with this in mind. The big change to the lasers, on the other hand, I really don't like. In 64, your laser got reset if one of your wings broke. In Zero, there's no wing damage and your lasers get knocked down a level if you take too many hits. It varies depending on what you have, but in the case of having hyper lasers, "too many hits" averages out to around two. You're not going to keep your hyper lasers, and by the next level you won't even have your twin lasers. It sucks. It doesn't make it so fully upgraded lasers are a fun reward, it just makes it so you almost never have fully upgraded lasers.
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The way the branching works is terrible. In Star Fox 64 you would advance to different stages if you fulfilled different objectives during the course of any given full stage. In Zero, stage branches completely interrupt the stage you're currently playing (with one exception). In the first stage, for instance, there's an alternate path you take by transforming your Arwing into the Walker and stepping on a button on the ground. If you save a ship in this path that's under attack from enemies, a teleporter appears that suddenly ends the stage and pops you into another one that consists solely of a single boss encounter. This boss fight stage is graded on time rather than score, as are the other three stages where this exact thing happens. Needless to say, this tanks score potential significantly. It makes alternate paths feel less like a reward and more a sacrifice you have to make if you want to avoid some of the more boring levels.

Anyway, from this boss fight you can either go to ANOTHER time attack stage (which is just Zoness except you're in the Arwing rather than the Gyrowing) or one of the few regular ass Star Fox linear stages, which then dumps you into one of the worse All-Range Mode levels right after. No matter which one you pick, within a stage or two you're back to the regular route. If you just beat the first stage normally you can either continue on the standard route (which will force you to play the awful Gyrowing stage) or bail out of stage 2 early to fight half of Star Wolf, which then dumps you into a very slightly improved version of the bad All-Range stage I mentioned in the other route... which then puts you back on the main route, albeit a little further along than you'd normally be at that point. Rather than there being distinct paths through the game that you can fall in and out of, Star Fox Zero has a single path with a few little shortcuts and diversions. This is especially apparent once you finally see all the routes mapped out and realize that the last three stages are exactly the same in every one. And that's super boring. It makes every playthrough feel super samey. Not that Star Fox 64′s way of doing it isn't also samey, but it can get away with it because it's so short. Playing through a nearly two hour game over and over with only one or two stages being different from last time just isn't any fun.
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To round it all out, there's still a handful of peripheral issues that drag things down for me. The game doesn't just grade your score on how good you shoot, there's a +3 bonus for picking up a laser upgrade at max power (good luck) and an end of level bonus for how much health your wingmen have, with a maximum of +10 per. This is, obviously, the goddamn worst. Having 30 points of your score per stage tied up in how well you babysit the AI, which is largely out of your control, is an awful mechanic no matter how you slice it. There's also the change to the gold rings, which increased your health bar in Star Fox 64 and now give you an extra life in Star Fox Zero. This is honestly fine in Main Mode, but in Arcade Mode they felt the need to only let you have one extra life at any given time. This makes most gold rings useless outside of immediate health restoration, and if you have an unfortunate situation where you die twice to one of the game's more terrible objectives or bosses, welp, there goes your overly-long game, start over.
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The second reason I dislike the emphasis on All-Range Mode is the bigger one, for me: it turns the majority of stages into a boring scavenger hunt if you're going for a high score. The enemies are all around you, sometimes popping in and out of stage elements, and the game stops becoming a test of reflexes and skill and instead becomes a test of patience. Did you hunt down everything that can increase your score? Are you SURE? There's no radar for you to check! Did you hit them all with a charge unlocked shot for maximum points? Did you use the new mechanic where you can shoot an enemy that's crashing to the ground for extra points on everything you could? It's a tedious slog that's the complete antithesis of fun, and nowhere is it more prevalent than Zoness, the stage that highlights the abysmal Gyrowing. The Gyrowing is a slow, primarily non-combat vehicle that can drop a little robot on a tether that you control on the GamePad screen to hit switches. Zoness is an open area that tasks you with disabling two power generators by flying the Gyrowing around, avoiding search lights and hitting a lot of switches. There are enemies popping in and out of different buildings and bodies of water all over the place, and doing a run where I felt satisfied with my score took 15 minutes. FIFTEEN MINUTES of slowly fluttering around, tracking down enemies and switches. It wasn't anything I wanted to do in a Star Fox game, or any game for that matter. The other All-Range Mode stages are far less egregious, but still suffer from the same problem to varying degrees.
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Vyse The Legend said:
We wanted "Bayonetta" Platinum, but we got "Ninja Turtles" Platinum.
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We got Platinum with their hands tied behind their back; they had to build a game around a technically functional, yet unwieldy and unintuitive control scheme.

Jakartalado said:
I haven't played. And since people crush the gameplay factor, I wish they could fix this and release it for the Switch.

My father (who hates video games) played over 100 hours of Star Fox 64. I wish I could handle a Switch at his hands with a game that he played years ago just to see his reaction.

(He hates video games because I love to spend my time in front of a TV playing)
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Anecdotal, but my dad and I played Zero together and enjoyed it. He also grasped the controls really quickly playing on his own (seemingly quicker than I did):

Spring-Loaded said:
On the opposite end of the spectrum:

My dad loved Star Fox 64. He still holds the top five high scores on my game cartridge, and ever since that game came out, he kept asking me "So when are they making another Star Fox? A not that 'Mario with a Star Fox mask on,' thing [Adventures]. A real one."

We'd play against one another a lot back when the game came out, and I would beat him most of the time. He said he let me win, and I didn't buy it until I saw him play against a much older cousin of mine — my dad destroyed him. The third match they had, my cousin managed to be tied with my dad, each needing only one more kill to win. It ended in a game of chicken with both of them flying straight at one another with barely any health. I could barely make out what was going on through the smart bomb explosions. They both shot one another down, yet my cousin blew up in midair. My dad won.

After the N64, my parents pretty much stopped playing video games entirely — if they ever did, it was at gatherings, but never out of their own interest in a given game. Star Fox was one of two console games my dad ever had real interest in (the other being Diddy Kong Racing).

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, 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.


It was great, and I'm really holding out hope for more Star Fox that refines everything in Zero and iterates on its strengths. Control kinks ironed our, more control options, online multiplayer, more types of co-op (online with different types of vehciles used in tandem), and so forth. For now, I'm pleased. Really glad my dad finally got another Star Fox, and we got to experience it together.
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Sounds like your dad wasn't looking forward to a new SF though, so our situations may not be that comparable, but I'd still give it a shot if the game ever gets cheap, or if it gets ported to Switch with revamped control options.
 
What The Forest Taught Me said:
If you look around, you'll find that many had problems with Skyward Sword's controls in addition to the corridor linearity, extreme degree of hand-holding, and much, much more.
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I realize that, I guess I am one of few people that had no beef with the controls. The handholding, linearity, and empty world though, were major issues.
 
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