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[Vire]

Personally I'm "eh/good" on the Wii U. I got my Smash, Kart, Mario, etc, and I only buy 10-15 games a gen regardless. So it's been good enough for me.

So I'm excited about the next console. If nothing else, just to get the next iterations of 10-15 games.


But....I keep seeing this notion, about people being disappointed in the Wii and Wii U and sometimes 3DS. And yet then they say bring on the NX. Like, if the efforts of the past two gens weren't good enough, you expect next gen to be different lol? Seems weird to me.

It's kind of OT, but I've seen it in this thread a litte too.

If the first party efforts of Wii U and 3DS weren't up to snuff, why would NX or whatever be different?

The NX is primed to have the best development teams release content within the first year of launch though. Imagine if a EAD Mario Team game, Zelda Game and Retro studios game all came out within 2016-2017. All haven't put out a game in quite some time, so imagine they are already fairly far along.

I'd buy one in a second.

 

[Nanashrew]

but then it wouldnt be star fox, right?

Nah, what wouldn't be Star Fox are the dumb things being said in the GiantBomb comments section. Some are wanting a No Man's Sky x GTA Star Fox which wouldn't even be Star Fox. It would be called not-Star Fox just like Adventures is.

 

[georly]

I think I beat the original NSMB in 3 hours, LOL

On DS? the one that cost 30 bucks? yeah.

NSMBU had tons of collectibles and the bonus stages, well worth the price.

Nah, what wouldn't be Star Fox are the dumb things being said in the GiantBomb comments section. Some are wanting a No Man's Sky x GTA Star Fox which wouldn't even be Star Fox. It would be called not-Star Fox just like Adventures is.

That's the worst thing i've ever heard ;_;

 

[prag16]

Giantbomb - 2/5

This is a small sample size, and it was two different reviewers. But they just rated the best game I've played in years imo a 2/5 (Quantum Break; so fucking good), and now this... If I end up loving this game too, my trust in Giant Bomb for reviews will be through the floor.

 

[DownGrader]

Man, reviews are all over the place... Personally, Star Fox Zero is the most fun game on Wii U for the very long time, and I had a great time with it! Star Fox Guard is smaller but a bit more polished experience, so I'm not surprised at it performing better.

By the way, AMA. My review will be up tomorrow... and it will be on a foreign language so I won't post it here.

 

[Red Devil]

Keep story well out of the Star Fox series. Every attempt at that has gone horribly. They should (and seem to be) embracing the campy, cheesy dialog and generic space adventure story. That's the sort of story people like from Star Fox. Not like depressed Krystal leaving Fox to find love with Wolf or junk like that.

At least Falco joined F-Zero in one of the endings of Command. ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[KennyLinder]

naw, SF64 was like a two hour game, +3 if you went back and did the alt courses.

I used to clear Normal route on 3DS SF64 on my lunch break, less than an hour.

But yeah, definitely has arcade routes.

 

[El Odio]

Attempting to get the warp on Sector X, and it leads you into Sector Z... Bleagh(I didn't like Sector Z).

I'd have killed fir a stage select in 64 for sector Zs medal alone. Absolutely frustrating to have it stolen at the last second and have to redo most of the game again.

Guard is $15 and if you buy both Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard digitally you get $5 off.

Edit: I can appreciate the added value and instead of waiting, it made me go ahead and decide to pick it up since Guard adds value to the overall package.

My bad. I was assuming since it's $10 in the physical bundle it was $10 digitally as well.

 

[KennyLinder]

Man, reviews are all over the place... Personally, Star Fox Zero is the most fun game on Wii U for the very long time, and I had a great time with it! Star Fox Guard is smaller but a bit more polished experience, so I'm not surprised at it performing better.

Is there just one control option? The motion aiming?

 

[TheSlySoul]

On DS? the one that cost 30 bucks? yeah.
NSMBU had tons of collectibles and the bonus stages, well worth the price.

Oh I agree with you. Honestly I think Zero should have been $40 and Guard at $10, which Guard is free with any purchase of Zero. However, Nintendo tends to overprice their games.

I think this is a game you have to play to judge.

 

[GhostTrick]

Keep story well out of the Star Fox series. Every attempt at that has gone horribly. They should (and seem to be) embracing the campy, cheesy dialog and generic space adventure story. That's the sort of story people like from Star Fox. Not like depressed Krystal leaving Fox to find love with Wolf or junk like that.

Story in Star Fox series should stay. But keep it the same way it is in SF 64. Introduction, mission briefings, mission dialogues, fight dialogues and ending.

 

[SmackCrackleNPop]

I'm looking forward to this game, day 1 purchase!

 

[georly]

Oh I agree with you. Honestly I think Zero should have been $40 and Guard at $10, which Guard is free with any purchase of Zero. However, Nintendo tends to overprice their games.

I think this is a game you have to play to judge.

I don't deny that starfox isn't worth the price to some people. It's definitely not, in this day and age. It 100% is to me, as I plan on replaying it a ton and getting better scores and playing on harder difficulties to 100% the game. Combined with guard, I expect to clock in at least 20 hours in this. If a 60 dollar title can get 20 hours out of me, i'd say it's worth it. Way cheaper than most other forms of entertainment.

That said, I don't think most people will get 20 hours out of this. Those people probably should rent the game or wait for a price drop.

 

[Lunar15]

Is there just one control option? The motion aiming?

Two: You can move the reticle with motion controls 100% of the time, or set it so that it only moves around while firing.

 

[mStudios]

is a game scoring from 6-8 now mediocre?

wow

 

[Mory Dunz]

The NX is primed to have the best development teams release content within the first year of launch though. Imagine if a EAD Mario Team game, Zelda Game and Retro studios game all came out within 2016-2017. All haven't put out a game in quite some time, so imagine they are already fairly far along.

I'd buy one in a second.

Well....yeah, definitely. Me too.

But my understanding is that those people haven't liked those main games.

The complaints seem to go:
Not a real 3D Mario
2D Mario is lackluster
Splatoon is liked and disliked (gets more dislikes when compared with "real shooters" I think)
Zelda is divisive as eff (for some reason...)
Zelda ports have been mixed reception (zelda handheld ports have been liked across the board though)
Even DK TF wasn't given the praise it deserved imo (too many platformers complaint)
Console Kirby was bad
Console Star Fox is bad
Console Yoshi is too many platformers (fits into DK's complaint too)
Smash 4 ain't melee (but that's a rather small sect saying this at least)
Mario Kart has had universal acclaim but some people hate it cause no battle mode
"Nintendo's first party efforts have been lacking this gen"


So basically what I'm saying is, if someone hasn't liked the production of Nintendo the past few years, why are you excited for NX lol? You'll just get these same games, but in 1-2 years instead of 4 years.

And that includes the pieces of garbage like mario tennis, Amiibo crossing, etc. NX will have those as well. It just seemed weird to me.

 

[TheSlySoul]

I don't deny that starfox isn't worth the price to some people. It's definitely not, in this day and age. It 100% is to me, as I plan on replaying it a ton and getting better scores and playing on harder difficulties to 100% the game. Combined with guard, I expect to clock in at least 20 hours in this. If a 60 dollar title can get 20 hours out of me, i'd say it's worth it. Way cheaper than most other forms of entertainment.

That said, I don't think most people will get 20 hours out of this. Those people probably should rent the game or wait for a price drop.

I wish I rented the Kirby Wii U game, I was so disappointed with how simple it was.
However, I feel like Zero cannot be worse than Rainbow Curse, Mario Tennis, and Amiibo Festival and I bought them all. If it can bring a solid Star Fox experience, it is worth it to me.

 

[jdstorm]

Yeah it's a pity, I guess Star Fox in its true form might as well go back into the dark because it has no place in modern gaming

I don't think that's true at all. Mechanically at least. Uncharted 4 is one of the most anticipated games of the year and that series is essentially a rail shooter.

I think Star Fox suffers in its aesthetics and it's devotion to outdated characters that never really worked even on the origional N64/3DS version

 

[Nanashrew]

Story in Star Fox series should stay. But keep it the same way it is in SF 64. Introduction, mission briefings, mission dialogues, fight dialogues and ending.

I agree with this. Every time they've tried to make the story much bigger with more and more cutscenes and dialogue, the worse it got. A simple story of good versus evil power struggle is all that's needed. Nothing extravagant.

 

[DownGrader]

Is there just one control option? The motion aiming?

There are two control options:
- full motion aiming, where you can constantly move the reticle with gyro
- "motion on ZR" option, where the reticle is controlled just like in Star Fox 64 until you shoot - and when you shoot or charge the shot, you can move the reticle. Kinda feels like gyro aim assist in Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

 

[KennyLinder]

Two: You can move the reticle with motion controls 100% of the time, or set it so that it only moves around while firing.

But all aiming is done via the Game Pad? You can't play it like traditional SF?

 

[GabeTheGrouch76]

While I would love offtv play, I'd rather they go further like they have with Zero, I can already play SF64 on my Wii U, I don't need another. Is this true, I thought it even had a separate mode for this? Multiplayer was cool, but like Splatoon, I can understand why they cut it due to the gameplay mechanics. Instead we get co-op, which for me is a fair trade, since my co-op partner wouldn't have fun playing multiplayer against me.

Well, to each their own, as this bit on multiplayer and branching levels seems to be more on preference. I really liked what SF64 did with its branching level system and multiplayer and want to see it done with a new game, even extended further in some cases (i.e. online multiplayer). And as others have said, the branching system is part and parcel of SF's gameplay and replayability, and the multiplayer component in SF64 is a big reason why the game is a classic. So for Zero to proclaim itself as a revival of classic SF gameplay and pay tons of homage to SF64, while also skip over those features is pretty crappy in my book.

That and on what I'd argue is a less subjective perspective, I don't see why we supposedly have to choose between keeping the competitive multiplayer from the previous games and Zero's co-op multiplayer. The game could had been designed to support both features. New additions can be great and evolve the gameplay, but not at the cost of something else.

 

[Lunar15]

But all aiming is done via the Game Pad? You can't play it like traditional SF?

You can't make it so that the reticle doesn't move with the motion controls. If you do the second option and don't move the controller, it's as close to traditional as you can get.

The game is built around the idea that you'll want to aim with motion controls though.

 

[Lunar15]

I don't deny that starfox isn't worth the price to some people. It's definitely not, in this day and age. It 100% is to me, as I plan on replaying it a ton and getting better scores and playing on harder difficulties to 100% the game. Combined with guard, I expect to clock in at least 20 hours in this. If a 60 dollar title can get 20 hours out of me, i'd say it's worth it. Way cheaper than most other forms of entertainment.

That said, I don't think most people will get 20 hours out of this. Those people probably should rent the game or wait for a price drop.

I just hope you like the game. I was super stoked to play this game and really wanted a new star fox. I had some worries about the controls, but I figured the extra time in the oven would sort that out. I'd done absolutely everything you could do in SNES and 64 and loved them to death.

Zero was disappointing for me, to say the least.

Dammit, Double Post.

 

[NotLiquid]

is a game scoring from 6-8 now mediocre?

wow

If you subscribe to the idea that reviewers rate on a four point academic scale then... I guess. But most review outlets tend to make it a case not to treat it as such. Plenty of sites like IGN tend to append their scores with a sentiment of "Good" or such when you reach a score around 7, Destructoid and Jim Sterling notably make comprehensive guides about how they employ the full point spectrum, and ironically enough the games section on Metacritic is the only section on that site that rates games on a seemingly academic metric (since music and movies tend to have "positive" reception even in high 60s).

It's generally a lot easier to make the point that Star Fox Zero is some crushing disappointment of mediocrity after a tepid circumstance, even in the face of reviews that for the most of the part have positive but not necessarily great things to say, or divisive rather. I dunno, if anything I expected the reception of the game to be much lower, but this result had me rather surprised and I'm actually quite okay with the overall consensus.

 

[bumpkin]

As long as I can fly the Arwing with a stick and move a reticle around on the main TV using the gyro, I'll be happy. That's basically how Splatoon controls and I got used to that eventually.

 

[georly]

I just hope you like the game. I was super stoked to play this game and really wanted a new star fox. I'd done absolutely everything you could do in SNES and 64 and loved them to death.

Zero was disappointing for me, to say the least.

Dammit, Double Post.

Hope I do, too. Hope our experiences are not similar. I'm getting it regardless, though, so nintendo wins, I guess.

 

[atr0cious]

I don't see why we supposedly have to choose between keeping the competitive multiplayer from the previous games and Zero's co-op multiplayer. The game could had been designed to support both options. New additions can are great, but not at the cost of something else.

Absolutely agree with this, but like splatoon and other games, Nintendo doesn't really compromise on their mechanics, so i think coop was more throwing us a bone than anything, which I'll gladly take. If the wii u was at the point where 2 gamepads where on the system, i bet we'd be seeing an entirely different offering.

 

[shortsFortallPeople]

I used to clear Normal route on 3DS SF64 on my lunch break, less than an hour.

But yeah, definitely has arcade routes.

That's what I mean. One course took about an hour tops. You're not supposed to stop with the basic course.

well my 2-3 hour campaign number is for first timers. Naturally, any runs done after that tends to be much shorter as you learn the stages and become better at the game

 

[fhqwhgads]

is a game scoring from 6-8 now mediocre?

wow

It's been this way for ages now. Metacritic doesn't help with how it marks 7/10 games as "average/mixed" scores.

 

[dreamlongdead]

People who are complaining about the length have clearly never played a Star Fox game or basically any other rail shooter before.

Even though a single playthrough of SF64 was between one to two hours, I got a lot of mileage out of it. There were a good of number of alternate stage routes, and the game itself was simply fun to replay.

I read the entire Kat Bailey review from USGamer, and this game actually seems like a regression from 64.

$50 for the Star Fox Zero + Guard package is certainly not outrageous, but the value is questionable because this 2016 release may not be up to Star Fox 64 standards (which are admittedly difficult for many games to reach).

Zero's Arwing sections would have to be really damn good to justify the entire package since there appears to be a lot of weak moments.

In contrast, Star Fox 64 is consistently fun from start to finish. It keeps the action going without crappy gimmicky stages or a convoluted control scheme. My only issue with it is generally low boss difficulty aside from the final boss (who was pleasantly challenging).

If you only have a Wii U, you might as well buy it so that you have something to play. Other people should probably either rent or buy it on sale.

 

[AdanVC]

I don't know if I can reasonably agree with sports or party type games since those as you say are typically iterative. I don't expect many changes between the Mario Party games for example, though it'd be nice if the Tennis games on console offered the RPG functionality of some of their handheld cousins. I don't think Paper Jam or NSMBU offer recycled environs though. Can you give me an example from those? At the least, I would say there is nothing on the level of SF0 or YNI where the levels themselves are often remarkably similar in appearance or design.

Absolutely, it's not like their recent games are a shameful carbon copy. They have lot's of new stuff to make it feel fresh enough, the problem is that Nintendo's most recent outputs don't have that certain magic that makes each title stand on their very own. I believe the last Nintendo title that was able to do that was Splatoon and it's been almost a year since it released. I think all of this similarities we're talking has to do on the way Nintendo has been "rushing" some of their recent released games since they are working hard on NX and all of their truly original and perhaps, revolutionary titles are going to appear there now. Hope it can be that! I think I'm just salty becauseSF Zero is going to cost $80 freaking bucks here in Mexico and that's simply depressing as well : (

 

[Bubble Walrus]

Just played the 1st level. If you enjoy Peppy screaming "USE MOTION CONTROLS" at you, then you're going to LOVE it!

 

[Crom]

Standards change over the course of multiple decades. Crazy I know.

If by standards you mean "unnecessarily adding in mindless brain numbing repetitive filler to prolong the length of a game" then yes standards have changed.

 

[Vire]

is a game scoring from 6-8 now mediocre?

wow

When there's a swath of games that just released and have generally scored significantly better, it's definitely worth a pause for thought.

April was an amazing month for games with releases like: Dark Souls 3, Ratchet and Clank, Hyper Light Drifter and Enter the Gungeon all scoring in the 85 or higher range on metacritic. Unless you are a Nintendo only gamer, there's a lot else to consider instead that are potentially much better values for the price.

 

[Dad]

is a game scoring from 6-8 now mediocre?

wow

Here's Star Fox's OpenCritic page

Notice how at 72, the game is weighted just under the average score for all games reviewed. Most game reviews use an academic scale with the average at 7.5 instead of a full point scale, and they have for a long time. Whether or not you agree with that is up for discussion, but I'll never understand people that pour into these threads and feign surprise that a 7 is generally considered mediocre.

 

[Theorymon]

Yeah this game reviewed about as well as I expected. Honestly though, after hating all the other Starfox sequels, something that's like Starfox 64 again sounds like a fresh of breath air to me, so I think I'll take my chances!

 

[JTCx]

I've seen multiple gameplay vids and something has sort of bothered me, is there no voice overs for the character dialogs during gameplay? Thats kind of a bummer if not.

 

[Lunar15]

I've seen multiple gameplay vids and something has sort of bothered me, is there no voice overs for the character dialogs during gameplay? Thats kind of a bummer if not.

It's all pumped through the Gamepad. That's why TV capture doesn't get the audio for voice overs.

 

[hatchx]

I was hopeful the game would blow us away, but these reviews are kind of in-line with what I expected. I actually feared much worse.

Watching and reading the reviews, the game sounds good, and I'm still excited. A B-tier game at its finest, with nostalgic presentation and a unique, albeit not perfect, control scheme. I can't help but look at Project Guard as a bonus pack-in rathe than its own game, which only adds to the experience. Guard looks far better than I ever expected (I never expected it at all to be honest)

I'm really excited to play this co-op too.

 

[georly]

It's all pumped through the Gamepad. That's why TV capture doesn't get the audio for voice overs.

Wait whatttt? Sigh. Ok. I gues... ok.

 

[Kriken]

Assault basically tried this. It was received worse than this was (which is still what I'd like to call an "okay/average" game by every definition).

The biggest problem with SFA was that it was something like 60:40 arwing to on foot missions and the on foot stuff was mediocre at best

 

[Lunar15]

Wait whatttt? Sigh. Ok. I gues... ok.

This was a pretty weird choice. There's no option to change it either.

 

[Nanashrew]

If by standards you mean "unnecessarily adding in mindless brain numbing repetitive filler to prolong the length of a game" then yes standards have changed.

Well... That sort of thing has been standard since the early days of gaming. Put in a lot of filler so people won't sell it back as soon as possible. I do agree that it has gotten worse since the early days and have just made games so bloated that it can become very unfun and overwhelming.

The cycle that game companies have put themselves in for content bloat and filler was and always is an unnecessary one that makes many games a one time play because the player doesn't want to slog through all of that again. They're still battling the used market in the same exact way as before and some like MS before their 180 trying to bypass that just like many other game companies before them in this industry.

The more things change yadda yadda.

 

[Vire]

I don't understand the purpose for the lack of options? Why not allow pro controller support instead of this weird game pad setup?

 

[georly]

This was a pretty weird choice. There's no option to change it either.

I assume if there were, we'd have video of the voices

I don't understand the purpose for the lack of options? Why not allow pro controller support instead of this weird game pad setup?

Miyamoto.


But probably "See guys, the gamepad wasn't worthless! Trust us, you just have to learn how to use it. No we're not going to let you see if another way is better"

 

[TheSlySoul]

It's all pumped through the Gamepad. That's why TV capture doesn't get the audio for voice overs.

Oh wow, guess that is one way to ruin Let's Plays of it.

 

[Lunar15]

I don't understand the purpose for the lack of options? Why not allow pro controller support instead of this weird game pad setup?

The game design is somewhat built around using motion controls to aim. You need it.

 

[NotLiquid]

Here's Star Fox's OpenCritic page

Notice how at 72, the game is weighted just under the average score for all games reviewed. Most game reviews use an academic scale with the average at 7.5 instead of a full point scale, and they have for a long time. Whether or not you agree with that is up for discussion, but I'll never understand people that pour into these threads and feign surprise that a 7 is generally considered mediocre.

I'm pretty sure the sentiment has less to do with what Metacritic or OpenCritic consider an academically weighted scale and more to how people interpret that score. If the average of this game was 75 which is considered the baseline of "positive" I don't actually see anyone really giving a shit that it'd be 3 decimals higher than what it is currently. At what point do you get the impression that this minimal difference separates a mediocre game from a good one?

And as has been mentioned, most major publications who do rate a game for a 7/10 don't do so under a "mediocre" impression. That's why IGN's impression for a game that gets this kind of rating is "Good". It's okay for it to be considered that way. This isn't an academy paper being written and journalists aren't teachers. It's only really aggregators like Metacritic that exemplify the academic distinction which is conspicuously absent from when they average movies or music.

 

[Wagram]

I can't remember the last time the Nintendo first party has been this divisive (as a whole). This year has been strikingly divisive with their games.

Either way though, these scores seem solid enough and expected really.