Star Fox Zero Reviews
Star Fox Zero reunites gamers with its beloved cast of characters, and although it's not always a smooth flight, there's a lot to love about this new take on a familiar formula.
Platinum Games takes a quirky experiment and fleshes it out into a enjoyable Star Fox revival that's stretched a little too thin.
Star Fox Zero's fun stages and impressive boss fight give me lot of reasons to jump back in and play them over and over, and especially enjoyed them in co-op until I got a hang of juggling two screens myself. I've played 15 hours and I still haven't found everything. Learning to use the unintuitive controls is a difficult barrier to entry, though it comes with a payoff if you can stick with it.
There is a good game somewhere inside Star Fox Zero, but its forced reliance on the Gamepad's screen and motion controls cause it to barrel roll right into mediocrity.
Star Fox Zero is like visiting a place you remember fondly, but have outgrown
The first full-fledged Star Fox game in years mixes classic stylings with unconventional controls. But does it deliver?
It's the Star Fox game you wanted...in 2002.
Even after I found a way to wield its unwieldy controls, the game underneath those controls is a lukewarm retread. As a flagship Nintendo console release or even as a worthy sequel to a once-great franchise, Star Fox Zero just doesn't cut it.
Despite all these pressing and quite glaring faults, there is a good game and pleasant experience to be salvaged from out of Star Fox Zero's momentary, lofty set-pieces and short-lived moments of daring adventure.
Star Fox Zero may have experienced a rather turbulant flight to market but the end result has been well worth the wait, especially if you're a fan of the N64 instalment - and there can be few Star Fox fans out there who aren't.
It's a little sad that Star Fox Zero, a game that wonderfully shows the benefits of the Wii U Gamepad, came out so late in the system's life. Still, it's worth getting for anyone who owns the console, especially if you were a fan of the series in the '90s. Star Fox Adventures now seems like a distant, unpleasant memory.
It's a little short and familiar, but forget Adventures, Assault, and Command, this is the Star Fox game that we should have got a long time ago.
Star Fox Zero is worthy of the name, but a few inconsistencies stop it from hitting the highs it otherwise may well have achieved.
Despite Star Fox Zero's relatively brief story mode (around 4-5 hours, absent the branching paths), the game remains a great value, with Guard's inclusion giving even more incentive to pick up this title.
I had a good time with Star Fox Zero, but it feels like a game whose design is built on contradictions; the desire to have the new targeting control, but with the classic Arwing gameplay keeps both from being entirely functional. It prizes arcade-style progression, but lacks modern concessions for console titles, like adequate checkpoints or multiple difficulty levels. It's at its best when it diverges from traditional gameplay, but does so only fleetingly, as if its scared to commit to different experiences. This mix of playing it safe, relying too heavily on old-school conventions, while also pushing a control scheme that doesn't quite match, makes the points where it works glorious, but only fleetingly fun.
Hearing about how different Star Fox Zero was compared to its inception, it's almost like Miyamoto jettisoned most of the new ideas in favor of playing it safe due to complaints from testers. Even with Platinum's involvement, it's a confusing project that isn't quite sure of itself, wanting to try new things while simultaneously reigning it in. Despite these blemishes, I enjoyed my time with it.
Though Star Fox Guard is presented separately, it is packed in with Star Fox Zero and essentially serves as a mini-game. This repurposed tech demo, once called Project Guard, showed potential when it was first shown off, and that's been realized fairly well here. The tower defense structure does make good use of the dual cameras, forcing you to pay attention and swap on the fly to take out enemies. I did often wish there was a more reliable way to swap camera views, since my thumb was too imprecise but holding the stylus while shooting isn't comfortable. It's a shallow experience on the whole, and not meant for long stretches. While it does offer some longevity, due to the variety of stages, it definitely isn't a reason to pick up the Star Fox Zero package in itself. It will be sold separately for $14.99 on the Nintendo eShop.
As a game that lives and dies on its mechanics, Star Fox Zero is only intermittently successful at selling its dual screen dynamics. It's at its best during the classic Arwing sections, but the Walker form becomes overly fiddly and the different viewpoints often cause more problems than they solve. Sadly it's somewhat fitting that one of the final Wii U first-party games still doesn't convince us on the viability of a dual-screen home console.
Fast e furious: the Fox team is back with an old-school shooter visually underwhelming, but that's a joy to play (even if the control scheme can be a bit tricky).
Review in Italian | Read full review