Star Fox Zero Reviews
[T]his is when Star Fox Zero is at its best: a thrilling, fleeting and flawed joyride.
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.
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.
Star Fox Zero tries and fails to blend the nostalgic feel of StarFox 64 with new controls. While the game can be enjoyable and comes with some exciting moments, it is muddled down by unwieldy controls and bland level design.
While Star Fox Zero is brimming with nostalgia and has a lot of redeeming qualities, tons of forced in content and motion controls spoil the game.
Star Fox Zero could be a great game if it could decide what game it wanted to be, and unnecessarily touchy controls, confused pace, underwhelming branching paths, and a serious shift away from its rail shooter roots are what it has to show for trying to be all of them at once.
Star Fox Zero is like visiting a place you remember fondly, but have outgrown
While Star Fox Zero offers up some exhilarating dogfights with a unique control scheme that actually makes motion controls work, its highest highs are let down all too frequently by repetitive, mundane on-rails segments that sour the freedom that the game gives you in short bursts.
Overall, Star Fox Zero was an enjoyable experience, and I would recommend it to any gamer who's willing to take the time and patience to learn the control system. It's definitely worth your while.
The returns of Star Fox is a great experience, brought down a little by frustrating controls.
For a title that people have been awaiting for years, Star Fox Zero falls a bit short. It continues the Star Fox legacy in a nostalgic and venerable way, but its controls and length hamper its greatness. It is a good game, yet somewhere underneath its main problems is a fantastic one.
Star Fox Zero is a great return to the Star Fox formula. But at the same time, it's way too similar to Star Fox 64. While it is fundamentally a reboot, it does bring a lot of new things to the table...just not enough. It's a good framework for a sequel.
Star Fox Zero follows the classic structure of its predecessors and tops it off with a new control system that will make or break how the players perceive Nintendo's latest opus in the Star Fox series. It could certainly benefit from a more luxurious visual environment but once its new control system has been mastered, the players will find this new collectables-packed journey across the Lylat system nothing short of rewarding and satisfying.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
There are plenty of nostalgic aspects present in this crisp and beautiful high-definition title, reminiscent of games gone by. At the same time it shakes things up with some drastic changes to the game play that can be too jarring for some to want to put up with, making it a bit of a black sheep to many. For those who take the time to master the play style, however, it is incredibly rewarding and satisfying.
Star Fox Zero is a fun trip back to the days of the Super FX chip on the SNES, but for a modern sci-fi shooter on the Wii U it feels a bit threadbare.
Surely if Nintendo thought it was time to bring back Star Fox now there'd be some big things in store, right?
Star Fox Zero's status as a love-letter to the past is solidified. While it does a good job channeling a lot of what was great about Star Fox 64, it fails to really build on it in new and exciting ways, and stumbles because of the Wii U Gamepad.
Star Fox Zero serves as a good way to please fans and get new players on board, but the occasional control issues can be slightly frustrating. Feel free to forget about Guard, though.