Star Fox Zero

[Shadow Fire]

 
Director: Yugo Hayashi, Yusuke Hashimoto
 
Producers: Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Tadashi Sugiyama, Atsushi Inaba
 
Music: Koji Kondo, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Yukari Suita, Hitomi Kurokawa, Naofumi Harada, Rei Kondoh, Keiki Kobayashi
 
Starring: Mike West, Jaz Adams, Lyssa Browne, Mark Lund, Jay Ward, Ja Green, David Frederick White
 
Rating:
 
 
Plot
The Lylat system is shaken up by a surprise, unprovoked attack from the evil Andross' army. It's up to ace fighter Fox McCloud, and the Star Fox team to put an end to the evil scientist's reign of terror.
 
 
Review
First and foremost, just about everyone who plays this game, or wants to play it, will fondly remember Star Fox 64. To cater to old fans, that's precisely what this game seems to be; a retelling of the hit classic. Many of the lines of dialogue, as well as locations and characters are taken directly from Star Fox 64. However, this game provides enough of a change for it to be refreshing, and not just a complete carbon copy of the N64 classic.

The voice actors return from Star Fox 64, and a lot of work has been put into this game's sound and music, providing a fresh take on things, while retaining some of those familiar melodies in some way, shape or form. However, the visuals have received a massive overhaul, and the models of the characters and enemies are beautiful to look at. The environments are gorgeous, and very full of life. The amount of detail that went into the textures makes me feel like Nintendo are really focusing on bringing the quality of their visuals to the modern day.

The Arwing is back, and is the main method of taking on the levels. However, they now have the ability to transform into the Walker (affectionately referred to by me as "Chicken Legs"), allowing for ground movement, with a simple press of a button. Also returning is the Landmaster, although the Blue Marine has been replaced. Instead, the game introduces the Gyrowing, a small support craft with light weaponry, but a neat little feature is available; a small robot known as Direct-i. This little guy can hack into terminals, disabling enemy fortifications, simply by touching them. In addition, by using specific amiibo, you can change how you play. The Fox amiibo changes the team's Arwings into their Retro forms, from the SNES classic, Star Fox. While cool, there is a setback; the inability to lock onto enemies. Likewise, the Falco amiibo turns Fox's ship into the Black Arwing, which increases damage dealt to enemies, while also increasing damage dealt to you, effectively acting as Expert Mode.

The controls, on the other hand, take a lot of getting used to, and have directly contributed to a lot of cheap deaths, or damage being taken by me. Motion controls are pretty much required to effectively play. The screen displays as the previous games did, but the Gamepad is cockpit view, which is essential for precision aiming. No longer is the A button used for firing. Instead, the ZR button is used. The A button now changes between Arwing and Walker. Somersaults are performed by either pulling down on the left analog stick, and pushing up on the right analog stick at the same time, or more simply by pressing X. To U-turn, flick both analog sticks down together at the same time (this can only be done in all-range mode). Barrel rolling (it's actually an Aileron Roll, damn it) is done by double tapping the right analog stick in the direction you wish to spin. Clicking the right analog stick is how to fire bombs, and clicking the left analog stick (or alternatively, pressing Y) recalibrates the target reticle to the centre. Trust me, you will be doing this a lot. ZL is used to aim at certain objectives, and while in some cases, it works fine, in most, it's a hindrance.

Unlike Star Fox 64, however, levels can be replayed without having to start from the very beginning and working your way to them. This allows for picking up collectables, or trying to complete the mission in an alternate method. It's a nice change. Unfortunately, the AI can be quite annoying. Star Fox AI is rather dull-witted at times, while enemy AI is perhaps a little too difficult, and quite often cheap (I'm looking at you, Mother Strider, and Andross). I've lost lives several times, because of enemies reacting too fast when they're supposed to be disabled, and my battle with Mother Strider took about a half hour for me to complete. Andross was annoying as hell to defeat, although to be fair, I did actually like the battles I had with Star Wolf.

I have yet to try the game's Co-op style. This basically allows player 1 to control the aiming of the reticle and firing weapons with the Gamepad, while player 2 steers the ship with a Wii U Pro Controller. This seems like a pretty cool idea, and one I'm willing to try sometime in the future.
 
 
Overall
If you're a fan of the Star Fox series, it's definitely worth at least giving a go. If you can look past the awkward motion controls, the horrible camera in some sections, and occasional cheap hits/deaths, you will enjoy this immensely. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to enjoy this as much as I would have liked, because of said awkward controls and cheap AI, but that's not to say this game didn't have its fun elements.