Finally, the last Star Fox game in this marathon...and it's on the Wii U...Uh Oh! Shiggy is back to fuck everything up again isn't he? All right, lets get this over with.
Star Fox Zero, developed by Nintendo and Platinum Games and published by Nintendo, it was released in 2016. Wait, Platinum Games...as in Bayonetta Platinum Games. HOT DAMN, this should be...oh, Shigeru is the producer...well crap.
So for the story...wait...it's a remake, and the plot is the one from Star Fox and 64? According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the game is neither a prequel nor a strict remake of Star Fox 64. And when I describe this game, that quote will be a massive contradiction. And for those who really wanted Krystal in the game...I'm guessing Shiggy checked Rule 34 and realised he wasn't having any of that shit.
In fact, the game is near enough a remake of Star Fox 64 regardless of what Shiggy says. You are once again Fox McCloud as you pilot your Arwing, shooting enemies along with your usual motley crew of Falco, Peppy and Slippy...and they're all useless as they were back in the day. The gameplay is near enough the same with all the usual manoeuvrers, we also have the Rail Shooting, All-Range Mode and bosses to boot. There's also secret paths to go through just like 64 and the ability to get medals for completing certain objectives, as well as choosing to do this or that in specific levels.
But there are two bonuses and you can get two Amiibo if you want it NOW. If you have the Fox Amiibo, your Arwing will turn into the version from the original Star Fox game on the SNES, it can't target anything but the blast radius is much bigger to compensate for it, and if you have the Falco Amiibo (Like the one I have), you get the Black Arwing, there you get more firepower but you take more damage, so which one will you pick?
From Star Fox 2, we have the Walker, letting you walk around when possible, then at one point, you'll use the Landmaster, that tank that lets you shoot everything but works similarly to the Walker. New to this game however is the Gyrowing, a helicopter-like vehicle of the sorts where you can drop a small robot to hack into screens and go into small areas the Gyrowing can't...and it's only for one mission because the Walker gains the hacking mechanic later on. NICE ONE!
So all that's left is the...controls. Oh boy here we go! So, on the screen of your TV, the action is in third-person, whilst the gamepad is in a cockpit. Now you can move your Arwing with motion controls...well BOLLOCKS TO THAT! I'm using the left control sticks to move and right to tilt...although the game still relies on you to use motion controls for aiming since in cockpit mode, it's where your aim is more accurate to an extent. You can also use the control sticks to perform different manoeuvrers like the somersault and the U-Turn...which the game never tells you about...yeah, I didn't know how the U-Turn worked because the Tutorial didn't tell me...oh, and you can just use the face buttons to perform these manoeuvers. And overall...it's a complete mixed bag. So my experience of this game using these controls are as follows:
Rail Shooting = Really good, has all the great elements of a Star Fox game, particularly Star Fox 64.
All-Range Mode = Terrible, having to bop my head between the TV and gamepad, gameplay can be intrusive it's something I could get used to but I never had any fun with it due to the camera not being all that great in that mode.
Bosses = THE FUCKING WORST! Nice getting hit multiple times whilst you're trying to dodge with controls that feel awful to control in these parts, especially in the Gigarilla boss where the camera screwing you over all the time and I have to turn the gamepad awkwardly to get to the target UH I HATE THESE BOSSES!
So yeah, my experience with the gameplay is mixed, I mean I did get used to the controls in some places and when it worked properly, it was fun to play, but it gets overshadowed by how much misery I had to put up with in some levels because of the controls, and this is a 2-3 hour game, yep, a 2-3 hour game because of course I'm not paying £40 for 2-3 hours of gameplay...I'm paying around £10 for that and I'm only making an exception for it because it's Star Fox.
The graphics are great for the Wii U and the level design is fantastic, it definitely looks like a modern Star Fox game. The music is not too bad either, though again, it uses music from Star Fox 64 to remind you that YES, Star Fox 64 exists.
Oh, there is also it's downloadable counterpart, Star Fox Guard...but it's a tower defence game, so I don't think I'm missing much, but if I ever get it for whatever reason, I'll do a mini-review on it...maybe.
Overall, Star Fox Zero is...OK, it's not the best game in the Star Fox series and it's not even the worst (that goes to Adventures and Command), but this was a game that was going to give us the next-gen Star Fox experience we all wanted. It was a shame it came out on a console that relied on gimmicks to be noticed and look how that turned out. The gameplay overall wasn't entirely fun and looking back, it's a game I don't think I'll ever come back to. If you want to great Star Fox experience, play Star Fox 64 as it's similar to Zero but has the better controls, heck, the 3DS version is a must-play, but in terms of Zero...this is only for the curious.
Damn, poor Star Fox. Although the series had many classics, one of which could have been the best SNES title ever produced, it's a series that Nintendo has NO idea what to do with it, so we either get lackluster games or the series being absent at this point. But I enjoyed my time with a series that went above and beyond when it came to 3D graphics on home consoles at the time and now 3D graphics is the video gaming industry's bread and butter.
So, most of you want my views on the Star Fox team being in the Nintendo Switch port of Starlink: Battle for Atlas. Welp, I'll ask you a question, did you even care about Starlink before anything Star Fox related was announced? Probably not, that's the point, it took Star Fox to get people interested...in the Switch port that is, and I'm guessing Ubisoft will be Nintendo's small area to scrunch up obscure franchises and chuck them over there every year, who knows. I mean the Star Fox series isn't technically dead, just trying to stay relevant elsewhere until then.
And that's it for the Star Fox franchise for now. Either it changes it's identity to stay relevant whilst being faithful to its universe or just die, the world is a random place, with space animals around.