Star Fox Zero has been one of the most anticipated Wii U games of the year, and even though it doesn’t release until Friday, many sites have already put up their reviews. It looks as though Star Fox Zero didn’t impress critics as well as people thought, with the game scoring an average metacritic score of 72. Even with Platinum games behind it, critics didn’t forgive the game’s motion controls or its short length.
One of the common positives for Star Fox Zero is its similarities to Star Fox 64. The game has the same kind of aerial action, witty dialogue, and giant boss battles that made the series popular. The boss battles have been especially well received, as they are even bigger than the ones in Star Fox 64, and dodging attacks and finding their weak spots is immensely satisfying. The game also runs very smooth at 60 FPS, although IGN noted “the frame rate dips noticeably under the weight of large explosion effects in a couple big combat arenas.” Many critics did praise the game’s dialogue between your co-pilots, which adds some charm to its short campaign. It should be noted that the game is more of a reboot of the series, as Fox hasn’t met Andross yet and is still trying to get along with his crew.
Star Fox Zero still has the exciting action, varied stages, and the fun of flying your Arwing. Tilting your Arwing sideways to get through a tight spot is still satisfying after almost 20 years. Of course, many critics criticized that the game is too similar to Star Fox 64, with Giant Bomb writing “years of disappointing follow-ups and the overall progression of the industry leads to Star Fox Zero having the impact of an HD rerelease rather than a full sequel.” But Star Fox Zero did make some big changes to how the game controls, which is also one of its biggest problems.
Much like Kid Icarus: Uprising, awkward controls might be Star Fox Zero’s most glaring issue. Although it’s not unplayable, using two different perspectives on the gamepad and the TV felt awkward at first to critics. The TV has a third person view of the action, while the gamepad has a first person view through the Arwing’s cockpit. The main problem with the control scheme is that the third person view’s reticle is less accurate than the gamepad’s reticle, meaning if you want to shoot something accurately you have to look through the gamepad. Switching between views isn’t a deal breaker, but it seems to create a disconnect between moving and shooting. In Star Fox 64 you had to always be moving and shooting to navigate the area, but in Zero more focus is put on shooting accurately rather than shooting fast. Many critics have said that they got used to the motion controls after an hour of playing, but it’s pretty heavily implied that the game would have worked better with just one perspective and a controller. Even though you can adjust the motion controls and change the perspective on your TV with the press of a button, the game still doesn’t have the fluidity that Star Fox 64 perfected.
The second biggest complaint of the game is the length. Although Star Fox Zero’s Campaign is meant to be played multiple times and has branching paths to discover, the average campaign only lasts about five hours, with skilled players being able to beat it in 1 to 2 hours. And although the banter between the cast is fun, the story and characters are basically the same as Star Fox 64. I’m sure the length wouldn’t be such a problem if the game was $40 or less, but paying $60 for a five hour campaign is a really hard sell.
It looks like Star Fox Zero might not be the Wii U seller that Nintendo was hoping for, even with the high fan anticipation and the involvement of Platinum games. It sounds as though anyone who was excited for the game will still have a blast playing it, but from an objective standpoint the controls really hinder the game’s potential. We’ll see how Star Fox Zero does when it is officially released on Wii U on April 22nd.