Star Fox Zero + Star Fox Guard – Nintendo Wii U

What can I say that hasn’t been already said. This game is either a remake, or a reboot of Star Fox 64 (or perhaps an alternate universe?) With that said, the game itself is amazing, fun, addictive, but sadly one of the biggest challenges in this game will be getting used to the controls. Aiming with those clunky motion controls sounds great, but you constantly need to recalibrate that reticle so you can shoot where you want to.
The graphics are beautiful, the music… it could have been a little more memorable, however a lot of the scores are pretty nostalgic. The game does have a level of challenge to it, and you really feel like you are inside an air/space craft once you get into the game, and more importantly, when you beat that one challenging boss/battle/planet that has you gripping your hairs, you actually feel that sense of accomplishment. Since you can choose where you want to go, that tarnishes the replay value a bit, and some of the secrets in this game are found by hand-holding events that trigger after you beat another planet ahead in the story, so don’t expect to be looking for too many secrets like in Star Fox 64; there are some, you just don’t unlock them the way it was in the old days. Some say that is bad, some say that is good, my personal opinion is that I like it, but I’m not terribly fond of this method.
Note that I only touched the first level of Star Fox Guard and I am… admittedly not a fan of "Guard the Castle" type of games. It’s a decent one, but confusing to me, and not worth the effort needed to get used to.

I had like warm hopes for this game to begin with, but upon playing it for the first time, I am very disappointed. The control scheme makes this game unplayable in my opinion. Constantly having to look back and forth between the game pad and tv, the constant nagging to use motion controls, the multiple control modes with no option to choose which one you want to use all make this a frustrating experience. I don’t even want to play past the first level it’s so bad. Nintendo is really forcing the game pad down the player’s throat with this one and it ruins this game.

Also, I liked it better when the characters didn’t talk, like in the SNES version.

Nintendo tried something new with this Star Fox game. Unfortunately, I think they went in the wrong direction.

My problem with the game is the dual-screen nature of it. It’s hard to keep track of two screens at the same time. Constantly having to switch between the gamepad and the main display is disjointing. It becomes frustrating when you realize the main display targeting cursor is frequently wrong. The cursors on the main display are the same ones used for the cockpit view. Since the main display is always behind the vehicle there is always a parallax error. If Nintendo were to fix this it would make the game significantly better.

I don’t really have a problem with the motion controls. In fact, I like that you can aim at something other than where you’re pointing! The developers could have accomplished this with the right stick instead of the motion controls, but it’s really not too bad when it works. Unfortunately, the gamepad has to be frequently recalibrated in the middle of a map. The frequency of recalibration means that you’ll be fighting against the motion controls or surprised by what they’re doing more often than you should. Recalibration is so fast it’s not a big deal, but it does harm the experience.

I’d like to see Nintendo focus on the core Star Fox game next time they make one. I feel like Zero was designed by committee to showcase Wii U tech, not take advantage of it in a meaningful way. Zero is not a bad game, but it is a mediocre game marred by a lack of focus and too many things going on at the same time. Star Fox 64 is a much tighter experience. The only part of Zero that I enjoyed was Sector Omega.