We’ve asked, we’ve waited and now it’s almost here. After eight years without a new journey into the Lylat System, Star Fox Zero will get us reacquainted with Fox and his band of mercenaries. Stepping onto Nintendo’s show floor at E3 this year showed that this title was their main focus, with multiple demo kiosks, model Arwings hanging from above, and a cockpit set up for eager gamers to experience the demo in. As the title that I was most eager to check out, we made sure to jump in and catch up with the crew.
Consisting of two stages, Corneria and Area 3, each one provided a very different take on what piloting the Arwing would require. First, Corneria feels very familiar to the Star Fox 64 version of the stage, complete with sets of three to five enemies conveniently bundled up to fit in your charge shot’s blast range, bridges, arches and mountains to fly through on your way to the city itself, and giant red robots twirling girders in your way. Once in the city, the team switches from the on rails shooter style to All Range Mode, which allows us to dogfight in a 3D space. New enemies take advantage of new features, namely the walker mode for the Arwing, which allows it to battle and access hidden areas on the ground. Adapting to this change, some enemies can only be destroyed when damaged from above, so properly managing these two forms is a must if you expect to survive.
As expected from the series, the stage closes out with a giant boss fight, where Fox must damage certain weak points that are identified by the returning Peppy Hare. And when we say big, we really mean it, since this ship was large enough to run on with the land form, allowing us to attack from different perspectives. A new, third play style exclusive to this section fixes the camera in a more cinematic perspective on the TV, requiring you to focus on the Gamepad exclusive Cockpit Mode. Fixed in a first person perspective, these portions aim to put you in the fight, with each explosion, bogie and hit being as in your face as possible.
Moving on to Area 3, this stage looked to mirror the large scale All Range battles that some of Star Fox 64‘s best moments took place in. Here is where your maneuvering skills become key, and when the biggest changes in the control scheme comes into play. With no C-Buttons to press, most of those moves have been mapped to the right stick. Tilting up and down still boost and brake respectively, while flicking the sticks up and down or vice versa uses the summersault and U-turn moves, for when you need to outrun enemies on your tail. The lean and barrel roll functions have been moved from the shoulder buttons to the right stick as well, so holding the direction will lead to faster turns, while a double tap will deflect enemy fire. The biggest change however, comes with the Game Pad’s gyro functionality, where rotating the control will move your ship’s reticle. This ability to fine tune your aim is a welcomed one, since aiming no longer requires moving your whole ship. A controversial move to be sure, some might have problems with their aim getting thrown off. To me however, it worked like a dream, only improving the experience when trying to take out Star Wolf’s self-proclaimed ace pilot, Pigma.
Not quite sequel and not quite prequel, Star Fox Zero feels like the reboot the series has desperately needed. By reuniting the old team and taking us to familiar locales, it was easy to see that the series is back in top form. There were a few small issues, namely getting used to the new control mapping, some camera rotation issues, and perspective problems on land, but nothing to take away with how amazing Star Fox is on such a larger scale. But with so many answers comes a few questions, namely, whether or not Krystal will make an appearance. All in due time, I suppose.
What say you, gamer? What do you hope to see from Star Fox Zero when it arrives this holiday season?