Star Fox Zero (Wii U)

Fox McCloud, hero of the classic Star Fox series, first climbed into the cockpit of his Arwing all the way back in 1993, on the Super NES, taking to the skies with his companions in order to bring peace to the galaxy. Since then, Nintendo has released several more installments in the space shooter series, including a re-release of Star Fox 64 on the Wii in 2007. Now, almost ten years after the last new game in the series, 2006’s Star Fox Command, Fox McCloud has made the jump to current-gen consoles with Star Fox Zero on the Wii U. So does this concept from back in the 16-bit days still hold up? Keep reading to find out.

All Foxed Up

Ultimately, Nintendo hasn’t changed a thing in regard to the story – Fox McCloud flies around the Lylat system, zaps enemies out of the sky, and faces off against boss monsters. True to the game’s rail shooter roots, the player is mostly kept on a set path, and only rarely are you able to decide to go a certain way or flit about the 3D levels freely. Fox’s squad of Arwings also includes the pilots Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare, and Falco Lombardi, who have been with him from the beginning. In terms of content, very little has changed in the past 23 years – in this respect you could say Star Fox Zero is really a remake, but it could also be seen as an attempt to breathe new life into the series as a starting point for future installments. And that might not be such a bad idea, either; that is, if it weren’t for a certain issue the previous games never had to deal with: the Wii U Gamepad.

A Game for Chameleons?

The camera angle on the TV screen shows the action from the classic third-person “into the screen” perspective, but the Gamepad shows the view from inside the cockpit. The former is necessary for getting a good overview of the action, and the latter is used for precision targeting when taking out your enemies. Ideally, it seems, the player is to split their vision like a chameleon, with one eye focused on the TV screen and the other on the Gamepad to operate the targeting system. The only downside is that humans are not capable of doing this. Instead, you’re constantly jerking your eyes back and forth between the TV and the Gamepad, predictably resulting in chaos.

Nintendo’s also taken a curious path with the controls, too. The Arwings and other vehicles are controlled using the analog sticks, but you have to deal with the Gamepad’s gyroscopic motion detection if you want to aim the targeting reticle. It’s a unique experience to be sure – not unique in a good way, mind you, but uniquely maddening and uniquely hard to get the hang of. Arcade shooter fans tend to go for lighter fare in general, but what they’re serving here is not something that’s easily digested. I can only think of one reason why Nintendo would decide on such an unintuitive control scheme and split the action across two screens – it’s the only way for the game to consistently use all the control possibilities the Wii U has to offer. But it’s easy to see how much of a disservice this does to the game, and it even has negative consequences for the graphics.

My, You’re Looking Old

For the most part, Star Fox Zero runs pretty smoothly at 60fps, but this inevitably comes at the cost of detailed textures and finely-built objects. Even with the HD resolution, the graphics often appear grainy, pixelated, and clunky. What gives? Well, the game features two screens running two different 3D perspectives at the same time, and apparently the Wii U doesn’t have the power to display detailed graphics on both of them while maintaining a steady framerate. And unfortunately it’s not like you get especially busy scenes that are free of choppy, laggy graphics, either. It’s entirely obvious that the Wii U’s performance capabilities are not advanced enough to handle a game like Star Fox Zero. Who knows, maybe retro gaming fans will even be happy with the game’s weak graphics, since it definitely recalls the style of the previous games in the series. But I think a remake should at least include up-to-date graphics, which is something you’re just not going to find here.

Cooperative Problem-Solving

Despite all the issues with the graphics and the controls, the levels themselves are actually a lot of fun to play, even if certain challenges are going to require several attempts, mostly due to the wonky controls. And there’s one good way to get around the problems with the Gamepad – if you play the two-player co-op mode, one player controls the Arwing on the screen and the other player uses the Gamepad to operate the weapons systems. Coordinating things with another player is still a whole lot less complicated than trying to do both things on your own at the same time.