Game Maker’s Toolkit on Star Fox Zero
Everyone has a different opinion on Star Fox Zero. It was a divisive game among both Star Fox fans and Nintendo fans alike. A lot of its criticism comes from its control scheme, there's no denying that. In this video, game designer Mark Brown talks about the decision process and design of Star Fox Zero's controls, where they work, and where they fail. I found it to be a fascinating, and neutral perspective on this controversial game.
Now I just need to beat it!
Comments
you havn’t beaten zero yet? what have you been doing this whole time
Not a bad video, I think I might have seen it before.
Wait , you didn’t beat S.F.Z. until just recently?!?! How long did you own that game? I had Final Fantasy IX for 8-10 months and it took me 7 months and 63 hours and 14 minuets to beat! The crazy part is it came on four discs! I understand, you’re a busy guy and have lots of things you do, other games you play, and an actual life…
Guess I’ll toss in my opinion on the game. I did not play the game more than a week though I have gone back and played it here and there on the rare occasion. My very first play through felt as though it took barely over a hour and a half to complete. In this time, there was a lot of learning curves. It feels like you don’t have any sort of confidence with the controls until near the end, and that’s just me. Playing as many games as I have at a young age, I felt I could pick it up pretty quick. The problem is, I am a star fox fan, a and a competitive player of games and I still felt it took a bit of fighting with the controls to get used to them. The oddest part though is that, after my second play through, I enjoyed the controls!! Why? I now play the game almost STRICTLY on the game pad. As talked about in the video, the aiming is horrible on the TV, so I just turn off my TV and play the game in bed on the game pad. Once you get used to flying this way the game felt more comfortable to me and I can enjoy the game with 0 control problems. But because of all the adapting required to play the game, people who don’t want to or don’t have the time to find there way to use the controls won’t enjoy the game, star fox fan or not. It makes it kinda sad to have the newest star fox game put a bad rep on the series. Plus I personally did not enjoy the art direction for the characters in this game as I did others, but that’s just an opinion.
On a final off topic side note, F-Zero GX IS FREAKING HARD!!!! Some help me beat master diamond cup D: my little Wyvern skills are too weak!!
Also, if anyone plans on playing star fox zero again, try using just the game pad like I did, if it’s not comfortable for you that’s fine, at least you get the cockpit immersion game play :P
The video is quite good. I mean I do agree that the controls should’ve been more selective than just a GamePad. I did enjoy SFZ and wish there were other planets to revisit like, Katania or Macbeth. Took me less than a week to beat SFZ. I haven’t done the full completion on all medals.
In terms of critical reception, it’s not the worst Star Fox game out there (that one goes to Assault, which is actually my favorite game in the series, at 67 on Metacritic). But it’s probably one of the most frustrating to play, given its control scheme and steep learning curve.
It took me a while to get used to the control scheme, but I was able to get it down without too much trouble. But I am with everyone else in saying that the gyroscopic controls and looking down at the GamePad was totally unnecessary for the game. That was probably the worst part of the game.
It’s also disappointing that there is no multiplayer mode for the game, especially online multiplayer. I’d like to argue that Assault had the best multiplayer mode in the series, with all sorts of characters, weapons, vehicles, and maps to choose from. I would have loved to have seen that in Zero, with online functionality, but it never happened, not even as DLC. It’s as if Nintendo released the game and abandoned it afterwards, with no major updates or DLC to the game to extend its lifespan.
I am also disappointed that it is yet another reboot of the series. We live in an age of reboots, where movies, television, and even comic books are being rebooted every few years, and to see my favorite Nintendo series get the same treatment upsets me, especially if they write Krystal (tied for first with Samus Aran as my favorite video game character of all time) out of the series.
If this is the new continuity they’re going for, erasing the continuity of 64/64 3D, Adventures, Assault, and Command, I would hope that Krystal returns in a future game (if it ever gets made). And if they ever make a future game, I hope they have a multiplayer mode on par with or better than Assault’s, with online functionality, and making gyroscopic controls and aiming using the screen on the controller completely optional (of course, the Switch has no second screen, but you get the idea).