While the mixture of analog and gyro control might be a little weird, it works beautifully.
Star Fox Zero offers up something I didn’t quite expect out of a new Star Fox game: a new way to play. There are certainly a lot of familiar elements in this Wii U game, but the new controls expertly fuse analog movement and gyro aiming while broadening your view of the action. It can be a little complicated, akin to rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time, but when this fresh setup clicks, which it did for me, it is incredible.
It all hinges around the TV always displaying a cinematic view and the GamePad’s screen presenting a cockpit one. This allows you to have a more complete depiction of your surroundings, especially in all-range mode. I didn’t realize it right away, but this two-screen setup solves a problem I’ve always had with all-range mode. Even with radar, trying to move the Arwing around to shoot specific enemies was sometimes a frustrating challenge. In Zero, you can use the two screens together to have a much fuller view of the entire stage.
Making that view even better is the ability to transform. In the Corneria stage demoed at E3, you can turn into the ground-based walker at any time, giving you the ability to move around the stage in a different way. It makes for a more varied game, with different options for attacking challenges. While the Arwing was the only vehicle we could play as, the Landmaster and new gyrocopter will also be playable in the final game. The Landmaster even transforms into an airborne version of itself.
But even without the other vehicles and potentially more complex levels, the E3 demo for Star Fox Zero stands out. The controls truly do work, even if they might be a little divisive because of their learning curve. It feels fantastic soaring through the sky with the precision of gyroscope controls in an Arwing. Even the light control tweaks, such as mapping the fabled barrel roll to the right analog stick, make sense.
While I was always intrigued by Nintendo’s next Star Fox game, I am totally over the moon for Star Fox Zero right now. I do wish it had multiplayer in some capacity, but what we’ve seen so far is basically everything I didn’t know I wanted in a single-player Star Fox game. While I’m already hearing cries for Pro Controller support from others online and on the show floor, Star Fox Zero has the makings of a game that takes advantage of the Wii U’s unique setup in ways that most games haven’t since Nintendo Land.