Star Fox 0

Best post on the forum.

Zero, I'm pretty sure they've said the controls are customisable.

Crumpy Andy wrote:

ZeroJones wrote:

I might trade Splatoon in towards it.

Worst post on the forum? We've gotta strip his admin privileges for that right?

I haven't played it in months, I wasn't blown away by it, your dislike of Star Fox in general may bias your viewpoint. As for demoting me, we'll let Jay have the final say.

Looks like the reviews are out, and the responses is quite muted. Personally, I'm not looking for Starfox Zero to be 'a triumph of the heart and the soul' or any bollocks like that, I'm just wanting a good game that I can enjoy over the weekend that's a bit like Lylat Wars. That'll be fine for me.

That said, I'm another one who has a little bit of concern over the controls. I hope that the focus on the GamePad isn't 'innovation' for the sake of it. Kid Icarus: Uprising did that, and it wrecked it. Completely humped it.

I'll give the controls a go. KIU was brilliant, especially in the air - reckoning I'll get on with these after a bit as well.

From the official Sonic Twitter:

Now that I would buy

In an excercise in being shoddy at the job, Polygon's reviewer refuses to review SFZ and tries to pass that off as hard-hitting journalism.

Anyway, from what I can gather, it'll be a nice little sequel to Lylat Wars with controls like Splatoon, which is right up my street.

Meh, same outlet that refused to discuss Rock Band 4 and tried to pass that off as hard-hitting games journalism.  Sad thing is, it's clickbait and I just gave them a click.

I'm not clicking it but how daft, just review the game say why you don't like it and give it a 3 or something. Instead of going I don't like it, I'm not reviewing like a baby.

The frustrating thing is that when they do just write good stuff and let it speak for itself, Polygon can sometimes be excellent.

The only Polygon articles I've read are the aforementioned Rock Band 4 and Star Fox Zero ones. How insulting to us all that kind of behaviour is: so childish and entitled. An adult says "No, shan't" to doing their job. It's not big and it's not clever... in fact, you could categorise it as small and stupid.

Animated prequel short thing. Genuinely funny.

Well, that worked! Psyched for tomorrow's delivery. I've seen reviews from the big baby who thought he'd be clever and not review it, to an 82 from our good friend Mr.Schilling. So, I'm going to have to find out for myself.

I will switch off as much motion-tracking as possible, though.

I'm saving that Starfox cartoon, and my copy of The Force Awakens, to watch right before I pick up Starfox, so I can get really psyched.

That said, I'm not gonna splash the cash right away. I want to beat DSIII and TPHD before I buy another game just to put it on my shelf and not play it.

I'm always slightly surprised these days when I find myself being hyped for a videogame, or one that's not Smash/Mario Kart/Zelda anyway. But I've been humming snatches of SF64 tunes all day. Definitely ready for some of this.

I'm excited. I luuuuvvvv Starfox. I'm just trying to be a little more sensible with my cashola.

It's... it's really good. Better than I dared hope, actually, given this control-versy (nailed it). I've yet to get fully comfortable with the idea but it gives the game and the player more freedom than before. I've also discovered some of the new vehicles, which slow down the flow of the game to a worrying extent, but it's nice to have the variety. Yeah - two thumbs up and celebratory barrel roll.

Also, this is the music on the map screen. Epic as.

ZeroJones wrote:

Also, this is the music on the map screen. Epic as.

One of the related videos linked to this was the remastered Star Wolf theme. And it is damn fine.

The annoying thing about *that* review is that the focus has been on how they refused to give it a score (or basically review it), which has led some to think that everyone who complains about it is entitled, and that the reviewer is entitled to his opinion (of poor taste).

But the problems with that review go far deeper than that last paragraph. The tone of the piece makes it pretty obvious that he was never going to give Star Fox Zero a fair and equal treatment, that he'd already made up his mind about it before he picked up the GamePad.

He shouldn't have been put on that review, the reviews editor should have picked someone else. But I suspect he was put on the review because Nintendo's an easy target to make a laughing stock out of (could you imagine the outcry if they did the same with a major PlayStation or Xbox exclusive?), particularly to the poorly informed or dismissive.

Incidentally, he did the same with Code Name: STEAM, basically dismissing the game because of the lack of an overhead map. Which was the point of the game. I get not getting on with something like that, but the problem is he didn't even think about why the game did what it did.

A case in point in the Star Fox Zero review was how he also immediately dismissed the game's co-op mode, which, as you know, splits the aiming and flying between two people. Ironically that actually solves the problem he apparently has with the entire game...

There were also a few reviews which called out Star Fox Zero as "dated" simply because the genre, or this type of game, does not exist any more. That's all sorts of wrong, when Star Fox 64 may well have been the last game of its type, but it's a classic, timeless design that has not been superseded, or gotten old. So it hasn't actually had a chance to become dated. But also, Star Fox Zero is like this way because it's a stylistic choice, much like how you get new movies in black and white, or the revival of 2D platformers as pixel art, or the return of Super Metroid's layout. By their logic, Axiom Verge should be considered dated.

Anyway, I'm glad people seem to be enjoying Star Fox Zero! I really like getting stuck into interesting new interfaces to control games, so I'm looking forward to mastering those controls. And if I don't get on with them, I'm sure I'll still be able to appreciate their purpose.
2)

Chuffing marvellous. That post has inspired me to go play my copy, right now.

D'you know what this game reminds me of? No? That's because I haven't told you yet. Let me tell you.

Pilotwings. The SNES original.

Firstly, it's a tech demo - in fact, you could argue it's the first time Nintendo have made meaningful use of the GamePad since NintendoLand. My main point, though, is the number of differing vehicles you get to move about in, all with differing controls, purposes and speeds of gameplay. The GyroWing levels are so reminiscent of the helicopter levels on Pilotwings it's actually odd, particularly when you shift to top-down view. The Arwing is the plane, the Walker the sky diver (stretching it a bit now) and the Landmaster... ah. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to try to match the vehicles in the two games...

I can see how the controls are supposed to work in theory. I am, however, terrible with them.

The Arwing is grand. The Walker is grand. The Gyrowing can bite Jaster's boaby.

I caved.

I also caved and now the game will sit on my shelf for years unplayed as just so much to play elsewhere.

It's no doubt the type of game you can polish off in a few sittings though.