It seems that reviews for Star Fox Zero are very polarized at this time. You can look around and see scores of ?good? from people who had gotten accustomed to the controls, to people who dismissed the motion controls entirely and viewed them as an entirely negative experience.
Not that I know anything about unorthodox control schemes, but Kid Icarus: Uprising had the same polarizing effect for controls, as well, but nothing could have worked better in the context of a 3DS third person action-shooter.
One thing I hear frequent complaints about though is the length of the game, seeming to take around 4-5 hours to clear the main campaign before the usual Platinum assortment of challenges become the focus.
How strange is that, when everybody thought they wanted a Star Fox 64-2, but never blinked an eye at SF64 being only half an hour long to clear?
Even if you take alternative routes into account ? which exist in both SF0 and SF64 ? the actual amount of content in SF64 is still low. The praise SF64 got can?t inherently be explained by factors like ?good gameplay? because other contemporary games like Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 had significantly more content.
Thing about SF64 is, you?re playing a score-attack game. From your allies frequently requesting your help to the enemy formations being compact enough to net extra points from a charged shot, playing well and always being on the offensive was the point of the game. Your allies are healed at the end of a stage depending on how many hits you scored, and Expert Mode was not unlocked until you hit the score thresholds on every stage. At the end of the game, you were always brought to the high score saved on the cartridge. To hit the nail on the head, Unlocked Charge Shots were officially acknowledged in the 3DS remake of SF64.
For context, holding the A button allowed you to charge a powerful laser. You could lock onto enemies and the charge would home in towards the target, damaging all enemies in a radius and giving more points than normal for each enemy hit in the splash. Completely unmentioned in the N64 game, though, was that holding both Z and R prevented locking on, so you could avoid direct impacts and get that one extra point.
To that end, it is not hard to score reasonably in SF64. Using ULCS was rewarding and only required good positioning - for example, detonating all the spotlights in Zoness for at least 20 additional hits. It still felt gratifying to score well, though, so SF64 was easy to come back to for another run.
But here we are at Star Fox Zero. Too short for many people, but still too long or ?single-segmented? to handle as a score attack game. Yes, it seems a slew of extras are locked behind score walls and challenges, but the driving force in Zero seems to be a cinematic, more ?immersive? experience.
Going for scores seems more demanding as well ? in terms of both input and monetary(?!) investment --, as I can only assume Unlocked Charge Shots were removed from the base control scheme. That said, the Retro and Black Arwings available by using the Fox and Falco amiibos are not just aesthetic changes:
The Retro Arwing only has Unlocked Charge Shots. While more difficult to use because of this, scoring high in Zero will likely revolve around the Retro ship.
Alternatively, the Black Arwing has innately stronger shots and the ability to lock-on to multiple enemies at once, but takes more damage. Scoring in space battles with a lack of terrain will probably be best with this ship.
Should these means of playing the game be locked behind amiibo support? I would gladly take the gameplay changes with no aesthetics in the default game, but that doesn?t seem to be the case.
Of course, whether or not the enemy placement in the stages is even suited for charged shots isn?t something I know. It certainly wouldn?t feel rewarding to use ULCS if all the enemies were too sparse to even use them.
Point is, between SF64 and now, we?ve had a lot of experimentation with what Star Fox is really about. Now that we have a ?remake? of that cherished game, I don?t know if the community?s mindset is at all like it was before, or willing to accept what SF0 can potentially be.
