Star Fox Zero reboots classic franchise, but awkward controls cause turbulence

Nintendo's Star Fox franchise has endured a lot of turbulence over the last 23 years.

Its 1993 debut on the Super Nintendo blew away gamers with its then-revolutionary polygonal 3D visuals. Its followup for the Nintendo 64 is largely hailed as the high point of the series that subsequent games never equalled.

Star Fox Zero feels like a director's cut remaster of Star Fox 64, telling mostly the same story, even lifting scenes and lines of dialogue from the 1997 classic. The Star Fox team, led by Fox McCloud, are called into service to defeat a space pirate army terrorizing the Lylat System. Fox also has a personal beef with the fleet's leader Andross, a giant disembodied monkey's head who may have had a hand in the death of Fox's father.

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The rote story isn't the main event here, though: it's the new control scheme, reportedly the brainchild of Nintendo's revered designer Shigeru Miyamoto, that demands use of both the TV screen and the Wii U's unusual GamePad controller.

The best games are easy to learn, but challenging to master. Star Fox Zero falls well below this threshold. Players will find themselves fighting the unintuitive controls rather than the waves of enemies in their way.

Dual screen controls

While most of the action takes place on the television screen — with a camera set behind the Arwing air-to-space fighter craft (like an X-Wing without the X), just like in previous Star Fox game — much of the action takes place on the controller's tablet-like screen.

The player uses the analog sticks and buttons to fly, but can also tilt and angle the GamePad to look around from inside the cockpit for more precise aiming, thanks to its built-in gyroscope.

The ship handles like a dream, and you'll be dodging enemy fire with barrel rolls almost immediately.

The motion controls feel best in the levels with large firefights, where you're chasing down your rivals Star Wolf, who pilot ships as powerful and manoeuvrable as your own. But it gets messy in almost any other situation.

Looking down at the GamePad to aim at enemies' weak points puts you at risk of flying straight into a building since you're not looking at the TV. Keeping an eye on the TV means you won't be able to pick off enemies firing at you — many of them have weak points that can only be targeted with the motion controls.

The worst situations force a "target lock" view, placing an enemy boss at the centre of attention. Your TV gets a nice wide shot of the beautifully designed enemies, such as a flying fortress that evokes Independence Day, or a metallic dragon inspired by Godzilla's foe Ghidorah.

But it makes manoeuvring almost impossible, forcing you to use the limited vantage point on your GamePad.

Other vehicles handle poorly

There are a handful of other vehicles to control, and in every case they handle worse than the Arwing. You'll stumble in circles in the chicken-like Walker, and, in the Gyrowing hovercraft, struggle to avoid obstacles in stealth-based missions that drag the overall experience to a crawl.

Only the Landmaster tank feels somewhat capable, mostly because it handles almost identically to the Arwing.

In almost every case the GamePad functionality adds little that couldn't have been done far more easily with a traditional control scheme. It hinders, rather than helps, the experience.

Co-operative play shines

If there's a silver lining to Star Fox Zero's control scheme, it's that the game functions far better in two-player co-operative mode. One player pilots the vehicles with the Pro Controller, while the second handles the firepower on the GamePad.

Neither player feels overwhelmed while splitting pilot and gunner duties, and the dynamic of two partners constantly communicating what they see on their respective screens works. You'll feel like Rey and Finn from Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the Millennium Falcon, rather than a lone frustrated player asked to play two games at once.

Even beyond the control problems, Star Fox Zero disappoints as often as it impresses. While the levels and missions included are generally quite good — the planet Fortuna brimming with serpentine aliens is a high point — there isn't as much of the visual variety of previous games. You won't see anything like the lush jungles from Star Fox Adventures' dinosaur planet setting here.

Star Fox Guard also included

Perhaps as an admission that the light main offering, retail copies come with Star Fox Guard, a separate title that arguably uses the Wii U GamePad better than the main game.

Players have to defend a base from a slowly advancing army of robots, which you have to monitor with 12 separate cameras. It's a tense and easy-to-grasp party game with one player operating the cameras and friends yelling out which cameras have enemies in their sights.

As impressive as it is, one can't help but wonder if Nintendo's resources would have been better served building more levels and environments for the main game. As it stands, Star Fox Zero is a fascinating near-miss, brought down by unintuitive and unnecessary mechanics that get in the way of what could have been a more successful revival of a fan favourite franchise.

Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard hits stores on April 22 in a single retail package selling for $74.99. You can buy either separately on the Wii U digital store.