E3 2015: Star Fox Zero Hands On Impressions

<p>Nintendo finally revealed more information about <em>Star Fox Zero<&sol;em> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;star-fox-wii-u-title-revealed-star-fox&sol;">gave us a new trailer<&sol;a>&comma; along with a nice little E3 demo&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The tl&semi;dr of my thoughts are that the graphics&comma; gameplay and feeling you get in <em>Star Fox Zero<&sol;em> are all spectacular&comma; but the controls really take some getting used to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To elaborate a bit&colon;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Playing <em>Star Fox Zero<&sol;em> felt like playing some of the older&comma; more classic Star Fox titles &lpar;I am most excited for its similarity to <em>Star Fox 64<&sol;em>&rpar;&excl; I was thrusting under falling platforms&comma; charge-shotting enemies&comma; and I even did a barrel roll&excl; Falco was cocky&comma; Peppy was wise and insightful&comma; Slippy was&period;&period; Slippy &lpar;okay&comma; he wasn&&num;8217&semi;t that bad&rpar;&comma; and it was really great to visit that nostalgic play-style in a new&comma; transformed way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the <em>Star Fox Zero<&sol;em> demo at E3&comma; players pilot the Arwing in the traditional style of previous games &&num;8212&semi; But in a new twist&comma; players will look to the GamePad to aim and shoot enemies using its motion&sol;gyro controls&period; These two separate views allow a more cinematic experience on your TV screen&comma; and a first-person cockpit view on the GamePad&period; Here is where I feel the game&&num;8217&semi;s demo falters a bit&colon; The motion controlled aiming is pretty jerky&comma; and I found myself constantly needing to re-adjust and really be conscious of every movement my arms and hands were doing&period; At one point&comma; I unconsciously had moved my arms down to give them a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04215905&sol;star&lowbar;fox&lowbar;zer0&lowbar;screen&lowbar;gamepa&period;jpg"><img class&equals;" size-medium wp-image-85486 alignright" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04215905&sol;star&lowbar;fox&lowbar;zer0&lowbar;screen&lowbar;gamepa&period;jpg" alt&equals;"star&lowbar;fox&lowbar;zer0&lowbar;screen&lowbar;gamepa" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"169" &sol;><&sol;a>rest&comma; and when I was quickly surprised by an enemy&comma; I imagined myself being able to easily target and destroy it&comma; but that resting movement I inadvertently did &lpar;shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t I be allowed to rest my arms&quest;&excl;&rpar; had me way off target&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game also had many button commands that I&&num;8217&semi;m sure will become old hat after you play a few missions&comma; but for a first attempt at the game&comma; I felt like I was being thrown in the beautiful 60fps glimmering waters to swim for myself&period; But hey&comma; maybe other people like that exhilaration&excl; I just felt like the controls were a bit <em>too<&sol;em> wonky&period; And when the full game launches&comma; I honestly think this will be rectified by starting the player out just a bit more slowly and really teaching all of the controls&comma; allowing for more time to get used to them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Other than the control blunder&comma; I would say <em>Star Fox Zero<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s E3 demo was a very fun experience that will satisfy fans of the franchise&comma; old and new alike&period; The addition of the Arwing being able to transform into a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04215852&sol;starfox2&lowbar;3343595b&period;jpg"><img class&equals;" wp-image-85487 alignleft" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04215852&sol;starfox2&lowbar;3343595b&period;jpg" alt&equals;"starfox2&lowbar;3343595b" width&equals;"290" height&equals;"182" &sol;><&sol;a>&&num;8220&semi;Walker&&num;8221&semi; &lpar;raptor-like mech stance&rpar; was also a fresh way to keep that same gameplay we all love&comma; but transform the experience into something fresh&period; Although&comma; back on the topic of controls that take getting used to&comma; the Walker can hover&comma; but the player has to press the right control stick down&comma; which seems to me like it would go against a player&&num;8217&semi;s typical inclination to press up&&num;8230&semi; inverted-control players might like it though&excl;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Set to also feature the Landmaster Tank transformation&comma; along with the new Walker and traditional Arwing gameplay&comma; <em>Star Fox Zero<&sol;em> is currently scheduled to launch in Holiday 2015&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;