Review: Star Fox Zero

It's a pity that Star Fox Zero is ten days late for the Day of Astronautics. Because such a romantic holiday just needs a game, where space is a place for heroes. Even if they are all animals.

Another reason why the fresh Zero would be suitable for the holiday is that it is a kind of "tribute", a memory of the past flights of the furry defenders of the galaxy. More precisely, about Star Fox 64 of 1997. And there and here in orbit Fox Fox McCloud and the team of "Star Foxes" are fighting with the Andross Empire. And here and there in the partners of the hero - an experienced rabbit, an insane frog (the one that offers a barrel) and a professional as-falcon. The serve again reminds the stupid puppet cartoon Thunderbirds from the 60's. Patriotic briefings are performed in a familiar style.

Tasks, like two decades ago, correspond to a simple militaristic plot. Moving from the native planet of Corneria to the enemy citadel, Vienna, we, when operating one of the spaceships, must destroy the enemy, defend our strategic targets, cover up the fighters and so on. Your actions on the battlefield can again affect the way the squadron reaches the finals - so, in one battle, you need to knock down the enemy leader before he disables the rabbit fighter, and if successful, you can avoid the mission of rescuing the fallen to planet comrade.

Finally, as on the Nintendo 64, we manage different techniques. Returned the high-speed fighter Arwing and a powerful tank Landmaster. Added a maneuverable Walker and a slow soaring Gyrowing, equipped with a landing robot-burglar. Somewhere to switch between different versions of the spacecraft will have to go straight to the task. 

Fans who have not seen Star Fox for ten years should be pleased with the release of such a nostalgic gift. But the main strengths of the 1997 game were things that are not surprising to anyone: non-linear routes, rich audiences and energetic battles. All this is in place, but a modern player needs much more. In addition, Zero turned out not very friendly and beautiful.
Office in Star Fox 64 could be annoying. But there the battles took place in the scenery either completely linear or small in area. Here, giving players and animals a relative freedom of movement, Platinum Gamesforgot to adapt your vehicle and camera. Therefore, prepare to spend a great part of your time not in battles, but in trying to reach the goal. This applies to absolutely any of the vehicles, but especially you will want to break the controller against the wall, fighting at the arena levels on the tank and fighter. And the mission, during which it is necessary to destroy several warheads, will seem like torture. 

Zerodiligently uses both screen consoles. The display of the tablet controller always displays a view from the cab, that is, the same as seen on the TV. Such a review seems to be needed to aim and control a robot-burglar, but in dynamic battles it is very difficult to switch between two sources of information. The more so that you need to aim at turning the gamepad - you can not disable gyro control. Constant confusion costs vital energy and nerves. 

Most likely, the need to broadcast the same picture twice caused graphics and frame rate problems. Looks like the new part of Star Fox is not that bad, but simple and empty. If not for the high resolution, one could imagine Zeroon Wii or even GameCube. The combat equipment in the series always had a minimalist design - in the era of the cartridges this was dictated by the limitations of the "iron". Now the starships and scenery are not impressive. Especially in highly saturated scenes, performance drops noticeably.
The whole adventure lasts from three to five hours. And they are recruited because of inadequate complexity, generated by problems with aiming. On the one hand, for annoying games with management that requires addiction, the rule "the faster the better" is effective ... On the other hand, we seem to be offered a full-fledged release, even if the series is transient. Maybe there are some opportunities for pereproshdeniya or alternative fun?

From the modes initially only available training. To get used to the controller and reconcile with it, I highly recommend you enter it as soon as you get a new star. After passing the final "boss" a new menu item opens - Arcade Mode, which, however, offers the same missions as in the usual campaign, just with the pursuit of the maximum number of points. If you finish it, one more mode will be added, but for the second passage I did not have enough - for many reasons listed above. 

Any of the battles can be passed and with a partner, and this is the most sparing option. No difficulties with constant switching between screens (one player is responsible for piloting, and the second is aiming and shooting), friend's prompts, atmosphere of space cooperation - Zeroas if he finds his true face. However, if you do not have controllers from Wii or Pro Controller, you will not be able to look at this pleasant face. 

In other respects, masochists wishing to spend time in the society of aliens can only pereprohodit stages. Get an ideal rating, perform tasks to open new paths and, of course, levels with opponents - this can take yourself even hours to ten to fifteen, depending on the skill. But most likely, it will please only fanatics of Fox and his friends.

Rate:6/10