It's not often I pre-order. With my stance on pre-order culture, I'm surprised I would ever do such a thing. And yes, because Nintendo and Platinum banded together to make something I'd wanted for years, that being a new Star Fox game... "What could go wrong?" I asked myself. The controls sounded fine to me. The game looked great. I kept myself away from gameplay videos to keep myself as new to the experience as possible.
Then the reviews came in... Holy hell, that was a very nerve wracking 2 days wait for me. I was terrified, I didn't want the game to be bad. I was at no risk of getting my money back, but, I didn't want the game to be as bad as they said. The controls seemed to be the only main issue, and I have no issue getting used to unique control schemes, so I told myself it'd be fine. But just in case, the little game store let me play for an hour or two on one of their TVs to make sure I could make a better decision. I ended up renting for now, my copy is still at the store. I experienced all modes of play, Landmaster to the Gyrowing. The result?
It takes some getting used to, I'll give it that. Some are clearly not cut out for this sort of play style. But it's not that bad. With some practice, and learning that not only is this a different experience than the old Star Fox titles, and should be treated as such, the learning curve is a lot higher. After giving it some time at home, my impressions are high. I'm having fun, I like piloting everything (The Gyrowing is a bit meh though, at least I can easily avoid Zoness). I make great use of the gamepad, it gives me so many new angles of attacks than before. It's useful, despite what everyone else says. It just takes practice, and some skill. It requires your attention to look at the second screen, yes, but only when you need to, not at all times like other make it out to be. I get along just tilting the thing without looking and I get plenty of good shots in. You learn how the cursor handles over time. Again, the learning curve is much steeper than previous titles, you will need to give it an hour or two. But if you find yourself getting better, you'll only improve from there. Side note: It's a Platinum game, it's got some of their difficulty in there, be aware of this going in. It's not piss easy!
I could make an entire review myself and tell people to quite screaming it's the "worst idea of a Wii U game, being a tech demo at best." I get it, it's not ideal. The game is harder cause of some design choices. That doesn't make it bad. It's got a lot of good design choices that make it a lot of fun. But no matter how good a game looks in a trailer, always be careful. Let your pre-order finger slip like I did, and you could risk getting bitten. Luckily I didn't get bitten, but it seems many others might've.
TL;DR: Pre-orders are risky business. Even the best gameplay, best trailers, best marketing, and all else could hide a game that could potentially lead to disappointment. And as we saw the reviews for Star Fox Zero, it simply didn't live up to the expectations some had. And apparently, that's enough to slap crap ratings on a game. That's another thing- Gah, I'll save it for later I guess... Star Fox is still fun though
Then the reviews came in... Holy hell, that was a very nerve wracking 2 days wait for me. I was terrified, I didn't want the game to be bad. I was at no risk of getting my money back, but, I didn't want the game to be as bad as they said. The controls seemed to be the only main issue, and I have no issue getting used to unique control schemes, so I told myself it'd be fine. But just in case, the little game store let me play for an hour or two on one of their TVs to make sure I could make a better decision. I ended up renting for now, my copy is still at the store. I experienced all modes of play, Landmaster to the Gyrowing. The result?
It takes some getting used to, I'll give it that. Some are clearly not cut out for this sort of play style. But it's not that bad. With some practice, and learning that not only is this a different experience than the old Star Fox titles, and should be treated as such, the learning curve is a lot higher. After giving it some time at home, my impressions are high. I'm having fun, I like piloting everything (The Gyrowing is a bit meh though, at least I can easily avoid Zoness). I make great use of the gamepad, it gives me so many new angles of attacks than before. It's useful, despite what everyone else says. It just takes practice, and some skill. It requires your attention to look at the second screen, yes, but only when you need to, not at all times like other make it out to be. I get along just tilting the thing without looking and I get plenty of good shots in. You learn how the cursor handles over time. Again, the learning curve is much steeper than previous titles, you will need to give it an hour or two. But if you find yourself getting better, you'll only improve from there. Side note: It's a Platinum game, it's got some of their difficulty in there, be aware of this going in. It's not piss easy!
I could make an entire review myself and tell people to quite screaming it's the "worst idea of a Wii U game, being a tech demo at best." I get it, it's not ideal. The game is harder cause of some design choices. That doesn't make it bad. It's got a lot of good design choices that make it a lot of fun. But no matter how good a game looks in a trailer, always be careful. Let your pre-order finger slip like I did, and you could risk getting bitten. Luckily I didn't get bitten, but it seems many others might've.
TL;DR: Pre-orders are risky business. Even the best gameplay, best trailers, best marketing, and all else could hide a game that could potentially lead to disappointment. And as we saw the reviews for Star Fox Zero, it simply didn't live up to the expectations some had. And apparently, that's enough to slap crap ratings on a game. That's another thing- Gah, I'll save it for later I guess... Star Fox is still fun though
