Why StarFox Zero was a disappointment of planet-sized proportions

It’s been several light years since Nintendo has released a new Star Fox game.

Alright, so technically it’s been nine years – but that nine years has seemed like an eternity for the iconic, space combat, rail-shooter series starring Fox McCloud and the rest of the anthropomorphic gang. And with the Nintendo Switch 2 being released in a few short months and no news of a new StarFox game to go along with it, we have to wonder: why not?

The biggest reason is that the last installment in the series, released in April 2016 for the Wii U, Star Fox Zero was a disappointment of Fortuna-sized proportions.

Star Fox Zero wasn’t received at all like Super Mario 3D World or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild – the latter of which were universally acclaimed games which only further fortified and progressed their respective franchises as flagship Nintendo series beloved by fans and critics alike.

Arwings heading into orbit in StarFox Zero/Nintendo

It would be one thing if Star Fox Zero had just aileron rolled under the radar and wasn’t well-received by fans because it didn’t introduce anything new (like some mainline Pokemon games have been known to do in the past) but to add insult to injury – an insult as harsh as Star Wolf throwing dirt on the name of Fox’s dead dad during Arwing battles – Star Fox Zero didn’t sell (something Pokemon games never fail to do).

In fact, Zero was the worst received game in the franchise, selling less than half a million copies; compare that to Star Fox 64’s 4 million copies, the original Star Fox on the SNES’ 2.99 million and even Star Fox Adventures for the Gamecube’s 1.82 million and the numbers were outright disappointing.

Were the expectations for Star Fox Zero simply too lofty? Heading towards Zero’s release all the ducks seemed to be in a row. Zero was to be the first “proper” entry in the series in over a decade, returning to the classic rail-shooter gameplay after previous games – Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox Command – had deviated from the core formula.

Zero also had PlatinumGames, a studio coming off the smash success of Bayonetta, a technical, stylistic action-shooter, and the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto – father of Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda – developing the game.

So how did Star Fox Zero, a game that looked to be a Smart Bomb explosion of a hit and surefire swansong for the ailing Wii U drop the ball?

Let’s just get this out of the way first – I don’t think Star Fox Zero was a bad game. Despite its faults, I think there was a good, enjoyable game buried beneath the surface – but Zero’s problems were very evident.

First and foremost were the game’s controls, which were interesting in theory but ultimately unintuitive and infuriating in practice. The controls heavily utilized the Wii U GamePad, which split the player’s attention between the TV screen (showing a third-person view) and the GamePad screen (displaying a cockpit view for aiming via motion controls). This dual-screen setup forced players to juggle aiming with the gyroscope while steering with the analog stick – a mechanic many found unintuitive and cumbersome. Unlike previous Star Fox titles, where aiming and movement were seamless and easy to pick up, Zero demanded that the player constantly avert their eyes from screen to screen in disorienting fashion (think texting while driving), disrupting the fast-paced flow to which fans were accustomed. Critics and zealous
fans noted that while the controls could be mastered with practice (or by swapping the screen displays), the steep learning curve felt unnecessary and detracted from enjoyment, especially when simpler alternatives, like the tried and tested controls from previous StarFox games had already evinced, already existed.

StarFox Zero’s Gamepad-mandatory controls made things confusing for many players/Nintendo

Ironically StarFox Zero’s adherence to its new dual-screen control scheme was contrasted by a marked lack of innovation elsewhere – the story especially. Neither a prequel nor a sequel to Star Fox 64, it was instead marketed as a “reimagining.” While the move made sense nostalgia-wise, the recycled storybeats, level structures, dialogue and characters made the “reimagining” seem more like an unimaginative retread rather than an enriching homage. That and the fact that Star Fox 64 itself was already a semi-remake of Star Fox – made Star Fox Zero a reimagining of a remake.

If the controller is to blame for StarFox Zero’s woes, then partial blame has to go to the Wii U itself, one of Nintendo’s worst-selling systems ever. The Wii U’s confusing name (many confused it with its predecessor the Wii), underpowered hardware (compared to the Playstation 4 and Xbox One), lack of third-party support stemming primarily from that underpowered hardware and the frustration and disappointment with the system’s centerpiece, the Wii U GamePad, all contributed to the system’s struggles.

While I might sound crazy as a fox and even sacreligious for this next point, it has to be said: Shigeru Miyamoto is also to blame for why StarFox Zero was a disappointment.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Miyamoto as much as the next Nintendo enthusiast. Video games as we know them today wouldn’t be the same without him. But Miyamoto at heart is someone who enjoys tinkering, implementing new ideas and experimentation; in particular he’s expressed how the Star Fox series is an avenue through which he can explore innovative concepts rather than adhering strictly to a single formula. For instance, the original Star Fox was a showcase for the SNES’ Super FX processor, which facilitated the 3D, polygon-rendered graphics that were groundbreaking at the time for a 16-bit system.

StarFox Zero gameplay/Nintendo

During the development of Star Fox 2, Miyamoto encouraged the team to experiment with different forms of 3D gameplay, such as adding a robot walker, platforming elements, and randomly constructed encounter-based missions. Dylan Cuthbert, a developer who worked on the original Star Fox and Star Fox 2, noted that Miyamoto “always said that Star Fox should be for experimenting with different forms of 3D gameplay,” highlighting this experimental ethos.

It’s exactly this sort of forward thinking – groundbreaking when it hits – that can also result in a miss from time to time. StarFox Zero was one of these rare Miyamoto and Nintendo misses.

That being said, there’s reason to have faith that Miyamoto and Nintendo might resurrect the Star Fox series for the Switch 2 and bring it back to its previous highs.

Miyamoto has expressed his love for the Star Fox series. He told MTV back in 2009, “I’m a big fan of the ‘Star Fox’ games. Every time we make a ‘Star Fox’ game I’m hoping people will enjoy it as much as I do. Of course the goal every time is to try and make it more and more fun but, at least in Japan, the people that purchase the ‘Star Fox’ games has decreased over the years. But we still try to make them more fun and hopefully people will see the appeal in those games.”

Miyamoto loves StarFox. This is proof/Nintendo

Hopefully, Star Fox Zero can serve as a reminder that the series shouldn’t simply be a proponent for the latest Nintendo console’s innovative features or “gimmick.”

Star Fox fans don’t necessarily need a game that reinvents the G-Diffuser System or that spearheads a whole new way of playing video games. We simply need a solid, enjoyable entry in the Star Fox series that progresses the franchise, sets up a story that isn’t a rehash and is easy to pick up and have fun with.

In our next installment, we’ll go over some of our ideas on what Nintendo can do with StarFox on the Switch 2 to make it a hit and return the series to its former glory.

Do you agree that StarFox Zero was a disappointment of Fortuna-sized proportions? Do you think Nintendo should bring the StarFox series to the Switch 2? Let us know in the comments.