A Deep Dive into Star Fox Zero's Controls
Video Statistics and Information
No captions available for this video.
Channel: Game Maker's Toolkit
Views: 423,091
Rating: 4.937263 out of 5
Keywords: Star Fox Zero, Game Maker's Toolkit, Nintendo, Star Fox, Star Fox 64, Platinum, Wii U, Gamepad, Controller
Id: m544qfVMIPs
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)
Published: Mon May 23 2016
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.
The sad thing is, they purposefully hobbled each perspective to make you need to use the other.
Aiming on the ship view is inaccurate due to the poor setup of the crosshairs so you need the cockpit view to see what you are actually aiming at. The cockpit view has a narrow field of vision that prevents you from knowing about enemies around you until it's too late so you need the ship view. The problem is that you often need both views at the same time.
It's funny that Star Fox Guard manages to get multiple perspectives right. You have 13 monitors, 12 of them around a large centre monitor. The 12 surrounding monitors are your 12 cameras. If you see an enemy on one of the monitors you can tap that camera on the gamepad (which functions as a useful overhead map) to switch to it on the main monitor.
You have to micromanage all the perspectives yet the game makes sure that you see them all at all times.
I bought Star Fox Zero as the bundle with Guard and I thought that I would play some of Guard and find it okay yet play more of Zero. Instead it's the other way around. Guard feels like a better designed game to me with better designed controls and more meat to it.
You can honestly feel his worries about Nintendo oozing out of this one, which is a notable change of tone. It's interesting to consider how un-Nintendo-like this game is, prioritizing spectacle over control, learning curve over approachability, hardware over software, improving an existing experience rather than creating a new one.
I still think this game is pretty good, I'm glad I got it. I also didn't have nearly as much trouble with the controls as most people have (I personally find gyro controls so much better than a second stick and wish most games gave that option).
However, I will agree that the two screens were pretty unnecessary, and I didn't really find a moment that justified it outside of them forcing moments on you.
Also: I'd have to say there's zero imagination going on with the level themes or story, and that's such a miyamoto staple that I'm thinking it's time for him to move on to a much more off-hands roll.
I'd say the game's about as good as 64 - but takes a while to get used to it. It's also so close to being 'better than', but for every step forward it takes a step back.
I'm fine with complaints that Nintendo didn't properly utilize the control scheme. Things like when he says that there are rarely moments when you have to make the tactical decision between looking at one screen or the other, is a fine complaint in my opinion.
The thing I dislike is how many people just complain that the controls are unintuitive and hard to get used to. Do you know what else was unintuitive and hard to get used to? Dual Analogue Sticks for First Person Shooters.
Of course a control scheme you have never played with before is going to feel clunky and bad at first. I remember that used to be a thing I hated about Dark Souls, but now those games are second nature to me to play and are some of my favorite games of all time.
The problem isn't the controls, it's how the controls are utilized.