These are easily the highlight of Star Fox Zero, as they take what you might think would be a repetitive game, and give it such a shot of variety, they create some of the best levels you've ever played. The Landmaster tank is just one transformation - and, once you've unlocked the upgrade, it can fly! Sometimes getting the alternate branch can be as simple as shooting an enemy down quickly - others require you to come back to the level later on, once you've unlocked a new ability for your ship, and a new transformation to make use of. In Star Fox Zero, that means there's more than half a dozen hidden/alternative stages for you to unlock, depending on the paths you take through each level. On a much more positive note, one of the best things about Star Fox games is that while there's always one route you can take through the levels, there are usually plenty of branches too. The trick is, the more of the lasers you destroy, the faster the others charge, and the more the electromagentic curtain fires, making it nigh on impossible to actually get close enough to destroy the last one. It would be easy enough, were it not for the fact that the base keeps throwing up a giant blue curtain of electromagnetic doom, that sends your ship spinning off uncontrollably, and dishes a huge amount of damage. One that stands out in particular asked us attack a giant floating base, with the intention of taking out its 9 ridiculously powerful lasers, that would periodically chase us around the sky, spewing a hot red laser beam of doom. Whilst most are fairly straightforward - targeting a weak point on a giant metallic bird as it soars around - others are ridiculously tricky, and frustratingly hard. Giving you an area to fly round in freely, and the ability to attack from whatever angle you want, the boss fights are equal parts frustrating and amazing. Most levels end with a fight against a boss, where the game switches to "all range mode", and lets you duke it out with some form of gigantic ship in more of an arena. Luckily, there are at least a few defensive manoeuvrers you can take advantage of - not least the ability to "do a barrel roll", as per the infamous Lylat Wars quote, which makes enemy lasers simply ping harmlessly off.įunnily enough, it's not easy to fly your ship when the camera's doing this There's certainly a lot to keep your eyes open for, and that's before you even take enemy fire into account. Meanwhile, each level comes with countless places for enemies to jump out from, and obstacles for you to avoid, from random arches, to collapsing buildings, rock slides and waterfalls, making finding your way through the levels that much more exciting. Some ships duck in behind you, forcing you to brake, or loop, while others have weak spots you have to swoop around to even try and hit. That, at its most basic, is how Star Fox Zero works - but as you'd likely expect, what on the surface feels like a fairly basic game, is actually one heck of a lot deeper.įor starters, it isn't as easy as just shooting the things that come towards you. The more stuff you blow up, and the quicker you blow it up (taking out two or three enemies in one go will net you a bonus), the higher the score you get. The concept here is simple - with your ship flying constantly through the level, it's up to you to move around (left/right/up/down) and blast anything and everything in sight, whilst dodging their fire in the process. While Star Fox Zero may be a game that will make players of a certain age get all misty eyed, it's easy enough for novices to pick up and play too. Sticking as close as they could to the winning "animals in spaceships" formula that worked so well on the N64 game, only this time adding some fancier graphics, motion controls, a rather cool co-op mode (more on that later), and some equally cheesy dialogue, Star Fox Zero is less a reboot, than a revival. With the Wii having missed out on its own iteration, Nintendo decided that its ailing Wii U should be the console to be blessed with the first traditional Star Fox game in nearly a decade. It was also immensely cheesy - but that just added to its charm. An "on the rails" sci-fi shooter, where a fleet of anthropomorphic animals took to the skies in a shooter that gave even the biggest battles of Star Wars a run for their money, it was a fast paced, arcade blast 'em up like no other. The UK name for Star Fox 64, due to some sort of licensing cock-up, Lylat Wars was one of the N64's flagship games - and it certainly grabbed people's attention. One of our earliest memories of playing games on a console was standing in an Argos, playing Lylat Wars on the N64.
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