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Wow, Western critics aren't holding back with Star Fox Zero. Star Fox Guard is actually getting better reviews

Polygon refused to rate it, stating they couldn't even bring themselves to finish it (also claiming that it's a less than 3 hour long game), it was "that bad".

I got my copy today. I was mostly gutted to find out I completely suck at reading comprehension and thought I was getting Star Fox Guard bundled with the game for pre-ordering it. I didn't realise it was only a limited edition, special edition exclusive to one retailer (and almost double the price) that came with Star Fox Guard bundled. Guess I'll just buy the E-shop version when it's out on Friday.

Reprise wrote:Wow, Western critics aren't holding back with Star Fox Zero. Star Fox Guard is actually getting better reviews

Really?

Nintendolife gave it 8/10; IGN gave it 7.5/10; Destructoid gave it 7/10. Basically...Polygon and Giant Bomb didn't like it, and Wired complained about the controls. It isn't exactly a critical disaster, however.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:

Reprise wrote:Wow, Western critics aren't holding back with Star Fox Zero. Star Fox Guard is actually getting better reviews

Really?

Nintendolife gave it 8/10; IGN gave it 7.5/10; Destructoid gave it 7/10. Basically...Polygon and Giant Bomb didn't like it, and Wired complained about the controls. It isn't exactly a critical disaster, however.

True, but there are still a few other critics besides Polygon and Giant Bomb that did not like it. And still, it's still somewhat surprising that IGN gave Star Fox Guard a higher score and a lot of critics have noted it's better than the main game.

I think people were expecting higher scores. It's all relative. 7/10 is clearly above average and is a good score (I know some people think 7/10 in video games means 5/10), but when it's a hotly anticipated title that has had a decent amount of time and effort put into it, people consider it a disappointment.

Can you imagine how people would react if Zelda Wii U or Super Mario Galaxy 3 got given 7/10s?

prfsnl_gmr wrote:Really?

Nintendolife gave it 8/10; IGN gave it 7.5/10; Destructoid gave it 7/10. Basically...Polygon and Giant Bomb didn't like it, and Wired complained about the controls. It isn't exactly a critical disaster, however.

Arstechnica's review (granted, not a bastion of gaming press, but they tend to have good articles when they do) wasn't pleased with the controls either.

Personally, I held off on preordering it to see if that control scheme wound up being optional. I don't like the dual screen stuff, and won't be in any rush to pick it up given that you have to use it.

From what I've seen you definitely have to use the second screen for some major gameplay pieces.

Reprise wrote:Can you imagine how people would react if Zelda Wii U or Super Mario Galaxy 3 got given 7/10s?

I have always thought of Star Fox as a second-tier Nintendo franchise, and I didn't have particularly high hopes for it. I enjoyed Star Fox (SNES), and I thought Star Fox 64 was pretty good. Nintendo has farmed out the development of every Star Fox game since then, and reviews for Star Fox Zero are consistent with reviews for Star Fox Adventures, Star Fox Assault, and Star Fox Command. (That is, they are just OK.)

Also, the most recent games in the Legend of Zelda series (i.e., Tri-Force Heroes and Hyrule Warriors Legends) both received very mediocre reviews, and people didn't freak out about it.

Like I said earlier, I got my copy of the game. I can confirm (at least initially - I might feel differently after more play time), the controls are awkward and you spend half of the time looking at the gamepad screen and swapping between the two screens (and it is awkward).

@prfsnl_gmr Good points made. I don't know why, I just felt like this had more hype and expectations behind it than the last few Star Fox games. It seemed like they were trying to return to their roots, instead of doing another failed experiment (Star Fox Adventures just being a weird Zelda clone with a Star Fox skin forced on and Star Fox Assault having poor third person shooter segments).

Yeah, I think a lot of people would have been happy with an HD(ish) iteration of the core series rail shooter formula. The controls are probably going to wind up tanking it. I don't think many outside of Nintendo Japan really cared about "justifying" the Gamepad.

I love that this thread has a voting thing on it that you can't change.

I voted Maybe when this thread started and have since bought one. Just makes me chuckle.

Reprise wrote:Like I said earlier, I got my copy of the game. I can confirm (at least initially - I might feel differently after more play time), the controls are awkward and you spend half of the time looking at the gamepad screen and swapping between the two screens (and it is awkward).

Thanks for the heads up. I plan on picking the game up at some point, and I would like to the version that includes Star Fox Guard. (I still haven't gotten around to picking up Star Fox Command, however; so, it may be a while. )