In the Switch generation, Nintendo has moved away from the “single and doubles,” toward “home runs.” In the previous generation, we had a bunch of smaller games that were smaller in scope, with a smaller budget, smaller price tag, and download only. The Switch has had very few of these from first party developers (The picross games, a few Kirby spinoffs, and Good Job are the only ones coming to mind right now.).
With a new console on the horizon, Nintendo is looking at development cycles increasing. My hope is that to counteract this, we see a return of the singles and doubles. If it happened, my most wanted single game, would be Star Fox 64 2.
No, I don’t mean a modern game that continues the story of SF64, I want the game that would have been made in 1997 in Nintendo immediately started a sequel after the first one launched. Low poly, low texture quality, fast and tight gameplay, and excellent level design. The game can run at 1080P and 60FPS, but keep everything else barebones. Incorporate new music using an N64 quality soundscape, and tons of chatter between the copilots. Keep each “run” to 30 minutes. Budget it at a modest $20-25, and get a nice single. The idea might not work, but I think it works better than making a really detailed rail shooter that takes years to make and has to sell for $60.
Personally, I think Nintendo needs to stop using Star Fox as a tech demo for their new gimmicks like they did with Star Fox Command on the DS and Star Fox Zero on the Wii U. Star Fox: Assault was a great game for the Game Cube and got way more hate than it deserved. The spaceship levels were great, it expanded the story, enemies and characters, and it was a generally fun game.
Yeah, there were complains about the third-person shooter stages and the control scheme. I played it recently and you can tell the controllers didn’t age well in those sections. But it’s not terrible, and the game’s still a lot of fun and has a good story.
My problem with Assault was that I went in wanting to play on-rail shooting like in 64… and it had that.
But it was in a minority, and the all-range mode levels were optimized for on foot or land master, so the Arwing segments were often either underwhelming or you were being herded to play the terrestrial based gameplay.
The game was certainly good, and was by far the best written Star Fox game at the time (IMO), but it didn’t quite scratch the itch I was desperately hoping it would.
But you are absolutely right that it doesn’t deserve the hate it got, and it would probably be an amazing first Star Fox game for someone new to the franchise.
Star Fox Zero was even close to the end of the Wii U’s life cycle, so the gamepad wasn’t even “new” by that point. They really should have either not used the dual-screen gimmick altogether (realizing that people can really only focus on one screen at a time), better optimized their level design for its use, or where it could have actually worked was to use it only in a 2-player co-op mode where one player piloted the ship with a Wii-mote/nunchuk and the other was the “gunner” using the gamepad to shoot enemies. (I’d also allow the player with the Wii-mote a gunning option, maybe point-and-fire like shooting star bits in Mario Galaxy, or give that player control of the bombs.)
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