Over this past weekend, The Nintendo World Store in New York City gave fans the opportunity to demo some of the recently announced and highly anticipated games from Nintendo. I had the privilege of making the trip to the store and played all of them. In the first of a four-part article series, I’ll offer my thoughts and opinions on Star Fox Zero. 

Star Fox Zero, the game announced last year at E3 finally had its time to shine. In the opening scenes of Nintendo’s E3 Digital Event, fans were greeted by the traditional Arwing and the merry crew of Fox, Falco, Peppy and Slippy.

So let’s get on with my thoughts:

First off, I think its worth noting that the graphics are much better than I originally thought. I’m not sure if it was the video capture or my internet connection, but the visuals seemed sub-par during the event. That being said, the graphics are not phenomenal – they’re nice, but considering the capabilities of the Wii U, I was hoping for more.

In the demo, you’re able to select between one of two scenarios: Corneria and Space Adventures. Naturally, I ventured to Corneria.

The demo began over a waterfront and pans out to the four of your squad members’ crafts. You then fly through some forest terrain and quickly fly towards a giant tower which you need to defend. The motion control felt awkward and while it was paired with both analog sticks, it took a bit of getting used to. Honestly, I don’t think I mastered the controls in the ten-minute demo, but perhaps more practice would make it feel more natural.
Combining these two points, the visuals and controls brings me to the utilization of the gamepad – it was a challenge. Though looking directly from the cockpit via the gamepad was cool, as a player, you’re entirely flying blind (pun intended) when you switch between looking at the gamepad and your tv. Once you’ve figured out when to directly look at the gamepad, the gameplay quickly becomes cool. However, with this, I feel as if your Arwing is completely vulnerable while you’re glued to the gamepad. Perhaps playing this game longer would make the dual-screen easier to master…

The robotic enemies also offered players opportunities to maximize their experience of the demo. Certain robots were easier to destroy if you transformed your Arwing to land-mode (a very cool feature) while others were only able to be destroyed from above, utilizing the standard Arwing.

Overall, I am still intrigued by Star Fox Zero. I’m happy that the game exists, but with the challenging controls and just acceptable graphics, I am not  convinced that I should pre-order this just yet. I’ll keep it on my radar and await what Nintendo showcases next for it.

And it wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t show off that elusive Star Fox pin that was passed out during the demos. The NWS reps were very explicit and clear as to how rare and limited these pins are that they even wrote our names down to ensure we would not get multiples. Some people showed up only for the pin. Me? It’s a wonderfully free prize to help remember this awesome experience.

Follow Harry Loizides, a Senior Editor, through his life of video games, obstacle races, and other adventures with Instagram, Twitter, and IGN.