PlatformOVERALL
Wii U8.20
Overall 8.20
Star Fox Guard is the opposite of Zero in that it has a proper vision for the use of the Wii u pad and executes it to perfection. This is kind of a tower defense game but without the planning and with it actually being fun.  it's mostly an action arcade like game where robots try to get to your center base and you have to shoot them down using cameras you placed. The tv screen is your camera view, you see images of all the camera you have placed around the edges of the screen and the center screen if your active camera which you can move and shoot with. You access and move the cameras using your Wii u pad which gives you an overhead view of the map and tracks any enemies that get into your base. By just tapping the camera you want you switch to it, tap and drag a camera to move it, and swipe to quickly change where it's pointed. It's a great system that requires you to keep track of both screens, it makes sense and works beautifully.

This seems like a simple game at first, you monitor the entrances, a few slow robots start to move and you quickly switch from camera to camera to shoot them, easy. As you beat levels you unlock more and level up which leads to camera upgrades which you will need because the variety in enemies is crazy. In no time all sorts of new robots with crazy abilities start to show up and totally change your strategy. There are two classes of robots, the assault class which will end your game of it reaches the center and the chaos class which is simply there to screw up your cameras and help the assault class. Soon you will battle robots that attach to cameras and mask the view to an empty screen, tanks will roll in and shoot down your cameras. UFOs will fall from the sky and ubduct cameras. Some robots are invisibile to radar, some invisible to sight but not radar. Some are magnets that start to turn all cameras to face it. Some a giant ape monsters that take a ton of hits, some jump walls. thats just a taste of the variety you get, when all these kinds of robots come together the matches become exciting and challenging.

Your defense becomes more complex as you unlock new cameras powers. Some have lock on missles, one can slow down time, another freezes enemies and so on. At first you can only choose to have one power on the map at a time but as you play you can unlock up to three different powers per map, simply choose which cameras to give the power too. Before each match starts you see icons showing how many enemies will come from where allowing you to properly place cameras. That said you don't know what kind of chaos class robots will appear so even the best plans becomes crazy once the action begins. I haven't even mentioned the gigantic screen filling boss battles which are a blast.

The amount of content is staggering, there are 50 main mission and 50 special missions to unlock. The special missions add even more variety as they create requirements or do crazy things to enemies like tiny/giant enemies. Missions where you have limited ammo, missions where enemies carry on your cameras and you need to shoot them and place them on the fly. Even after you do all that you have online mode where others create their own enemy loadouts and you can try to defend them. Or you can create your enemy load out and send it out online to see if others can defeat it. This all ties back to the leveling up system which continues to unlock missions for you. Basically you have near infinite amount of levels to play.

Guard could have easily been a throw away bonus to help sell Zero but because this is Nintendo and they put amazing care and effort into most everything they do this is a full game, the better of the two. It is so polished, a concept so simple taken to its absolute max depth. It has a full story with star fox voice acting. The graphics are simple but it works, I love the robot designs. This is exactly where Nintendo shows their worth, a simple concept, a unique control scheme all executed extremely well into a game that can last hours and hours of constantly evolving gameplay. This is the reason to get the Star Fox Zero package.
Posted by Dvader Sun, 14 Aug 2016 16:40:20
 
Sun, 14 Aug 2016 17:40:27
And to think we all poo pooed over Miyamoto experiments at E3. Your review puts me off a little, sounds like it can get too chaotic for me to handle.
 
Sun, 14 Aug 2016 19:29:49
I have seen this game being sold separately at GameStop for about $10. Sounds like it is worth picking up for that price.
 
Wed, 17 Aug 2016 15:12:05
Its kind of sad this is the best thing they've done to Star Fox...
 
Wed, 17 Aug 2016 16:48:46
They should have bought White Harvest (remenants of Factor 5)
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