20 Stupid Decisions That Destroyed Their Franchise
4. Mandatory Motion Controls – Star Fox Zero
Despite being a second-tier Nintendo mascot, Star Fox stayed relevant throughout the SNES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube eras. That’s due as much to his cool visage and lore as it is his great mainline voyages and guest appearance in other places.
Commendably, if divisively, his GameCube outings – 2002’s Star Fox Adventures and 2005’s Star Fox: Assault – mixed his trademark on-rails shooting with 3D action-adventure platforming, combat, puzzle-solving, and the like. Overall, people enjoyed them, but there was still a desire for Star Fox’s simpler days of exclusively shooting bad guys in his Arwing ship.
After waiting over a decade for a console sequel, Star Fox devotees were given 2016’s Star Fox Zero on Wii U. It should’ve been precisely what those fans wanted, but in practice, it was marred by several issues that held it back. Like countless other titles of the time, its biggest flaw was its egregious and awkward use of motion controls.
Numerous journalists chastised Nintendo for requiring players to divide their attention between their TV screens and the Wii U gamepad. Plus, the game controlled poorly anyway, and although it may’ve made sense for the company to embrace the ongoing motion control trend while showcasing their new hardware, they did it the wrong way.
Nintendo are doing their best to bring back Fox with an appearance in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie and a remake of the Nintendo 64 game, but the scars of the previous attempt to revitalise the series are still there even a decade on.