In a galaxy far, far away, there is a fox ...and a whole bunch of other animals.

My history with the Star Fox series is rather strange. I started my journey with the Nintendo 64 version, which I have since completed several times. All of others I did play, but I only remember them to varying degrees. It’s not that I haven't enjoyed anything since that time; I put a huge amount of time into Star Fox Command. But was I ready for a new Star Fox? Well yeah, absolutely. The demo at E3 2015 left me with more questions than answers, but I remained hopeful that it could all work out in the end. Now we have arrived to the point where I’ve made up my mind.

As far as the story is concerned, many of the beats found in Star Fox 64 are here. The Star Fox team gets ready for a journey to fight Andross' evil army, and travels all across the Lylat system to get the job done. Many of the character encounters found in the original are still present, and it tries to be faithful in a number of ways. You’ll see Bill and Katt popping up, a crew member still needs to be saved in the desert, and destroying missiles is still one of the mission objectives. There are changes made to the plot now and again, but the amount of them varies per level. In the grand scheme of things, it is the same experience, but retold to accompany the changes made in the gameplay.

And that is what honestly matters here the most. The stages are longer, more diverse, and put together in a fashion that matters. They will not push the envelope in what you want out of them, but there is a reasonable amount of effort put behind it. The level ''Enter Star Fox'' immediately shows the amount of freedom that you have. While the game still pushes you forward, there is nicer variety of enemies to battle and things are actively happening around you. There is more an incentive to keep focused and be aware of what you are doing.

That is, however, easier said than done. Star Fox Zero is one of the more demanding games I have played. The controls play a huge part in this as they caused me frustration when I first booted up the game. Exploring the levels in the Arwing not only requires the player to fly correctly on the television (left stick), but also shoot around you on the Wii U GamePad (gyroscope). The cockpit view offers an unique perspective that I find intriguing, but never truly enjoyable. I had a really hard time keeping up with both screens and finish a mission in a way that I find personally satisfying. I got adjusted to the control scheme in time, but I never got the feeling that I really had it mastered.

This was particularly troublesome in the All-Range Mode missions, where you constantly had to scout around for enemies. In the fight against Pigma, I sharply moved the controller to keep track of him. In an ideal world, I would hold the laser tight and shoot at him when he came into sight, but it doesn't really work that way. This battle requires you to simply shoot the laser to knock down this health, and this will take slightly longer than you might think. By using my brakes and 180 moves a lot I ended up destroying him, and even got quite decent at it during my third attempt. When you take the time to learn the controls, the problems are alleviated somewhat, but it will always remain a little rocky.

Where the controls shined for me the most were with the other vehicles. The Gyrowing is something that I adored playing with, and the mission on Zoness called Covert Ops perfectly highlights it. You are allowed to take it slowly, move around freely and get the time to react. There is a bigger focus on getting your movement right on the television screen, with subtle moments where you have to look around. Another cool aspect about it is the Direct-i robot, which you drop into the scene to perform tasks for you. The little guy can look around in smaller areas and hack into computers that will open gates for you. It is here that the unique GamePad perspective is used in a fantastic way.

On the direct opposite of the spectrum sits the Landmaster, which is surprisingly fun as well. While you have to get used to the high velocity of the Scroll Mode, you can swiftly move left or right by doing that classic Barrel Roll. Also, you can fire multiple targets at once by charging your attack. This makes the chance for error smaller, and improves your effectiveness on the battlefield. I still struggled a bit in All-Range Mode, particularly against the boss in the ''A Fox in the Desert'' mission. You have to shoot various aspects of a robot's body while constantly evading the thing as it inches closer to you.

Finally, there is the Walker. This chicken-like vehicle was supposed to be introduced in Star Fox 2, which sadly got cancelled. While it moves over land, it plays similar to the Arwing in many regards. In fact, you will be able to switch between them once you have progressed through the game. While it has the ablity to move easily on the ground, you will find yourself using it in a Scroll Mode level often to uncover hidden passageways. While the movement was more my style, in particular the dash, shooting remained an issue. Together with Arwing, it is here that I constantly recallibrated the GamePad perspective with the Y-button as it kept going out of sync a bit.

Personally, I had more fun playing the game in co-op mode. Here I teamed with a buddy and we were both assigned a specific task. I would handle movement duties on the television screen, while my friend would do all of the shooting on the Wii U GamePad. By pointing out things to one another, it created a feeling where we really had to work together to survive. Splitting up both tasks makes the gameplay even more fulfilling and solves the problems I had with the controls. I had a more relaxed play session, and we both had huge grins on our faces while playing. I could even help out with shooting by firing a single laser to bring down enemies a lot quicker. If you have any reservations about the controls, I would highly recommend playing the game this way.

I will not touch upon the levels too much, considering that Neal Ronaghan will have a breakdown of each one in his article. What I will say is this, though: I could never blame the levels for the problems I had with the game. They were incredibly well designed. Even if it felt safe at times, I was intrigued by what the game would throw my way. The level ''The Key to Victory'', which takes place in Area 3, had many variables to it, and introduced new concepts at a very rapid pace. You went from the Arwing to the Walker, followed by the Gyrowing. That is a lot to take in, but was it boring? Far from it, honestly. Another fun moment was the epic space battle in “Reunited with a Friend,” where you have the first encounter with Star Wolf as well.

Before we take the ship back home, I should explain the functionality of the Fox and Falco amiibo. The Fox amiibo lets you play in a retro-styled Arwing from Star Fox on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. All the effects faithfully represent those of their old school counterparts, and they look kind of silly in a polished game like this. Also, it seems that you’re unable to charge attacks while using this retro starfighter, so that is something to keep in mind. The Falco amiibo is clearly the better of two in my opinion. Not only do you get a shiny, black Arwing, it also has increased firepower that can lock onto two targets at once. The major drawback is that you take more damage in this form, but that is a fair trade, to be frank.

Star Fox Zero looks fantastic in motion. I had really reserved expectations after E3 2015, but it has seen changes since then. Everything in the environments seems a lot more crisp, even if it isn't the best looking Wii U game out there. It remains a colorful spectacle, though, and one that deserves its spot on Nintendo's console. That doesn't mean the game is without fault, however. During my playtime with the game, Star Fox Zero froze three times, and I think it’s likely that it will happen even more. It is nothing too game breaking, but totally frustrating when it happens. At one point, I was *this* close to wrapping up a stage, and the game froze, which left me feeling as if it was all for nothing. On the other hand, the audio is really good. The original voice cast reprise their roles in performances that feel right, and everything is enhanced, thanks to the 3D audio on the Wii U GamePad. You get a sense of everything happening around you, while the television gives you the music and effects you would expect. It is not like I remember every single tune, but it was nice.

At the end of the day, Star Fox Zero really surprised me in a number of ways. While the controls take a lot of time to adjust to, the levels and the core elements of gameplay work well. I will need to sit down with it more, and see how I feel once I reach the end. This will likely be happening more in co-op mode, because I found that to be so fun to toy around with. You are communicating with one another to get the job done, and that is honestly super compelling. The story might not be new, and the presentation might not be the Wii U's best, but the game is fun enough all the same. Sometimes that is all that matters.