Star Fox Zero = Command?

[Joseph.]

Zero is coming out next month & its wired that we barely have any new information on it yet. Usually Nintendo console games are marketed pretty well & by the time the game is out we know what to expect however this is not the case with SFZ.

 

We don't really know what to expect and what they've shown us is underwhelming and somewhat comparable to Command. Both Zero & Command lack sufficient trailers before release, both games implemented innovated ways to play, and both games resemble Star Fox 2.

Some of us thought at the time that touch screen controls would be good but turns out they weren't. Some of us also thought it would be nice to see SF2 elements return but after playing through timed and constant all-range mode missions we probably changed our minds.

It seems Zero is taking the same route as Command however I would like to stress that unlike Command, the dev's working on Zero kept the interesting elements from SF2 so far. This is great and to top it all off the motion controls are optional (which weren't in command) yet, one thing still bugs me and its that Star Fox Zero (the game that will restart the series for the 3rd time) lacks publicity. I mean think about it, there's less then 40 days & we barley know anything. If this is the game that will relaunch the franchise then would't they want to release more information? So what are your thoughts concerning Zero's future & do you think it's comparable to Command? 

[Pgpaw3]

3 hours ago, Joseph. said:

Zero is coming out next month & its wired that we barely have any new information on it yet.

 

3 hours ago, Joseph. said:

 I mean think about it, there's less then 40 days & we barley know anything.

Not sure where you got your information mate, but Zero is currently slated for an April 22 release, not in February or early March. You're out by a few months.

Also, the only major way I see any resemblance to SF2 in Zero is that the Walker is back, which is only one mechanic. Would you care to elaborate?

[DZComposer]

 

Seriously, can we wait until the game is out and we all have a chance to play it before making overarching statements like "SFZ is the new SFC?"

Sure, Nintendo could be promoting SFZ more, but honestly Nintendo has been not publicizing a lot of things lately.

[That Ain't Falco]

SF0 has been said to be a linear game. Good sign of not Command, right there.

[Xidphel]

"zero=command"

[Joseph.]

Ops i made a mistake. I meant it comes out in 2 months, so about 60 days it will launch.

I feel Zero is being treated like command in a way. Nintendo is using the same tactic as Command (Both use SF2 elements, both lacked publicity, & both use innovated ways to play)

Im not saying this is entirely bad so dont think im comparing commands gameplay with zero.  Also, this is the game that will restart the series for the 3rd time & not knowing much about it nor having  much publicity to reach other gamers should worry you guys.

[ArwingFan]

Aside from Fox's design, I really don't see any similarities.  And SFZ actually looks promising.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Well, the game could go in several ways. It could either be like 64, Command, or a mix of both. Or it could go in a totally different direction.

But don't judge quite yet. It's not even out, like DZ said.

[Joseph.]

1 hour ago, Arminius H O Fiddywinks said:

Well, the game could go in several ways. It could either be like 64, Command, or a mix of both. Or it could go in a totally different direction.

But don't judge quite yet. It's not even out, like DZ said.

I am judging the way Nintendo has been treating Zero so far. I'm not saying Zero is the new Command I'm saying Zero is being handled the same way Command was handle back in 06 before it was released.

[Dr. Orange]

4 hours ago, Joseph. said:

Ops i made a mistake. I meant it comes out in 2 months, so about 60 days it will launch.

No. It won't because it will be released in April. Just under 3 months. Do math holy shit.

4 hours ago, Joseph. said:

Also, this is the game that will restart the series for the 3rd time & not knowing much about it nor having  much publicity to reach other gamers should worry you guys.

Try first time mate.

4 minutes ago, Joseph. said:

I am judging the way Nintendo has been treating Zero so far. I'm not saying Zero is the new Command I'm saying Zero is being handled the same way Command was handle back in 06 before it was released.

It wasn't.

Literally this has been a lot of action we've got for this game. Command barely had any but SFZ is getting more attention than Assault or Adventures.

Please everyone, I get sent to the ER for badthreaditis. It's really wearing my insurance down.

[Scourge]

No
stop
You know nothing about the game
Stop complaining for the sake of complaining

thanks

[Drasiana]

8 hours ago, Joseph. said:

should worry you guys.

stop

[unoservix]

no it's true i have played Star Fox Zero with the help of Kyoji my uncle who obviously works at Nintendo for reals no joke and it is just the worst thing that ever happened, it's worse than forty Hitlers you guys! that's as many as four tens!

anyway Star Fox Zero is totally different from any other Star Fox game, it follows Fox after the Lylat wars when there's no more mercenary work and he has to take a boring office job and his life devolves into a meaningless shamble between soul-sucking work days, punctuated by all-too-brief periods of self-narcotization via alcohol, antidepressants, and Netflix, and a sorry excuse for sleep

and ROB64 never gives you shield rings, it's bullshit

anyway yeah Star Fox Zero is horrible and it will kill your family

[The Undying Nephalim]

Lets gets some facts straight.
These are all the promotional material I could find for these games. They do not include Japanese promotion, it's strictly Western advertisement:

Publicity for Starfox Adventures (Not counting Dinosaur Planet prior to franchise change)
- Space World 2001 Trailer 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OliAnoALccg
- Early Promotional Video 2 (unknown date, seems to also be from Space World 2001): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXUkn-47RRI
- NCG 70 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD9_zD7sYks
- Nintendo Power #161 Preview
- 2 Preview Articles in Game Informer (cant find the exact issue numbers)

Publicity for Star Fox Assault:
2003 E3 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf7gnsxmJRY
Second Gamecube Trailer (Cant find the year or exact release date): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd2H3wF_UyU
1 Preview Article in November 2003 (Champions of Norrath Cover) Game Informer
1 Preview Article in 2004 issue of Game Informer (Can't find the issue number or cover)

Publicity for Starfox Command:
Launch Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjOD-7KQH2I

Yes, this is the only Non Japanese advertisement for the game I can seriously find. There are actually quite a few Japanese trailers and articles... but for the west I've found no preview articles in any magazine like Game Informer, nothing. This game apparently did have terrible, terrible, absolutely abysmal promotion here in the west or it has all since vanished from the internet.

Publicity for Starfox Zero:

E3 2015 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6PEecNY0Sc
E3 2015 Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWPd2-_gSJA
Second Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2mmnOBJPTI
One hands on preview in Game Informer: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/06/16/hands-on-with-star-fox-zero.aspx

Like Command, there seems to be much more massive Japanese promotion for the Zero, but this was the only western promotion I could find.

Conclusion: 
- Adventures seems to have had quite a bit of promotion (if we count all the pre-Starfox Dinosaur planet material, then it easily doubles)
- Assault seemed to have a bit of non-Nintendo promotion and somehow got two preview articles in Game Informer. 
- As far as I can tell Command legit had one trailer in the west and no preview articles of any kind in any magazine. I seem to recall not even knowing the game existed until Game Informer reviewed it a month after it actually came out.
- While there's already more advertisement than Command, Starfox Zero does seem to have rather minimal promotion in the west as Joseph has pointed out. I think the difference here is that there's almost no hype at all for Zero, where's the three previous Starfox games, particularly Adventures, where being hyped to all hell by the fandom, game publications, etc. The only real Starfox Zero discussions being had seem to be on this website.
- All Starfox games, with the exception of Adventures seem to have had much more Japanese promotion. Just a casual youtube search will unearth several Japanese trailers for Assault, Command, and Zero. There's even several Gameplay videos of Zeros I've yet to see until I did this research that are all in Japanese.

If anyone can find any more promotional material go ahead of put it on here so we can add to the list.

[Joseph.]

SFZ is being treated like command in the sense of development. I don't understand how saying Zero is being treated like command means that you have to play Zero to know.  You dont have to play it, just examine what Nintendo has shown so far.

 For example:

-Returning Star Fox 2 elements (Fighting Star Wolf members one at a time, collecting coins, hover vehicle/tank, going inside enemy ships, destroy cores withing the ship, and the obvious walker transformation)

-Innovative / gimmicky Controls

-Developed by another company 

-The lack of hype & marketing (like nephalim said theres barely any hype which is strange since its suppose to relaunch the series)

 

Besides the lack of hype, how are these examples a bad thing for Zero? Maybe it being treated like Command will be a good thing instead of having the development team try something new that could be risky or easily forgotten.

[Pgpaw3]

2 hours ago, Joseph. said:

-Returning Star Fox 2 elements (Fighting Star Wolf members one at a time)

Sounds fair

 

2 hours ago, Joseph. said:

collecting coins,

That just seems similar to the flags from Assault. We have no idea what they do.

2 hours ago, Joseph. said:

hover vehicle/tank

Do you mean the landmaster? That came around in SF64

(Also there was no tank in Command)
 

2 hours ago, Joseph. said:

going inside enemy ships, destroy cores withing the ship, and the obvious walker transformation)

I do agree that those are reterning elements.

 

2 hours ago, Joseph. said:

-Innovative / gimmicky Controls

I don't quite understand what you mean. It almost sounds like you are saying innovation is a bad thing.

 

2 hours ago, Joseph. said:

-Developed by another company 

You might need to explain that one too. Practically every game in the series has been developed to some extent with outside help.

2 hours ago, Joseph. said:

-The lack of hype & marketing (like nephalim said theres barely any hype which is strange since its suppose to relaunch the series)

Do remember that the game is still 3 months away (which is neither 40 nor 60 days, but approx 90). That is plenty of time in my opinion to release more promotional material. Plus look at that list. Assuming that is all the promotional material the other games got, It has almost as much material as Adventures, the most promoted. And they still have 3 months.

 

Lets not cry foul quite yet.

[Pharaoh Shadon]

Bullies much? I'd argue a part of the reason why the active starfox fandom has shrunk is because of how rude some of ya are. It's why most of the starfox fans I know quit being active, it's toxic, can't even make a simple topic without being bullied -_-

 

As for the points. There are connections between command and Zero, however I think they are more case by case rather than something to be held against. I don't think command failed because of marketing, every starfox fan knows of it's existence by now. It failed for MANY reasons, primarily story reasons i'd argue. Though even if the story was good, people like me don't like the time limits and turn based parts of the game. So it pissed off the people who was in it for story, and disappointed people in terms of gameplay decisions, and it's fanbase mainly consist of people who either see a few things of light in the game, or people that actually likes it, which I don't think are very high.

Zero on the other hand, doesn't seem to be disappointing fans in terms of gameplay, and considering platinum games history, I don't think they will disappoint with story either. At most, I see it being a star wars episode 7 where it is a very good movie, but left much to be desired as we've already seen anything (So in other words, it plays safe to a fault) Which is something I don't see starfox fans being angry about.

And then about the advertisement part. Like undying Nephalim said, there really isn't THAT much advertisement in starfox games. I didn't even know of commands existence till I saw it bundled with this DS case (I bought strictly for the game) Starfox Zero, in part of how big internet is these days, I don't know many people who don't know about Zero, even non starfox fans. So even without many trailers, is still getting quite a bit of publicity from what I can tell, unlike command (And Nintendo games don't really get much publicity in general. Nintendo is one of those magic companies now a days that can release anything and you WILL hear about it weather you want to or not XD

 

Sooooo in other words, these are different times from when command was released. Although your points may be problematic for back then, I don't think they are problematic in the now. It is also in the hands of Platinum games, who has yet to make a truly disappointing game, so I think it's in good hands regardless of past similarities to a not so good game.

[Okami Kitsune]

First of all... why would Nintendo would try to recreate a game that has gone extremely bad? They just wouldn't do the exact same errors again. And just saying... if they wanted to do a game like command they would let Krystal in the game.

(Sorry if i offended any Krystal fan. What i am trying to say was that the game won't have a similar story to command without Krystal in the game.)

"-Developed by another company" Well... about that... depending on the company that is developing the game it can be good. And i am sure that Platinum Games is a good company. After all they developed Metal Gear Rising and other series that they have made got good reception and people almost always seems to get impressed with the games.

"having the development team try something new that could be risky or easily forgotten. " When Platinum Games developed MGR they drastically changed the gameplay style. Some people complained about it but the game generally had a great acceptance from public and actually made me want to play the rest of the Metal Gear series for how good the game was. Even if they change the gameplay style this doesn't mean that it will be a bad game or something like that, and just to remember but Command had a weird mix of strategy and flight action game, and SFZ which is good for everyone who didn't want something weird or that changes the game too much.

Even if I don't personally like SF like it's the best thing ever I don't think it's right to say the game is bad right now.

[fanfictiondreamer]

22 hours ago, DZComposer said:

All too true, unfortunately. Sometimes, I believe we complain just for the sake of complaining. No use getting worked up over something you don't have any control over.

[DZComposer]

What's driving me nuts about the reactions to SFZ is that people have been saying Star Fox should go back to its roots for years. They finally do it and now everyone's like "Herp-a-Derp, it's too much like SF64"

SFZ really has the potential to be the best Star Fox game yet. The only complaints I have seen that I will give some validity to thus far are that the motion control aiming with two screens can be a bit awkward. I think if they improve the training mission and allow people to have more time with it, I think it will help.

[Fookes]

4 minutes ago, DZComposer said:

What's driving me nuts about the reactions to SFZ is that people have been saying Star Fox should go back to its roots for years. They finally do it and now everyone's like "Herp-a-Derp, it's too much like SF64"

SFZ really has the potential to be the best Star Fox game yet. The only complaints I have seen that I will give some validity to thus far are that the motion control aiming with two screens can be a bit awkward. I think if they improve the training mission and allow people to have more time with it, I think it will help.

Indeed! And I think people should be thankful that Nintendo is even giving us a new Star Fox game! I mean... We've been begging Nintendo for a new SF game for years, and now they are finally giving us one! But how did we thank them!? 

"It's too much like SF64! The graphics are horrible! Wah! Wah! Wah!"

 

[ArwingFan]

I don't see the point in complaining. We're getting a new game after a long ass drought, that actually looks promising. Stop worrying and enjoy the game when it comes out.

[Drasiana]

Just want to point out that Command did at least get one piece of magazine coverage: a Nintendo Power article that referred to the story as a "soap opera". That was when we all first went "what". Zero hasn't had that yet so it's a good sign.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

I can't wait for it to come out to see what people have to say about it.

[The Undying Nephalim]

To be fair I don't think Joseph ever claimed that SFZ looks bad or is going to be bad. All he was saying is that it seems like the marketing, development, and publicity aspect of the game is mirroring Star Fox Command. E.I. Almost no advertisement, publicity, or hype at all.

I'm inclined to sort of agree. I'm actually insanely baffled that there is barely any Starfox content in Super Smash Bros 4. It would have been an absolutely perfect way to advertise their new Starfox game to have another SF character, stage, heck or even Mii costumes. Instead they throw in Cloud Strife.... an advertisement for a game on another console owned by a competing company. Veeerrryyy strange marketing tactics if you ask me.

As for going back to its roots, I don't speak for everyone but I think people meant an actual continuation and sequel in the style of SF64, Not a complete retread/reboot/reimagining of SF64 with some new features. Correct me if I'm wrong about that claim.