30. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

The fact that the world of Mirror’s Edge had such untapped potential, to the point that many desired a sequel years after its launch, is a testament to its impact. The first-person parkour model would be in other titles, most notably Dying Light, but the focus on platforming and skill-based jumping, not to mention the gorgeous dystopian world, helped it stand out.

So when DICE finally announced Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, which offered a more open world, the excitement was palpable, even if it was revealed to be a reboot. While it retained the fluid movement and responsive controls, the world felt barren, the story rudimentary and the ending inane. DICE has no plans to return to the franchise, and for all its appealing aspects, Mirror’s Edge is pretty much dead.

29. Rise of the Ronin

As a fan of Team Ninja’s Nioh series and even finding some enjoyment in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, it’s sad to see how Rise of the Ronin turned out. On the one hand, it’s earned some praise for its combat and even the directions you can take the story. On the other hand, critics have expressed disappointment with its open world, English voice acting, story and visuals.

While there were plenty of comparisons to Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, I feel that they’re both distinct enough and trying to do their own thing. So why is Rise of the Ronin so underwhelming? Well, for starters, it’s a PS5 exclusive in development for seven years, with Sony’s support, which lends certain expectations. This isn’t to say that all reviews were equally hard on the game, as indicated by the 76 Metascore, but ranking fifth in physical sales for the UK at launch and dropping to 14th place the next week is nothing short of disappointing.

28. Need for Speed (2015)

Years of requests for a new Need for Speed Underground title and Electronic Arts delivered…sort of. Employing real-world legends like Ken Block, it was ultimately about a cast of street racers struggling to get noticed. While the customization and visuals received praise, the uninteresting story, AI prone to rubberbanding, multiplayer and lack of certain features (including drag racing) soured fans. There was also the always-online requirement with no option to pause. It would have qualified as one of the weaker games in the franchise, but then Payback happened and drastically lowered the bar.

27. Biomutant

When a game like Biomutant promises a massive world with choices and consequences, extensive character customization, vehicles, deep combat mechanics and much more, it’s hard to not get hyped. The fact that it was five years in the making, with Experiment 101 consisting of former Just Cause developers, further contributed to this. However, all those intriguing bits turned out to be incredibly shallow, from the story and combat to the mission design and annoying narrator. An update helped improve things, and with a million units sold in a few months, it was far from a flop, but it still has a ways to go.

26. The Order: 1886

Ready at Dawn’s The Order: 1886 received extensive attention for its graphics, with gorgeous facial animation and lighting. The presentation also received significant praise, but everything else left much to be desired. The campaign was ephemeral, with the disappointing story (despite such an intriguing setting and premise) and over-reliance on quick-time events bogging down the overall gameplay. Ending on a cliffhanger with no prospects for a sequel didn’t help either.

25. Exoprimal

Piloting exosuits to battle hordes of dinosaurs sounds like a good idea in theory, but what is live service? The developer’s to join the trend resulted in Exoprimal, which featured a story focused on time traveling, simulations run by a rogue AI called Leviathan, and so much dino slaying. The story felt disjointed, with the characters getting little development, and the lackluster map variety and repetitive objectives brought the experience down. The developer has expanded on the different modes at least while also adding new Alpha variants of Exosuits (Beta variants are coming soon), but its launch state was just so underwhelming.

24. Star Fox Zero

Not that Star Fox had the best run since peaking with Star Fox 64, but Zero had PlatinumGames involved. Surely, the Wii U controls would allow for a compelling shoot-’em-up experience. As you’ve probably guessed, that isn’t the case, as the controls were criticized for their unwieldiness. It also didn’t help that the experience heavily mirrored Star Fox 64, though some critics enjoyed the approach. With less than 500,000 copies sold, it flopped hard, and there hasn’t been a follow-up ever since.

23. Thief (2014)

One of the most beloved cult classic stealth series of all time, Thief was considered as revolutionary for PC players as Metal Gear Solid for consoles. So when Eidos Montreal announced a reboot, there was excitement and perhaps a little trepidation, especially after Garrett’s old voice actor was replaced. A dull performance was the least of the game’s problems, with the level design, AI and story all feeling out of sorts. While opinions settled more on the slightly above side, Thief (2014) couldn’t match up to the original games in player freedom and choice.

22. Days Gone

The praise for Days Gone, Bend Studio’s open-world zombie survival title, cropped up most when it was free on PlayStation Plus. Full credit to the team for sticking with it and adding sizable new content and features, but that’s not the launch version. The latter was roundly criticized for its excessive bugs, performance issues and loading screens (that too after delays for more polish), to say nothing of the bland story and awful dialogue. The open world, the motorcycle maintenance mechanics, the shooting – nearly everything had its downsides.

Make no mistake – there were some positives, from the immense undead hordes to the progression, and it notched up some impressive sales numbers, topping the UK physical charts for three weeks in a row and outselling the combined total of Bend’s previous games. However, it was nowhere near the high bar set by first-party Sony titles. Perhaps for this reason, the publisher didn’t greenlight a sequel and directors John Garvin and Jeff Ross subsequently left the studio. As beloved as it is now, there’s no denying that Days Gone underwhelmed at launch.

21. RAGE 2

For its time, RAGE was trying to do something technologically ahead of its time courtesy of id Tech 5. However, it faced criticism for its overall story and forgettable characters, not to mention the aggravating cliffhanger at the end. The fact that it launched after the more successful Borderlands, which captured the Mad Max feel of a post-apocalyptic wasteland far better, also didn’t help. Nevertheless, it did receive some praise for its visuals, combat, side missions and AI.

With RAGE 2, Avalanche Studios decided to go for a more traditional open-world first-person shooter with vehicles. You had the usual enemy camps to clear, some points of interest and enemy convoys to assault, while the story was a paint-by-numbers “gather the MacGuffins” before a showdown with the big bad. The combat and visuals were still worthy of praise, but everything else felt further downgraded over the original, and it had microtransactions.

20. Immortals of Aveum

Coming from a new team with a five-year development cycle and emphasis on a single-player campaign with no microtransactions, Immortals of Aveum was a noble endeavor. Problems arose with the overall story, graphical issues on consoles, iffy dialogue (with the cast trying its very best to elevate it), and controls. With the emphasis on fast-paced mage combat, encounters could feel repetitive, ultimately underwhelming despite some impressive set pieces. Again, it received updates and new content while attracting a following, but Immortals of Aveum failed to leave a mark.

19. Shenmue 3

A sequel that fans (and creator Yu Suzuki) craved since the second game’s release in 2001. An announcement years in the making with $6 million in crowd-funding. A launch finally happening four years later, mired in controversy due to Epic Games Store exclusivity and a publishing deal with Deep Silver. Shenmue 3 finally arrived in 2015 and was panned for its outdated mechanics and storyline that ended on yet another cliffhanger. While some found the antiquated mechanics to be the appeal, it ended up feeling inconsequential and just another chapter in the ongoing story which would likely end.

18. The Callisto Protocol

Spiritual successors to classics from the original creators never fail to generate attention, as seen with Striking Distance’s The Callisto Protocol. This Dead Space tribute sported gorgeous visuals punctuated by over-the-top and grotesque death sequences. Delays and declarations of crunch didn’t help, nor did the performance issues at launch. Of course, despite all that, the experience was dragged for being overtly linear with shoddy melee combat, no option to skip the death scenes, a short playtime, heaps of unrealized potential and ultimately, not measuring up to the legacy of Dead Space.

17. Rainbow Six Extraction

After the success of the limited-time mode Outbreak in Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft did what any self-serving publisher would do – spin it off into a new game and monetize it. Extraction would take a while to launch, initially announced as Rainbow Six Quarantine in 2019 (and eventually abandoning the name for obvious reasons).

It would finally arrive in January 2022 after multiple delays and revealed itself as a session of interconnected areas with procedurally generated objectives and enemies. The sparse content, terrible objectives, bad AI, laughable story and repetition sadly made for a dull experience. While the developer would tout three million players in the first week (likely in no small part thanks to Game Pass), you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who remembered it past the first month.

16. Crackdown 3

Before Microsoft pushed cloud gaming via Game Pass, it hyped the computational powers of the same and how they would revolutionize gaming. Crackdown 3 was an example, touted as having a fully destructible open world. It eventually relegated into a separate mode, which quickly died out, while the base campaign launched after years of delay and generated ire for its archaic, repetitive design. Could you have some mindless fun? Sure, but it was a far cry from what Microsoft hyped the project to be and far from the next big leap for the franchise.

15. Resident Evil 3 (2020)

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has always occupied a weird place due to its shorter length and unorthodox features (like the titular villain). Releasing in the shadow of the brilliant Resident Evil 2 didn’t help – unfortunately, that same fate awaited Resident Evil 3 remake. Despite some fantastic visuals and combat, it was more notable for omitting areas (city hall, the clock tower and more were nowhere to be seen) or changing some of the original’s most iconic moments.

Barring the final sequence, none of them felt like an improvement. The fact that Mercenaries wasn’t included, but we got Resistance, a terrible asymmetrical multiplayer mode, didn’t help. Even with sales at 8.4 million, Resident Evil 3 is considered the weakest of the modern remakes.

14. Wolfenstein Youngblood

MachineGames delivered not one but two excellent Wolfenstein titles, reviving the franchise for a new generation with some incredibly cinematic storytelling that remains impressive to this day. How did it follow these up? Why, with a co-op title focusing on B.J. Blazkowicz’s daughters, Jessie and Zofia. The initial gameplay showings weren’t terrible, and the prospect of venturing to Paris to take out Nazis was appealing.

Unfortunately, Wolfenstein Youngblood fundamentally failed to capture what made the previous games so successful. Enemies were bullet sponges, causing players to constantly run out of ammo, and the missions were forgettable, with bizarre hub-like stages that felt utterly unnecessary to the campaign’s flow. Throw in terrible AI when playing solo and microtransactions, and it felt like a poorly conceived side story rather than a proper follow-up to MachineGames’ hits.

13. Forspoken

You want to believe that Luminous Productions had good intentions when designing Forspoken, first announced as Project Athia. Boasting a premier writing staff and billed as a two-year PS5 exclusive, it could have been the developer’s next big thing. While the combat wasn’t terrible, it did little to uplift the barren open world and dull activities.

The initially awful dialogue and plot also weighed it down, but even as things improved over time, the story was over quickly. It wasn’t long before the developer declared that Forspoken’s sales were “lackluster” and by May, Luminous was reorganized and merged into the publisher.

12. Mighty No. 9

Also considered one of the worst games ever made, Mighty No. 9’s development history would have suggested otherwise. It was helmed by a new team at Comcept who promised a spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise when the developer had effectively kept the series on the back burner.

Then the delays happened, and that whole second Kickstarter campaign to fund a completely different project. By the time Mighty No. 9 launched, it was beset by performance issues, terrible voice acting, lack of content and an overall feel that screamed “cheap imitation” rather than spiritual successor.

11. Skull and Bones

Before its multitude of delays that whittled any faith that anyone had in the developer to deliver a competent pirate game, Skull and Bones had some potential. Its first announcement trailer gave the vibe of an Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag but a stronger focus on naval combat that fans had demanded for years. Of course, then the delays happened, followed by reports of reboots, behind-the-scenes issues, incompetent upper management, leadership departures, etc. When Skull and Bones was close to launching – for real this time – Yves Guillemot made the baffling decision to call it a quadruple-A game instead of the tried and true “triple-A.”

Upon launch, and to no one’s surprise, Skull and Bones was a live service grind for “loot”, punctuated by increasingly dull missions and tedious back and forth. Good thing it sold for $70 and included microtransactions. The results were telling – less than one-fourth of Sea of Thieves’ launch sales in the UK and allegedly 850,000 players, including those who played the free trial.

10. Marvel’s Avengers

Marvel’s Avengers didn’t have the best of reveals, competing against the first-ever gameplay of Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the same E3 showcase. Nevertheless, despite how many felt about the lack of resemblance to the Marvel Cinematic Universe actors, it didn’t look terrible either. Live service was seeing a downturn, but with Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal at the helm, how could it go wrong?

Cut to the underwhelming beta and full release, and the distinction between Marvel’s Avengers and a title like Marvel’s Spider-Man became clearer. Despite unique kits for its heroes and some decent visuals, the mission design, objectives and loot were subpar. Post-launch support added some new heroes and content, which did little to raise the player count, and it was subsequently delisted from storefronts in September 2023.

9. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

While one may joke that Call of Duty is a disappointment year in and year out, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 felt especially egregious. Reports indicated that it was to be an expansion to Modern Warfare 2 focusing on the Mexican cartel that underwent a reboot into a full-fledged game. Calling it that feels dirty due to the painfully short campaign with its lackluster and ultimately inconsequential story that sets up yet another sequel.

Perhaps even worse is the Open Combat Missions, promising sandbox-style action but coming off as lazy with simplistic objectives. Multiplayer was knee-capped out of the gate with the focus on remastered maps for its core 6v6 modes, and despite some solid gameplay, the age-old issues of skill-based matchmaking (or at least how COD approaches it) and connection issues still cropped up. Zombies was the only good thing about this release, but that’s been abandoned after some lackluster updates. At least the microtransactions continue to roll in.

8. Anthem

After the mess of Mass Effect Andromeda, it was the turn of the main BioWare team to produce something special. It was…a live service looter shooter, which emphasized co-op over the developer’s tried and true single-player story-driven approach. As impressive as the initial gameplay reveal seemed, it was reportedly fake – Anthem’s development period was plagued with issues, from crunch to terrible management.

The result is a mess, with poor characterization and dialogue, bad mission design and objectives, a baffling lack of quality of life, performance issues, bugs, glitches, unimaginative loot and a barren endgame. Despite changes and updates, Anthem’s attempt at a do-over was ultimately rejected by EA, and support is effectively dead (though servers remain available).

7. Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Speaking of an underwhelming launch, we have the developer going from Ghost Recon Wildlands, which grew into something great to Ghost Recon Breakpoint and its removal of AI teammates, looter shooter elements, bland open world, bullet sponge drones, bugs, glitches, the list goes on. Why did the developer suddenly want to adopt a shared world shooter approach with the franchise (besides live service revenue)? No one knows, but it was disastrous. The developer would eventually claw a good game out of it, one that still fell short of Wildlands, but at least offered a more tactical experience without worrying about gear scores.

6. Resident Evil 6

After Resident Evil 5, impressions of the franchise weren’t exactly the most positive, with many feeling it veered too much into a more action-heavy approach. Even if Resident Evil 6’s trailers were full of action, there was still the hype behind seeing so many fan favorite characters (and Jake) tearing it up together. The result offered some pretty good combat but flopped in multiple ways. The characters felt off, and the overall pacing of walk a few feet, cutscene, rinse, repeat was a killer. While Resident Evil 6 saw decent sales, its critical reception was in the gutter, but thankfully, it led to the rebooting in Resident Evil 7: biohazard.

5. Payday 3

Considering the ups and downs that Payday 2 saw, it was in a pretty good spot by the time Starbreeze stopped producing new content. Payday 3 would have been the perfect opportunity to start over with a fresh new slate, avoiding its predecessor’s mistakes while ushering in a new age of heist-focused co-op gameplay. Of course, it wasn’t to be with the always-online requirement and lack of an offline mode souring fans early.

This would come back to bite the development team when server and matchmaking issues ensured fans couldn’t play for days. Even after their resolution, the sequel faced heavy criticism for removing features present in Payday 2, whether it was the pre-heist planning map, text chat, or just the option to unready. Sales were below expectations, and given the poor reception, Starbreeze has replaced its CEO to try and turn the ship around. Thus far, it doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon.

4. Redfall

Arkane Austin, which specialized in immersive sims like Dishonored and Prey – didn’t inspire too much confidence when it was revealed to be working on a co-op looter shooter. The lack of an offline mode or progress for other players except the host in co-op also didn’t help. On the bright side, the state of Redfall made both issues feel like water under the bridge.

Horrendous AI, performance issues, bugs galore (including catchy music playing during serious scenes), horrible bosses, a dull story, lackluster characterization, bad mission design – everything went wrong. You may argue that expectations were low, but Redfall sunk lower, and still flounders despite some major updates.

3. Battlefield 2042

This one hurt for longtime fans of the franchise, especially coming off of a relatively disappointing Battlefield 5. With no campaign, Battlefield 2042 promised a return to everything that made the series great, wrapped in the veneer of modern combat and massive 128-player battles. Reports emerged of troubled development, and the beta earned some ire, but fans were still hopeful.

Cue the disappointment and savage response on Steam, with the sequel becoming one of the lowest-rated games in the platform’s history overnight. From the removal of the class system to the visuals, destructibility, map design and the scoreboard – that damned scoreboard – Battlefield 2042 was a letdown in every way. It’s improved over the years but is still a far cry from the series’ peak.

2. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Before it was revealed as a live service looter shooter with a boring mission design, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had a suitable amount of hype. How could fans not be excited when it was Rocksteady’s first new game since 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight? After its disastrous showing last year, it was delayed almost a year from its original release. Maybe it would add an offline mode and tone down its live service elements, including but not limited to microtransactions and a battle pass.

As it turns out, none of these things happened, and when Suicide Squad launched, it was begrudged for its terrible mission design, repetitive gameplay and boring endgame. After Warner Bros. admitted that it fell short of expectations, Rocksteady would focus on fixing the plethora of network issues and bugs while prepping the first post-launch season. Unsurprisingly, Season of the Joker was another miserable disappointment with its utter lack of story content, boring “new” missions, annoying grind to unlock the Joker as a playable character and audacity to charge for immediate access.

1. Mass Effect Andromeda

Of all the games to disappoint over the years, this one probably hurt the most. It’s not like Mass Effect Andromeda was the next mainline title in the franchise or one that had the budget and resources of Mass Effect 2 and 3. However, as the first new entry in five years, fans looked forward to it all the same. The potential for a new story and setting with an open-world twist also sparked interest. When Andromeda launched, it was quickly clowned for its bugs, facial animation and dialogue.

Those who dived deeper discovered barren planets, uninteresting characters who couldn’t hold a candle to the original heroes and a low-stakes plot. The underwhelming critical reception and sales wouldn’t outright kill the franchise entirely (as evidenced by the recent Legendary Edition and upcoming sequel), but it was the first time that fans began to question BioWare. Of course, Anthem happened, and the rest is history, but Mass Effect Andromeda hurt more.

Redfall

Arkane has cemented itself as one of the top names when it comes to creating highly dynamic sandboxes with the likes of Dishonored and Prey, and the studio is definitely one of the crown jewels of the Xbox Game Studios roster post the Zenimax acquisition. Fans were understandably excited about Arkane’s Xbox exclusive project Redfall, a co-op game that blends the developer’s signature ability-based gameplay into the core gameplay loop of looting and shooting that had the potential to be a smash hit.

But in actuality, Redfall is anything but. It’s a painfully generic looter shooter that’s subject to a bevy of gameplay and technical problems. Repetitive content, dull gameplay, and an uninteresting story are just some of Redfall’s issues that get compounded with a wide variety of technical issues to make for a consistently frustrating experience. It’s obviously a big shock for fans of Arkane’s works, and there’s no doubt the developer has heavily fumbled with this project.

Battle for Helm’s Deep – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

One of the most important battles in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Battle for Helm’s Deep is arguably the best in the films. Despite running on sixth-gen console hardware, the video game adaptation captured the desperation of fighting hordes of Uruk Hai, pushing ladders off the keep’s walls, and meeting them at the breached wall to stop their advance. The fight spills over into the courtyard, with a somewhat awkward but cinematic view.

Hashimoto has a number of other big games to his credit, serving as a producer on Bayonetta and lead VFX for Resident Evil, Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4. It should be interesting to see what direction the fighter takes, especially following the departure of series producer Yoshinori Ono.

Though official details are wanting, there are plenty of rumors and reports to fall back on. Insider AestheticGamer (aka Dusk Golem) noted that it’s running on RE Engine, much like the publisher’s other recent titles. Previous rumors also indicated that the title would launch for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Street Fighter 6, the newest entry in the Street Fighter series, has finally been revealed!
I'm pleased to share that I'm working on it as one of the game designers.
Please look forward to further news! https://t.co/uPTi7tp958

— 橋本祐介 Yusuke Hashimoto (@yusuke8shimoto) February 21, 2022

KILLZONE

Billed as the Halo-killer prior to launch, Killzone 1 on the PS2 couldn’t even kill a fly. It was a beautiful looking game, but was dragged down by stupid AI, timid shooting, and a bland campaign. A whole lot of people gave in to the enormous hype surrounding it, and a whole lot of people were immensely disappointed with the investment they made in its purchase.

Following a nearly 5 year gap since their last original project, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (which just relaunched on Switch to rave reception), Retro Studios might be gearing up to reveal another series revival with Star Fox Grand Prix, a game which allegedly combines racing and shooting.

Both Eurogamer and IGN have now lended their thumbs up to the leak, with IGN saying that the game will see an adventure mode styled after Diddy Kong Racing, with a hub and bosses. Players would earn speed boosts through shooting down enemy ships. 

Kotaku also chimed in briefly, mostly to add details that another project that was percolating at Retro has likely been canned following a rather rocky development cycle. What are your thoughts on the matter? Has it taken Retro this long to come up with a Star Fox racing game? And will we see this at E3? Hard to say, but keep it locked to Gamingbolt as we find out.

When Star Fox Zero launched earlier this year exclusively on the Wii U, there was cause to be excited- after all, this represented the franchise’s first major console outing in over a decade, and it was being co-developed by Platinum Games, the masters of moment to moment action gameplay. What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, as it turns out. Star Fox Zero was a pretty horrific game, with a plethora of problems that made it an answer to a question that no one had asked- a solution with no problem. However, Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s legendary game designer who also helmed Star Fox Zero, argues that the game is ‘underrated.’

Speaking to GameInformer, and responding to the question of what Wii U game he felt was the most unfairly overlooked one, Miyamoto said,  “I think personally Star Fox is a really fun game if you sit down and play it. I think, for example, an elementary school kid who plays it without any preconceived notions, I think it would be really fun for them. I think it’s also really, really fun for siblings to play it together.”

I disagree with all of that- younger kids I have known without much in the way of pre-conceived notions have had issues with Star Fox Zero, simply because it is a schizophrenic, poorly designed product. It was a badly made game, and Nintendo would have been better served by simply making a traditional, bigger and better Star Fox 64, like people wanted them to, instead of all this needless experimentation.

I just wish they would own up to the problem, though.

From Software’s Dark Souls 3 is a major hit in the United States according to the NPD’s latest report for April 2016.

The NPD’s Liam Callahan stated that, “The launch of Dark Souls 3 marked the strongest launch in the franchise’s history. Sales for Dark Souls 3 nearly doubled that of its predecessor, Dark Souls 2, when adjusted for days in the market.” That seems pretty appropriate, especially since From Software noted that it shipped one million units of the game in North America.

Insomniac’s Ratchet and Clank re-imagining also did brisk business, debuting just behind Dark Souls 3. “Ratchet and Clank had the best launch of any game in the Ratchet & Clank franchise when adjusting for the number of days sold in the data month, with sales recapturing success not seen for the franchise since the height of the PlayStation 2 era.”

By comparison, Quantum Break debuted at seventh place on the NPD’s Top 10 for April while Star Fox: Zero arrived in tenth place.

Surely, with Star Fox Zero, Nintendo would take the franchise back to the basics, and deliver the kind of Star Fox games that fans had wanted since they had completed Star Fox 64, right? As it turns out, no. With Star Fox Zero, too, Nintendo are trying to experiment with a new style of play for the Star Fox franchise. And while their attempt to try something legitimately new is admirable, it is also ultimately misguided- the question of where Star Fox goes after Star Fox 64 continues to stand, and Star Fox Zero is not the answer.

"The question of where Star Fox goes after Star Fox 64 continues to stand, and Star Fox Zero is not the answer."

Star Fox Zero is, yet again, a retelling of the original, basic Star Fox story- a story of the Star Fox team’s battles in the Lylat Wars, and their ultimate confrontation with Andross. It is the same story that has been retold across four games now- from the original Star Fox, to Star Fox 64, to Star Fox 64 3D, to now, Star Fox Zero. If, with this game, you were hoping for a sequel to Star Fox, or an addition to its mythos, then that alone will cause you great disappointment upfront- instead of taking this chance to tell a new story, Nintendo have opted to revisit the exact same story a fourth time now. It is a bit disappointing.

That said, however, the story and narrative is hardly the focus of a Star Fox game- much like any other Nintendo game, these games thrive on the moment to moment gameplay loop, and in that regard, too, Star Fox Zero undoubtedly disappoints. The game is built around the concept of the Wii U Gamepad – one of the few titles in the troubled console’s library to make the Gamepad an indispensable part of its design, as a matter of fact – and the game seems to be built to justify that conceptualization.

The surprising thing is, after the initial learning curve, where you naturally resist being forced to learn something new, and unlearn decades’ worth of intuition about how a game of this manner should control, the new controls work, and they work well- the left analog stick is used for direct control over your Arwing (or whichever other vehicle you happen to be in), while the right analog stick is used for boosts, braking, somersaults, and barrel rolls. The Gamepad itself is used to position your reticle- move the Gamepad, and the reticle moves with it.

"The surprising thing is, after the initial learning curve, where you naturally resist being forced to learn something new, and unlearn decades’ worth of intuition about how a game of this manner should control, the new controls work, and they work well."

In theory, this setup is actually pretty great- it sounds confusing and tacked on at first, and frankly, it is. But a few minutes on the very first level, Corneria (again), are enough to see how this kind of control setup could come in handy- it allows for far faster aiming than is possible with the analog stick, leading to the possibility of some frenetic, fast paced action. Possibilities which are, sadly, never explored- Star Fox Zero hints at its controls truly evolving into something truly meaningful and fresh, but it never delivers upon that promise, and we are, instead, left with a setup which, while it works, feels tacked on and gimmicky, more a proof of concept than something this game truly needed to work.

The other way the Gamepad is used fares a bit better- in addition to the usage of the Gamepad for aiming, the screen on it is also used to provide the player with a persistent view of the action directly from the cockpit. In conjunction with the third person view of the action that the main TV screen provides, the cockpit view has the potential to come in handy, revealing details, such as weaknesses of enemies, from an up close vantage point, and also leading to the potential for finer aiming and shooting. These possibilities are definitely developed further by the game, and the best and most convincing case for this kind of second screen usage is made at the end of the very first level, where the action gets hectic enough that extremely fine aiming is necessary- the kind that is best achieved when switching over to the Gamepad’s cockpit view.

But while the second screen usage in Star Fox Zero is definitely better justified than its usage of its eccentric new control setup, the fact is inescapable that this kind of dual screen gameplay simply does not work for a console game- Nintendo made glorious use of it on the Nintendo DS, but something that they evidently do not understand here is that the DS had the benefit of both of its screens being extremely close together. Switching from one to the other was merely a matter of flicking your eyes. Here, however, especially with the action being as frenetic as it is, the constant switching between screens can get frankly orienting- at best, it breaks the flow of gameplay.

"While the second screen usage in Star Fox Zero is definitely better justified than its usage of its eccentric new control setup, the fact is inescapable that this kind of dual screen gameplay simply does not work for a console game."

This returns me to the original point I was making- Star Fox Zero is more of a tech demo than it is anything else. It appears to be a game where Nintendo decided that the Gamepad would be used extensively from the get go, rather than arriving at that decision organically, as a result of the demands that the game’s design put on them, and then worked backwards from to find more and more ways to justify that initial decision. Essentially, it is gimmicky for gimmickry’s sake, and while Star Fox Zero works fine for what it is, it suffers from never evolving beyond the proof of concept stage- and where it does, it only reinforces the notion that the Wii U Gamepad was a misguided venture to begin with. The fact that the game’s single player campaign, clocking in at under five hours, simply is not that much fun, and that the general low budget feeling graphics and presentation values for the game, undersell even the in theory epic action unfolding across your screens, dulls what little Star Fox Zero has to offer even more.

The Wii U’s library is chock full of gems and modern classics that definitely deserve to be experienced- Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Super Mario Maker, Super Mario 3D World, Super Smash Bros., Pokken Tournament, Splatoon, and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze are just a few of the games that any modern gamer should take pause and examine more closely, from the Wii U’s library. Star Fox Zero falls disappointingly short of the extremely high standard Nintendo’s first party has set, however- for the third outing running (fourth, if the misguided DS game Star Fox Command is also counted in contention), and for the second decade straight now, Star Fox disappoints- the only case Star Fox Zero convincingly makes is one for maybe permanently retiring the franchise.

This game was reviewed on the Wii U.

Never underestimate the power of a classic brought back to life. Such is the case with Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank, a reimagining of the first game that released recently for the PS4 and has debuted in the number 1 spot for video game sales in the UK (according to Gfk Chart-Track). Interestingly enough, this is the first time the series has ever debuted at the top spot.

The PS4 exclusive beat Dark Souls 3 which slipped to second place. The other new entry was Star Fox Zero on the Wii U which debuted at sixth place. Star Wars Battlefront is in third place oddly enough followed by Tom Clancy’s The Division and EA Sports UFC 2.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is still hanging strong in the charts followed by FIFA 16, Quantum Break and Dirt Rally. Expect Ratchet & Clank to have another bumper week or two – Battleborn debuts on May 3rd but it may not be able to put a chink in the platformer’s armour. We’ll find out for ourselves in the coming weeks.