StarFox Zero - tons of details, Project Guard still alive, Giant Robo on hold

- does not take place before the other games in the series.

“In some ways I think more of it as being a remake of the first one or we’re starting from ‘1’ again, but obviously with that as a base trying to think, ‘now with these two different screens and new play system and different vehicles, what are the new things we can add to that?’”

- art is being done at Platinum’s Osaka office, but design is being done in Nintendo’s offices in Kyoto
- some of the Platinum guys have taken temporary root at Nintendo
- director on the project is Yugo Hayashi
- main gameplay idea is a two-screen view
- GamePad displays a cockpit view, by default while TV displays a behind-the-vehicle camera angle
- in some scenes, a more cinematic camera angle is shown
- lock on to an enemy target on the TV screen
- look around in your virtual cockpit by moving the GamePad above your head (up down left right), but not behind
- lasers are essentially on a turret
- play modes include Arwing flight, the Landmaster tank, a “gyrowing” and a walker
- walker transformation is mechanically sound, using all the parts of the Arwing
- no submarine this time around
- Landmaster can transform into a hover-tank that can fly through parts of a level
- transformation holds only for a few seconds, as it is tied to a rapidly-expiring meter
- Gyrowing is a slower flying vehicle that works like a helicopter
- see it from behind on our TV but also sometimes need to switch to an overhead view
- Gyrowing carries a little robot called the Direct-i, which you can drop from the gyrowing and drive around
- robot is tied to a tether so can’t go far from the gyrowing
- GamePad will display what the Direct-i sees
- uses some of the same dialogue and level settings as Star Fox 64
- new vehicles and new planets (levels)
- returning levels seem quite different
- Corneria begins the same way, but quickly changes into a battle with. flying sword-like enemy fighters
- also has an arena-flight stage that involves protecting a central tower (and General Pepper inside it)
- take on a massive enemy flying saucer attack
- Star Wolf is back as well
- levels are designed to be played multiple times with different vehicles
- only have access to the Arwing when you first play the Corneria stage
- play again to utilize the walker
- when playing as the Arwing, the player has to attack various turrets and chip away at the saucer in the final battle
- when in walker form, chip away just enough to spot a now-exposed interior corridor, fly into it, transform, walk into the core
- not as much branching paths as in previous games
- the rest of the StarFox team is smarter this time around
- runs at 60 frames per second on the TV and on the Wii U GamePad
- this comes at some price to the complexity of the graphics
- uses 3D sound to simulate the effects of an earpiece
- ally voices will sound like they're in your right ear and enemy voices in your left ear
- television has all the environment noise
- plan to offer a co-op mode
- Project Guard is still in the works and still tied to the Star Fox universe
- Hayashi is overseeing it
- meant to be played online and that Nintendo is still figuring out if or how to release it in conjunction with Star Fox Zero
- Giant Robo is on hold
- Sector Alpha, a reinterpretation of a Star Fox 64 level that is an on-rails battle amid an armada of ships
- fly into one ship, transform and explore it from within
- industrial planetary level called Zoneness where you avoid searchlights, and use the Direct-i robot
- Direct-i will let you access security panels in this level and you can also use the tether to grab an explosive crate
- this level also features Kat, a returning franchise characte
- drive the Landmaster in a desert level called Titania
- use the Landmaster’s charged shells to blow up stone structures that topple onto enemies to inflict indirect damage
- boss battle here is a giant worm