After several delays, Nintendo's Star Fox Zero is finally drawing close to its April 22 release. I'm looking forward to digging into it for real, because it's impossible to get over its learning curve just playing it in demos.
Nintendo hasn't produced a new entry in its anthropomorphic outer-space dogfight shoot-em-up series in quite some time now, so Star Fox Zero on Wii U is something of a comeback. The series' hallmarks are all here: A crew of animal wingmen, an unfolding story told while you're blasting your way through alien planets and asteroid fields, and hidden, branching pathways that lead you to new levels.
What's new for the Wii U version, and what's had early opinions on the game divided since its announcement, is the control scheme: You'll see your ship on the TV screen in the traditional, third-person, behind-the-ship view. As usual. But if you look down at the second screen on your Wii U controller, you'll see a first-person cockpit view. This is not just a visual difference, though: If you want to aim precisely at enemy ships, you have to look from the cockpit. But if you want to see the world around you and dodge out of the way of things, you have to look at the TV.
