In an effort to cater to as many types of players as possible, Star Fox Zero will have an invincibility mode to help you through the game’s tougher levels. The long-awaited Wii U game will be the first major adventure for Fox McCloud and his crew for years, so Shigeru Miyamoto wants to make sure everything is perfect when it launches next month.
In an interview with Time, Miyamoto revealed that Star Fox Zero will, in fact, allow players to use an invincible Arwing to help them conquer some of the game’s harder segments, but is keen to emphasize that the move hasn’t been taken to make the adventure accessible to people that don’t usually play games, but rather, to help those that find a certain mission too challenging the ability to bypass it so that they can still experience the full story and experience.
One thing that I think is a misunderstanding, is that I’m not very supportive of simply making a game easy so that people who don’t play games can play the game themselves. Obviously part of the fun of taking on a challenge is that the challenge has to be a hurdle that you overcome. Simply lowering the hurdle doesn’t necessarily mean that the challenge will be fun. What’s fun is you mastering the skill and having that sense of accomplishment—of achieving something that’s difficult.
So I think that action games like this have to have a certain level of difficulty to achieve that satisfaction. And particularly with Star Fox Zero, if you try to complete this game, I think you’re going to find it to be quite challenging. But it’s because of that, that we have things like Star Fox Guard and the cooperative mode in this game. What those do, is allow people who maybe can’t deal with that level of challenge or difficulty to easily be a part of the gameplay and enjoy this universe.
And then beyond those modes, we have additional ones for people who like the game but find it too hard to get past certain levels. So for instance there’ll be a way for them to get an invincible Arwing, so that they can fly through and see the levels.
So, Miyamoto believes that Star Fox Zero will be challenging enough to warrant the inclusion of mechanics that allow players to skip the game’s harder parts. Does that mean there will be a severe lack of challenge in the overall game? Doubtful – the Mario creator continues to detail various other modes that will no-doubt please the more hardcore gamers out there.
At the same time, we’re also preparing modes for Star Fox fans looking for an even harder challenge, such as a ship that does more damage, but which also takes more damage.
Star Fox Zero releases worldwide on April 22 exclusively for Wii U. It will be the second Wii U-only title developed by Platinum Games, the previous one being Bayonetta 2. The studio is well-known for creating quality action experiences, so we have high hopes for Fox McCloud’s upcoming adventure. Keep those fingers crossed!