Nintendo fellow and game producer Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed in a new interview that Star Fox Zero will have modes to make the game easier, and more challenging. He also shared his thoughts on game difficulty in general.
Miyamoto was asked to react to criticism that Nintendo games frequently have extended and superfluous tutorials. He then talked about the common perception that he adds easy modes only so that new players can enjoy the game too. However, Miyamoto revealed that this is a misunderstanding, and that he values challenge in video games too.
What Miyamoto wants is to ensure that players can clear through the challenges. As he puts it, what is most important is the feeling of accomplishment when a player clears the challenge. Enabling this feeling is more important than the difficulty of the challenge itself. So, to make it easier for players to finish the harder areas, there will be a way to get an invincible Arwing. However, for advanced players, it will also be possible to get a ship that takes more damage and also deals more damage to enemies.
But, that is not all that will be available in Star Fox Zero. There will also be a Target Mode, that sacrifices freedom of movement for tighter controls. More specifically, Target Mode locks your viewpoint on the Gamepad so you can focus on your objective. You can also toggle this viewpoint to switch it from the Gamepad to the TV screen. There is also a cooperative mode, which lets one player control the steering with the Gamepad’s motion controls, and another player shoot at enemies with a Pro Controller.
Star Fox Zero will be released for the Wii U on April 22. The physical version of the game will also come bundled with Star Fox Guard, a new game starring Slippy Toad and based on another Miyamoto project, Project Guard. You can read more about release details for Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard here.