Star Fox Zero, one of the few first-party games Wii U owners had to look forward to this year, has been delayed until Q1 2016. Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto took to Facebook to announce why the game was missing its planned November release date, explaining that "further polishing the level designs and perfecting the tone of the cut scenes" is required before launch.
"We have been developing Star Fox Zero for Wii U with the aim of releasing it this year," reads Miyamoto's statement. "Although we felt that the development had been progressing well, we now believe that we will need a little more time to work on areas such as the unprecedented discovery that we want players to experience in the game by using two screens... While we have already reached the stage where it would be technically possible to release the title in time for the year-end holiday season, we want to polish the game a bit more."
With Zelda for Wii U having also missed its planned 2015 release date, the console's holiday line-up is looking extremely sparse. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival and Yoshi's Woolly World (in North America) are the only remaining Nintendo-developed games due for release before the end of the year. The Wii U is also supported by niche titles such as Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. Activision is helping to bulk out the line-up a bit, though, with Guitar Hero Live and Skylanders SuperChargers.
When Ars played Star Fox Zero at this year's E3, it found that the game's control system—which requires players to use the TV for basic maneuvering and shooting, and the gamepad motion controls for precision shooting—was difficult to use, a complaint echoed by several other publications. While the delayed release is disappointing, if it results in a fix to this problem, it'll be a better game for it. Besides which, players can always dive into Mario Maker to tide them over before launch.
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