Mock Case Study: Issues with Nintendo’s Star Fox: Zero

1. Mock Case Study: Issues with Nintendo’s Star Fox: Zero Andrew Ross

2. Background and Methods • Goal: Identify usability issues with Star Fox: Zero • First tested an early demo of the game with an expert reviewer (myself), then collected feedback from other experts (gaming media) and Nintendo demo technicians. • Tested an early release version of the game with an expert reviewer (myself) while keeping a observation journal • Recruited a volunteer familiar with first-person shooting games and observed them, keeping notes and conducting interview questions about their experience • Compared previous experience with non-professional reactions around the internet • Compared all data to recent, similar games and developer practices

3. Issue Priority Level Explanation • Critical- Usability issue prevented or demotivated user to complete the task. Fix urgently needed. • Serious- Usability issue significantly slows down some users and may cause them to search for a workaround. Fix as soon as possible. • Medium- Usability issue irritated or frustrated users but didn’t affect completion. Fix during next standard update. • Low- Generally cosmetic or editorial issues. May be okay, but too many can damage brand image.

4. Findings

5. Issue: Wii Pad aiming needs frequent resetting • Priority Level: Medium • Cause: Gyroscopic sensors have limited precision • Impact: Players must often reset their aiming or risk misses and/or death

6. Issue: Players confused about where to look • Priority Level: Serious • Cause: Players' attention is split between aiming on the game pad and controlling their vehicle on the TV screen • Cause: Players in this genre tend to do both tasks simultaneously on one screen • Impact: Players crash, miss targets, and become generally frustrated

7. Issue: Players dislike having to use the game pad • Priority Level: Critical • Cause: Players in this genre tend to aim and move simultaneously on one screen • Cause: Players physical arm movement to view is coupled with aiming in first person POV, while vehicle movement uses joystick/button control; seems inverse from other, successful games, including Nintendo’s Splatoon • Impact: Players try to turn off gyroscopic controls, are unable to do so, and sometimes stop playing the game

8. Issue: Players have trouble controlling their ship during cut scenes and boss fights • Priority Level: Medium • Cause: Cut scenes and boss fights force an unnatural camera shift • Impact: Players suddenly must reorient themselves to a perspective they don’t use for a majority of the game • Impact: Playersmust suddenly use the aiming screen for flight control • Impact: Players become distracted by cut scenes but may crash and die Image source: http://www.forbes.com/

9. Issue: Players ignore voice-acted audio queues • Priority Level: Medium • Cause: Players annoyed with voice acting, especially when it references features they dislike (i.e. “Use the gamepad!”) • Impact: Players fail to correct or catch their errors • Impact: Players become frustrated with the game audio and may shut it off

10. Issue: Players complain about difficult controls • Priority Level: Critical • Cause: Wii Pad aiming needs frequent resetting • Cause: Players confused about which screen to check • Cause: Players ignore voice-acted audio • Cause: Game requires gyroscopic aiming on one screen while using traditional joystick/button combos for directional input • Cause: Directional input occasionally requires combos or buttons attached to vastly different commands (i.e. joystick double-tap left or right for a defensive move sometimes mistakenly becomes a “down” tap for braking) • Impact: Players frequently die, become frustrated, and stop playing the game

11. Issue: Players bored by the tutorial/training • Priority Level: Medium • Cause: Tutorial is more like a calibration game • Cause: Tutorial will skip to the next task even if the player fails at a task • Cause: Tutorial/Training disconnected from game story/action • Impact: Players may avoid/skip tutorial/training

12. Issue: Players struggle through levels • Priority Level: Medium • Cause: Levels poorly prepare players for their required tasks • Cause: By the time some players have acquired the required skill(s) to feel successful, the level ends • Impact: Players lost motivation to master the game and replay it

13. Issue: Players often complain about controls when using new vehicles • Priority Level: Medium • Cause: Frequent vehicle changing with very different controls makes it difficult to build familiarity with controls • Cause: Players struggle through levels • Impact: Players often strongly dislike less frequently used vehicles and avoid levels that utilize them

14. Summary • Juggling two perspectives, traditional control input, and motion controls (particularly that couples head and body movement) is too difficult for most players, causing some to outright avoid the game • Internal training and tutorial system is poor and fails to engage the player, making the first issue even more salient • Two player mode was well received; Separating the controls shows that the two control types are independently enjoyable. This confirms thatthe use of the two simultaneously is the problem.

15. Recommendations • VR game Valkyrie and MMO SWTOR’s space missions show that the genre can still be enjoyable; team members may want to use these games as a reference as to what’s been done with the genre • Aside from Splatoon, Nintendo games frequently have had gyroscopic controls as an option, not a full-game requirement, and this type of control has always received negative to mixed reviews, so use it sparingly • Past Nintendo games (and successful VR games) that focus on decoupled head and body movement perform better, so motion controls may need to be rethought • If perspective immersion is the main function of the current controls, developers should consider current VR practices, including simulation sickness, and consider how adapt them to the Wii U • Changing controls should help refocus tutorial and training experience and may possible allow for streamlining the tutorial First party, non-launch released Wii U games relying on gyroscopic controlsSources: VGChartz.com, MetaCritic.com