Star Fox Zero barrel rolls into our hearts this holiday season

Update: Nintendo slipped an extra surprise onto their official Star Fox: Zero site: the game is being "developed in partnership with Platinum Games." Platinum is known for their work on The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta games, among others.

It's been almost a decade since the last proper Star Fox sequel, but this high-flying series has finally found a home on the Wii U. Star Fox Zero was announced during the E3 2015 Nintendo Direct and is coming to the Wii U this holiday season. And it appears to have the more in common with 2005's Star Fox: Assault in how it mixes different play styles.

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto shared a few words about the inspiration behind this new Star Fox. Between pontificating on the intricacies of Japanese shrine architecture and kanji writing, he also showed off the Landmaster tank, transforming into the walker mech from Star Fox 2, and a new drone vehicle. However, what's most interesting is the control scheme.

While playing Star Fox: Zero, the action is shown on your TV in a traditional, third-person view. Meanwhile, on the gamepad, the action is in first-person, and you use the thumb sticks to move and the pad itself to aim. Seeing as how Star Fox requires a fair bit of accuracy to play well, it will be interesting to see how Nintendo handles the inherently... loose precision of the pad's gyrometer.

We'll be sure to keep you updated on how this new Star Fox looks and feels as E3 2015 continues, and for all the latest updates from the show be sure to check out our hub page.