Nintendo's Star Fox Zero was meant to be one of the Wii U's big releases for winter 2015, but in a post on Facebook today, the company announced that the game's launch has been delayed until early next year. A message from producer Shigeru Miyamoto said that while it was "technically possible" to release Star Fox Zero in time for the holiday season, the company wanted to "polish the game a bit more so that players will be able to more smoothly grasp the new style of play." Unfortunately, this evaluation fits with our early impressions of the game, which seemed lumbered with a confusing and unintuitive control scheme.

"We have been developing Star Fox Zero for Wii U with the aim of releasing it this year," said Miyamoto in the post. "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, and further polishing the level designs and perfecting the tone of the cut scenes."

Miyamoto apologized to fans who had been looking forward to Star Fox Zero's launch, but promised that the title will "bring new gameplay and experiences that take it far beyond the framework established by Star Fox 64." He added: "All the members of the development team are doing our best so that the final product will not betray your expectations." Nintendo now plans to release the game in the first quarter of 2016, and while this isn't that great a delay, it does mean the company now has a rather barren games lineup for the holiday season this year.