Miyamoto Shrine> Gamecube> F-Zero GX Review

F-Zero X was one of my favorite N64 games. It had very poor graphics with baron, empty tracks and blocky, simple machines but it was brilliant fun, definitely unlike any other racing game. Many companies have tried and failed to emulate the experience that F-Zero X provided, Nintendo sacrificed graphical quality for an extremely fast, competitive racing experience with 30 different and individual racers on the track at once. If there was some sort of slider in game development with graphics on one side and gameplay on the other, F-Zero X would've been all the way to the gameplay.

Lightning

Unless you didn't already know F-Zero GX is a ground-breaking collaboration between the old rivals Sega and Nintendo. Seeing the 'Sega' and 'Nintendo' logos side by side and even Sonic and Mario together on a machine will bring a tear to your eye. Along with this historic collaboration F-Zero GX has received a great deal of attention due to it's fantastic graphics, this is granted because it does look amazing in motion and indeed in screenshots but the media were claiming it game of the year before anyone even got a chance to play it. I was never really certain on how well the game would turn out until near the end of it's development, I'm not a big fan of Amusement Vision's previous racers and I always felt that F-Zero GX was unjustifiably receiving acclaim due to it's nice visuals, I thought it would become the anti-F-Zero X. Thank god I was wrong.

GX contains plenty of different game modes to keep you busy. There's your run-of-the-mill Gran Prix, Time Trial and practice modes along with the new additions of a story mode and a machine creation mode. AV have cleverly included 'tickets' which can be earned by playing Gran Prix mode and are needed to progress further in story mode and to purchase new machines and machines parts. This keeps you playing Gran Prix mode and added a lot of life to the game for me than if AV had simply had all the machines, parts and story chapters accessible from the start.

Gran Prix mode is the same as it was back in F-Zero X. You choose a difficulty (novice, standard, expert or master) and one of 4 cups each containing 5 courses of differing difficulty depending on which cup you chose. In the race you'll get points for where you finish, for example you'll get 100 points for placing first and 97 points for placing second. At the end of the 5 courses your points will be added up and if you came first you'll complete the cup on whatever difficulty you chose. If you placed first you'll also get a cool cut-scene called 'F-Zero TV' in which a TV Presenter will interview your pilot and you will get to chose one of three questions to ask. The three questions you can chose from again depend on which difficulty you are playing.

Green Plant

Choosing your machine can be quite difficult, there's over 40 in F-Zero GX each with their own unique stats and pilots. As with F-Zero machine's boost, grip and body are given an A to E rating but the machine's weight can also make a huge difference. A heavier machine will slide around the track and will maneuver around corners like a clamped mini-bus full of overweight men in full knight armor. It's just a shame that they didn't add some sort of advantage to having a certain pilot, this time around each pilot has a backstory, a personality and even theme music, it would've been nice if a pilot effected the machine's stats in some way.

The detailed pilot backgrounds and stories create a great sense of rivalry on the track, and you really do have to fight for first place. My usual tactic on standard difficulty was to boost past all of my rivals on the final straight but on the higher difficulties the other pilots seem to have learned how to use the boost and even keeping first place is a challenge. Like the previous games your machine has and energy bar that will deplete if you hit the barriers or other craft, the combat from F-Zero X is also back but slightly reformed. The spin-attack is now used with the Z button and the side-attack is now used with the X button and a direction. The combat is very effective, perhaps more effective than in F-Zero X. One well placed side-attack will destroy or knock your opponent off of the track.

Story mode is the new addition to the F-Zero series, there are nine "chapters" which are basically cut-scenes followed by some sort of mission ranging from a simple one-on-one race to navigating a track with a bomb attached to your craft which will explode if you fall bellow a certain speed. Story mode follows the story of Captain Falcon and you have no choice of machine apart from the Blue Falcon. The FMV cut-scenes are very well done and convey the futuristic world and rivalry between the pilots brilliantly. Unfortunately the story isn't very good, It's Saturday morning cartoon stuff. Some of the cut-scenes are very cool like the first mission in which we see Captain Falcon walking through a futuristic street as various F-Zero pilots are gathered around a shop window watching a news bulletin on TV, but many of the cut-scenes are straight set-ups for the missions, for example: "I'm really angry with you Falcon! I'm now going to use my many henchman to kill you for the many times you have beaten me at the F-Zero Gran Prix! But first, you must race me to those pile of rocks over there."

Story mode is HARD. There were some points where I gave up all hope of ever finishing story mode on normal difficulty. But, as mentioned earlier Amusement Vision have very cleverly set-up the game so that much of the content is unlocked and you are heavily rewarded for completing the game on higher difficulties. Many of the story chapters are near impossible on hard mode, but if you want to unlock some certain F-Zero AX machines you're going to have to complete the story chapters on VERY hard mode! I've managed to unlock a few but I can say right now that I don't think I will ever manage to get them all. While we're on the subject of AX I think they've managed the unlockables very well, instead of simply putting them in GX and making any AX transfer useless they've simply made it very hard to unlock the AX content in GX so if you want you can get the content very easily by going to the arcade.

Mute City

Customize mode is very cool but to be perfectly honest I wish AV spent their time on a new death race and track editor. Never the less, Customize mode extends the life of the game a lot. In the F-Zero store you can use tickets that you've earned in Gran Prix and Story Mode to by new machines, story chapters and machine parts. All of the machines and machine parts need to be purchased before you can use them and of course you need to by the next story chapter once you've completed the previous one. There are three different types of machine parts: bodies which effect the machine's body rating, boosters which effect the machine's boost rating and cockpits which for some reason effect the machine's grip. Each machine part has a weight and a rating from A to E. Putting the machines together consists of choosing a cockpit, body and booster. The higher A rating parts seem to be heavier than the rest so if you want to build an A, A, A rating machine be prepared to slide around corners and bomb down to earth on jumps. One thing that disappointed me is you can't name your machine or make a custom pilot; you need to choose an existing pilot and the machine name is chosen depending on which parts you used.

You can also put various emblems on your designed craft or even on any of the normal craft like the Blue Falcon or Wild Goose. The emblems included in GX consist of numbers, metal grates, cartoon pilot heads and various symbols. But for the more creative of you you can make your own using a simple paint package.

The tracks are very well designed, I'd go as far as saying that they blow the F-Zero X tracks out of the water. They're much more than just pretty graphics, on many courses you'll have to decide which direction to take on a split or whether to go the long way around the corner or risk taking the jump to cut the corner, do you go for the energy or the boost? The course designs will have you constantly making choices. The boost placements are also very important in this game, if you miss a single boost then you will most likely go down up to 10 places, especially in the harder difficulties. After the first lap you can use your machine's boost at the cost of it's energy, so you're then juggling trying to get each boost, using your machine's boost in the gaps between track boosts and you also have to keep an eye on your energy bar and go for the energy strips to recharge. In order to complete the higher difficulty levels you will have to master this.

Port Town

I don't have to say much about how beautiful this game is, it's absolutely stunning and I'm not going to disagree that it's the best looking game on the Gamecube. Classic tracks are included like Big Blue with waterfalls and underwater sections but the most stunning tracks are the new additions like Lightning, a track set high in the air next to huge lightning conductors. There's a stormy sky, constant lightning strikes, a metal grating track that you can see right through, 30 beautifully rendered machines racing at upwards of 2000km/h and a smooth 60fps. This game will impress anyone.

The music is amazing. AV have taken a big risk and changed from F-Zero X's rock style to an electric soundtrack, full of techno and trance music. The music is fantastic. There are a lot of catchy electronic tunes that fit the game perfectly, I just have to play this game with the volume all the way up, it really adds to the experience. There are a few rock tracks in there but it's all mostly electronic, as I mentioned each pilot has their own theme song and some of them are so fantastic it's a complete shame that they're on used on the pilot biographies. Doctor Stuart has a very cool trance theme whilst Captain Falcon has a Sonic Adventure style cheesy rock theme. There are a few classic remixes in there like Mute City and Big Blue, but for some very strange reason the Big Blue remix is on a story mode chapter and not on the actual course...

Overall
Andy Robinson: F-Zero GX is a fantastic sequel, I had my doubts at first but GX is very worthy of F-Zero X's crown and beats it in every department. This, for me, is the Gamecube game of the year beating out even Zelda. Amusement Vision have taken the fantastic N64 game and improved on it in every possible way. One of the best racing games I've ever played.

Review written by Andy Robinson

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