RetroSpective - F Zero GX

[Ganepark32]

And so here we are. The last one of these this year and a truly fantastic game to talk about. It is a little longer than the others but I really couldn't help it. Hope you enjoy reading and reminising as much as I did writing and reminising.

 

 

Released in the fall of 2003, F Zero GX was the child of a partnership between Nintendo and Sega’s Amusement Vision team. Using an enhanced version of the Super Monkey Ball engine, the title was the successor to the N64 title F Zero X and continued the series’ long running success in providing high octane racing with blistering speeds, unique track designs, and offering a real challenge to hardened gamers. The game is well known for requiring gamers to memorise track layouts and have lightning fast reactions if they intend to finish first in a race, especially on the later tracks and higher difficulties. The game is widely recognised as one of the greatest racers of its generation and regarded by some to be the greatest Gamecube racer. The game was well received by the critics, who cited the graphics, intense action, high sense of speed and track design were all fantastic and unmatched by any other game. However, it did receive criticism from many for being increasingly difficult as you progressed. The game now sits with a Metacritic score of 89%, reflecting the opinions of the critics. So, 5 years after the release of the title, does it still provide the intense action that satisfied many gamers? Or is it a fish out of water in this era of high definition, realistic racers?

 

I’m not going to beat around the bush here. To answer the question, F Zero GX is every bit as amazing now as it was on release. The game still holds the title of best futuristic racer across any console and has yet to be beaten (Wipeout HD may have looked better but it certainly wasn’t the better game).

 

The game encompasses many modes, from Grand Prix to Story Mode to Multiplayer. The game has enough modes to cater to everyone. The bulk of your time will be spent around the Grand Prix and Story Modes. Grand Prix is your typical racing fare where you select a cup from the original set of 3 (with there being 2 more to unlock as you continue through the game) and then select your difficulty, going from Novice to Expert and eventually on to Master once you’ve beaten all of the existing cups on Expert. Each cup consists of 5 tracks, each varying in their design and themes, and each accompanied by their own distinct music. This is where the game truly shines. When you take to the track and head up against 29 other racers, you’re in technical awe at just what the Gamecube is able to show. The tracks look fantastic but you won’t get much time to enjoy the view in this mode as your racing for points. Prior to every race, you have the option of changing the setup on your ship to have maximum acceleration or maximum speed or anything in between. This is more helpful for more advanced players who know the ins and outs of each track and so can set their ship up to meet the needs for that track. The Story Mode makes an appearance for the first time in an F Zero game. In this mode, you take control of Captain Falcon as he tries to win the F Zero Grand Prix. You are put through your paces through a training mission and a qualifying race before taking on much more challenging missions, ranging from a Speed style race through a city where your speed can’t drop below a certain mark to an escape from a scientific facility which is about to explode. There are 9 missions in total and while they start relatively easily, they quickly ramp up in the difficulty. You’ll find yourself wanting to pull your hair out in some missions but strangely, you’ll continue to soldier on and give it another try and before you know it, a few hours have passed. That’s the appeal of this game. Even though the difficulty of the game can be really off putting at times, you’ll continue to try and beat whatever it is you’ve failed at, be it at one of the Cup races or in one of the missions.

 

Outside of these two main modes, you have your typical Time Trial mode along with a Practise Mode to hone your skills in unlimited laps around any tracks that you’re finding difficult and with as many opponents as you want and at whatever difficulty you want to train at. The Time Trial mode yields bonuses for posting fast times, such as unlocking staff ghosts to further challenge you to improve your times. You’ll always find yourself coming back to the Time Trial mode to try and improve your times. Along with these, there is a replay mode, for watching saved runs on certain tracks, as well as a Pilot Profile mode and a customization mode. The customization mode is perhaps the biggest inclusion in the game. After finishing the cups in Grand Prix mode and missions in the Story Mode, you’ll be awarded tickets to use in the customization area, which can involve buying new ships that you’ve just unlocked or ship parts to create your own ships. The creation of your own ships allows for a large variety of outcomes as there are loads of ship parts, each with different ratings, to pair up and test out to find the best combination. If you are into designing and creating your own ships, you’ll spend ages trying to come up with the best possible ship to beat the competition. You can save up to 4 of your custom creations at a time on a memory card and some might think that that is a little limiting but when there are already over 30 ships available to use, it’s perfectly legitimate. Finally, there is a multiplayer mode for up to 4 players. In here, you notice some changes to the single player racing. You notice that certain pieces of scenery have been removed and yet I know not why this has been done because in multiplayer there are only 4 of you on the track at the one time while in single player there are 30. So it seems strange for this to happen. However, it’s not that big a deal and you won’t really notice it too much. The main drawback from playing this kind of game in multiplayer is that if you aren’t playing with 3 others who know the tracks or with those that haven’t played before, you’ll find it rather boring. It is best played with those of a similar talent to oneself and this may put people off playing the multiplayer because it can be hard to find people that fulfil that criteria. As many say, F Zero is more of a single player game whereas you’ll play Mario Kart for the multiplayer. This is more or less true for the Gamecube iterations of both franchises but that’s not to say you can’t have fun in the multiplayer mode.

 

Graphically, the game is phenomenal, even now. It really is a wonder how Amusement Visions managed to get this kind of quality out of a Gamecube racing game. Everything looks sharp and not once is there a drop in the frame rate, even when there are 30 ships on track and other environmental effects, such as lightning, happening in the background. The tracks are highly detailed and hugely unique, throwing just about anything at the racer from twists to 180 degrees vertical turns to huge drops where you’ll find your ship knocking on the door of 3000 Km/h. The tracks have that kind of generic futuristic look to them but when they look this good it doesn’t really matter. From the spectator stands at the start line of Mute City to the vast oceans of Big Blue, they all carry a certain charm to them and are all unique. No matter what it throws at you, you’ll constantly find yourself at awe in how well it keeps up with the action. The ships also look great and the effects of them that occur from boosting look fantastic for a Gamecube title. The game is graphically untouched by any other racer on the Gamecube, or the Wii for that fact.

 

The music in the game has been done completely from scratch combining a mix of techno/electro-pop with huge guitar riffs. The music works well in the game, playing to the intensity and speed, and each track has a distinct style of music unique to it. You can, of course, unlock a few of the older F Zero tunes which have been remixed but left largely the same, such as the original Big Blue music which sounds great when you are racing around the water’s surface or when you are under the sea in the giant tubes. Some people have criticised the music but I feel it works well in this game.

 

The controls for the game are still remarkably responsive and slick. But then they have to be for the style of racing you are doing. The analogue stick works incredibly well, to the point where you hope that any Wii iteration uses that instead of motion controls, allowing for quick movements across the track. You have a drift mechanism which is allocated to the shoulder buttons and again this works wonders, especially on the hairpin corners where you don’t want to be slowing down and losing time to your opponents. Really, the controls are just a superb showing of how exactly to do them in a racer. Many games could take cue from these to improve their responsiveness and slickness.

 

Now, the difficulty of the game has been alluded to a little bit over the course of this article. Yes, the game is very hard on the higher difficulties, requiring absolutely perfect laps and lightning quick reflexes to compete with the AI who won’t be pushed over easily and will act aggressively towards you just to take your place. But while the game is hard, it is not entirely inaccessible to newcomers to the franchise. The lower difficulty settings will provide adequate challenge to newcomers to help them improve their skills. In modes such as the Story Mode, newcomers will find it difficult as the learning curve here sky rockets quite quickly, however persistence if the key to prevailing. As my first real foray into the series, I did find it difficult to pick up but the more you play, the better you become and the easier you’ll find it (and this is from someone who went from finding it ridiculously difficult to unlocking everything).

 

Over the last few months, people have voice their wants for a new F Zero title and I’m sure that, eventually, Nintendo will deliver it, and hopefully give the title back to Sega to do again, and it will improve on all aspects of this game but may end up being toned down in the difficulty department, in the same way Mario Kart Wii was. But until then, we have this; the Godfather of the series and truly one of the best racers available today. The slick controls and presentation are just remarkable and it really does put every other Wii racer to shame. If you haven’t had the chance to play it, I urge you to seek it out and give it a go because it truly is phenomenal. The difficulty may be a bit of a bitch to get over but once you do, you’ll feel like you’ve really accomplished something and you’ll continue coming back to try and beat those elusive times you’ve set on the time trial mode. This is a perfect example of how Nintendo’s title can stand the test of time. We’ve had Wipeout HD come out not long ago and apart from offering high definition graphics, the game just paled in comparison to this. As it is, this is not only the Godfather of the F Zero series, but also the Godfather of the futuristic racing genre.

 

 

As I said, this is the last one of these this year. I will return in the new year with a new batch of them so you can (or can't if you didn't like these) look forward to them. Until then, remember to keep playing those GC titles and give them the credit they deserve.

[mcj metroid]

Fantastic game and excellent choice.

 

One of my favourite racing games and way better than mario kart double dash..

It's a crime against humanity this isn't better known to people everyone I show it to loves this.

 

but then of course you have the haters.. the people who say it;s too campy and too hard.... Why do modern gamers hate a challenge?

Especially when the same gamers to this very day make fun of nintendo for not releasing lost levels in the western world because they felt western gamers cant handle it..?

 

I believe the game had about 25 tracks which was a lot for a game of the type.. Also amazingly supported 4 players split screen for the speed the game ran at but yes the graphics had to be considerably cut down but nobody cared.

 

Music was amazing with tons of details and attension to detail.. You could also unlock most of the original music for some tracks.

 

plenty of modes and plenty of reason to keep playing,tons of unlockables.. I could go on with this game.

 

I really hope sega do any sequel because I feel that nintendo would ruin it. And that's being honest about it.

[Pookiablo]

The music was good but it was shit compared to F-Zero X. Air Guitaring those tunes for the win!

[Jonnas]

Amazing, amazing, amazing game. Honestly, my favourite racing game of all time.

 

Graphics: Fantastic sense of speed. The tracks were amazing, and so were the cars. I love how the paint is scratched around the edges in every single car;

 

Sound: Great sound effects all around. The racing music is nothing memorable (other than the F-Zero X remixes), but the character themes are unusually catchy;

 

Gameplay: I love the speed, the difficulty, the variety in cars and tracks, the small gameplay details, the story chapters, etc.

 

Durability: Completing all 5 cups in all 4 difficulties, the 9 story chapters in 3 difficulties, and unlocking every character movie (which means completing a cup in the highest difficulty with every single character (which is about 40)) takes a lot of work. Just for the difficulty alone. And then you can try to beat the staff ghosts for every single track.

And I haven't even mentioned Multiplayer yet

Main Pet Peeve: I hate the fact that the Multiplayer is limited to a maximum of 4 racers (including CPUs). Why can't we have 30 racers? 10 would have been good enough.

[Cube]

It's an awesome game in single-player. I still haven't done the story on Hard of Very Hard (The Canyon level is the only V.Hard one I've done).

 

I can't really say much about multiplayer other than people give up on the game too easily. I never had the chance to play it against someone who could finish a lap in less than ten minutes.

[Guest Captain Falcon]

Truly a remarkable title.

 

The only ending Video I haven't got is for Dai Goroh - I'll have to go back and get it one day. Beat Story mode on VH too, though it would take some time to bring me back up to that level of skill

 

The graphics are absolutely stunning and the music is almost as good. Does anybody else prefer Infinite Blue to Decide in the Eyes or is it just me?

 

 

I think the only reason we haven't seen F-Zero Wii, apart from low sales of GX, is that even Nintendo know they can't top this game. The only thing they could do is add online play and more CPUs in multiplayer - and put the death race back in since they are there - and ship it again as a enhanced port.

 

Still... I know I'd buy it without question.

[Ten10]

I've only experienced slow down in this game once and it was only by some strange miraculous chance that myself and 4 other racers happened to be going across a gap while boosting, but other than that this game always ran flawlessly. Voice acting doesn't rock, but this game is the only game where I went out of my way to purchase the OST, plus this game bagged me the LOZ collectors edition. F-zero GX the game that keeps giving and giving.

[mcj metroid]

i should also point out that the designon the cars is also kinda crap.. nothing I care heavily about but that's a little minor issue

[Patch]

I think the only reason we haven't seen F-Zero Wii, apart from low sales of GX, is that even Nintendo know they can't top this game.

 

Yep. I was hoping for a Wii version, but you and others have rightly pointed out that this is the definitive version of any futuristic racer and would be very difficult to improve on. I'm not sure motion controls a la Mario Kart would suit it.

 

I completed all of Story Mode on Very Hard (eventually) and unlocked all the character movies. The only thing I had in mind left to do was beat the Staff Ghosts, but I couldn't even get close to beating the first one in Mute City, after hours of trying!

 

I bought the official soundtrack and I listen to it regularly to this day. The character profile music is great and criminally underused, whilst the track music is perfect for heart-stopping adrenaline-filled races.

 

It's in my top three Gamecube games. Simply astounding.

[Jonnas]

The only thing I had in mind left to do was beat the Staff Ghosts, but I couldn't even get close to beating the first one in Mute City, after hours of trying!

 

Casino Palace 1 is actually the easiest one. And I'm sure there are other tracks easier than Mute City 1.

[Patch]

Casino Palace 1 is actually the easiest one. And I'm sure there are other tracks easier than Mute City 1.

 

I know. I was going for dramatic effect.

 

I love that the game was so hard. There's something to keep nearly everyone coming back for more.

[Ganepark32]

Yeh. A lot of people moan about the difficulty but I loved it because it provided a genuine challenge. A Wii release will probably dilute the difficulty to appeal to more people which is ashame.

[mr_bogus]

This is 1 of the few cube games that support progressive scan (NTSC version of course, thanks evil Homebrew Channel) AND widescreen, and in 16:9 + 480p this game looks absolutely phenomenal, and i mean by today's standards.

 

Graphics are flawless and framerate is as smooth as ever.

[mcj metroid]

Yeh. A lot of people moan about the difficulty but I loved it because it provided a genuine challenge. A Wii release will probably dilute the difficulty to appeal to more people which is ashame.

i;m not sure why people found the canyan(second) story level so hard..

 

Maybe 4 or 5 tried and you'll get it... are gamers THAT impatient these days?

[Guest Captain Falcon]

One thing that does bother me, only a little mind, is that story mode features some good tracks like Mute City and the Underworld, but you can't race on outside this mode.

 

It's a shame they couldn't have had them be their own cup to be unlocked once you beat story on normal and thus raced on them all.

[dazzybee]

Yeah this game is incredible. There's two games I keep going back to on the cube, both racers, both STILl blow me away they play that well. This and.......Wave Race Blue Storm. Fucking love that game. More so than this truth be told!!

 

But this game, I've never had such a great sense of speed and movement in the tracks, it's the ONLY game I've genuinely felt like I'm moving up and down. So fast, so hard, so rewarding, so much character!!!

 

I can't wait for a Wii version; loads of online players, insanely fast, and....I know people will disagree but motion controls!! I can't wait to put my reflexes to the test like some pissed up Jedi!!

[mr_bogus]

Anyone ever play F-Zero AX in the arcade and unlock things by plugging in a cube memory card?

[Hellfire]

In this world you've got to be strong

You've got to fight to keep your spirit alive

And you might feel like there is nothing left to go for if I fall

But it's the fight that keeps us ready and on guard

 

Even I can feel the power

When I think of you I see no fear

Feel no pain

 

Forever he will be my hero

(That little baby knows her way)

Not just on a fall tonight

 

Anyone ever play F-Zero AX in the arcade and unlock things by plugging in a cube memory card?

Not me, thankfully you could unlock them anyway.

 

i;m not sure why people found the canyan(second) story level so hard..

 

Maybe 4 or 5 tried and you'll get it... are gamers THAT impatient these days?

It's possibly the easiest one that I can remember, but still tough in the highest difficulty setting.

 

This game does pretty much everything right, but I'm afraid they won't be able to rival it and they probably don't want to go the uber hard route either.

 

i should also point out that the designon the cars is also kinda crap.. nothing I care heavily about but that's a little minor issue

Don't agree, I mean they were staying faithful to the 90's designs there wasn't that much they could do and since it hardly matters I prefer that they kept the same saturday morning cartoon style instead of going all wipeout.

[mcj metroid]

Anyone ever play F-Zero AX in the arcade and unlock things by plugging in a cube memory card?

 

Well I played it in the arcade in Spain or somewhere can;t remember where.. Never thought of the memory card however but AX is awesome .. even harder than GX

 

 

Don't agree, I mean they were staying faithful to the 90's designs there wasn't that much they could do and since it hardly matters I prefer that they kept the same saturday morning cartoon style instead of going all wipeout.

 

While It's nothing I could complain about very much considering how beautiful the game is anyway.. also besides the fact that while you're racing you barely get a chance to notice the cars anyway..

 

I don't see them using this design forever however but it's like everything they may go te wipeout route eventually

[Pit-Jr]

I think i still have this game somewhere but nothing to play it on. I gave up on the story mode after the 3rd section (the casino level) because the sheer difficulty and the cruel rubberbanding. Beautiful game though!

[david.dakota]

I jumped back into this last night- forgot how insanely difficult it was.

Originally, i opened up Diamond Cup (after completing only 'novice' and 'normal' in the other cups) but can't get past the 2nd race. Mental. I'd love to open up the AX tracks, but doubt i'll ever do it.

 

The first thing that struck me though is how unsuitable a motion controlled F-zero would be- or at least in its GX form (which is really what we want). Even if it came Nunchuk'd, i think you'd loose some precision compared to a standard pad- namely due to the fact the analogue stick isn't anchored to the rest of the controller. Unless a Wii version came bundled with a Classic Pro Pad style controller i'd probably be rather nervous about it.

[Ganepark32]

Opening up the AX tracks took awhile for me but I eventually did it. Was so happy to do it. Then completing all the cups on master class took up the rest of my time on it. I remember turning it on recently and going onto master class and it is ridiculously difficult but I can still manage some decent placements. Think the main thing is on the harder difficulties you should try and knock out a few racers and thus increasing your points haul from the race.

[nekunando]

Unlocking the AX tracks is very satisfying I have everything done apart from one (maybe 2) story chapters on Very Hard and the sense of achievement is great with this game

 

The key to the harder difficulties is definitely destroying your rivals and as much of the field as possible.. I get an adrenaline rush being on my last continue, low on energy and hurtling along a thin piece of track with no edges (such as the Sand Ocean stage on Diamond Cup) knowing that you have to risk that last boost to reach the guy in front and take him down.. exhilerating!

 

What a game : peace:

[mcj metroid]

pick octoman... he has the best control and handling and is literally the only chatacer I can use. everyone Is so different.

 

But unlocking ax wasnt very hard.. no the story mode is what I never completed.. Got right to the end and coulnt complete that.

[Jonnas]

Unlocking the AX tracks is very satisfying I have everything done apart from one (maybe 2) story chapters on Very Hard and the sense of achievement is great with this game

 

The key to the harder difficulties is definitely destroying your rivals and as much of the field as possible.. I get an adrenaline rush being on my last continue, low on energy and hurtling along a thin piece of track with no edges (such as the Sand Ocean stage on Diamond Cup) knowing that you have to risk that last boost to reach the guy in front and take him down.. exhilerating!

 

What a game : peace:

 

Ah...I still remember when I first beat Chapter 7 on Very Hard. My greatest achievement on this game.

 

There's also that time I crossed the finish line while my car was broken down (thank god for narrow roads where a car is bound to push you there). Great game, definitely.