F-Zero GX - The F stands for "Fucking Awesome"

[Zell]

So after hearing all the talk of the prospect of a HD F-Zero game coming to Nintendo's next console, it made me remember how much I love GX. It's my favourite racer ever. So today, I decided to pop this into the ol' Cube.

 

After playing through a Grand Prix to get my feet wet, I turned my attention to Story mode. After all these years, there was still one chapter I had yet to complete on very hard. You guys probably know which one I'm talking about...

 

Chapter 7 on Very Hard is one of the most challenging levels in any video game. The game is practically bullying you. It's not so much about negotiating the track (which is still pretty tough, it's like Twist Road designed by a sadist), but surviving the damn race! The AI are about Master difficulty with the exception of a few racers, which I like to call the "dickheads".

 

King Dickhead is Black Shadow, who has an unfair amount of boost and will somehow be a good one or two seconds in front of the entire field. You pretty much have to kill him at the start to have any hope of winning. I usually end up hitting him once, and sometimes I get lucky and he gets killed by the pack after the first corner.

 

Queen Dickhead is Blood Falcon, who also seems to be be unfairly fast, though not quite as much as Black Shadow. Even after taking out Black Shadow, this twat still ends up winning by quite a distance. When he's not winning, he loves to attack you at any moment. Usually sending you flying into a wall or off the track.

 

Last but not least, come Samurai Goroh, Pico and Michael Chain. These guys really take the piss. They have no chance of winning, their only objective is to kill anything and everything, primarily you. You can be driving the perfect race, only for Goroh to completely ruin your race by taking away half of your energy meter.

 

Needless to say, this race is complete carnage. The first lap is vital; you don't want to end up in the middle of the race pack where Goroh and co are committing mass murder. Hopefully if you end up in the top ten after the first lap you have a good chance of not getting wrecked by the dickheads.

 

So anyway, I had many attempts at this today. On the twenty-somethingth attempt, all was going well. I had taken out King Dickhead and I was near the front of the pack. I might win! Then on lap 5, on the narrow straight near the end, Queen Dickhead boosts into the back of me with a spin attack and kills me instantly.

 

At that point, I thought I would never win this race.

 

But then, when all hope seemed lost...

 

	Audio

 

On the fifty-somethingth attempt, I hit Black Bull, but didn't kill him. But soon after, he got killed by the pack. Awesome. Then on the second lap, Queen Dickhead was in front of me in the lead. I boosted up to him on the straight and then... WHAM! I am the bringer of death! So I had taken out the King and Queen... I might actually win?! The next 3 laps were intense. I didn't put a foot wrong yet Sonic Phantom and Red Gazelle were still faster than me. Then on the final straight... I did it. I fucking did it! I think I let out a little weep. I had to take a picture to be sure.

 

 

It made the campy cutscene that followed even more hilarious.

 

"AARRGHH!! FORGIVE ME LORD DEATH!"

 

***

 

TL;DR: F-Zero is amazing. What are your favourite vehicles? My standard pick is Deep Claw, but I'm also a big fan of Hyper Speeder. I just gave the recently unlocked Pink Spider for a spin and I love it. Fantastic handling, if only it had a better boost.

 

YOU GOT BOOST POWER!

[Captain Falcon]

Even in regular play, Black Shadow, Blood Falcon and Samurai Goroh will harass you if you play as Captain Falcon - they always finish around your place if they haven't been selected as to be the front runners for that Cup... and I'm not sure they ever will if you're Falcon.

 

I think I struggled more with Chapter 9 than Chapter 7 just because I could never stay on the track. Very Hard Story Mode seemed tougher than Master GP to me.

 

I always pick Captain Falcon (don't look too shocked now) and most of my time trials records only consist of him. Consequently, none are too good - his 1034km/h pre-boost Max isn't great and his boost is nothing to write home about either. Though I have beat at least one staff Ghost with him (not sure if there others), I question how possible the rest are. Plus I've never been a big TT fan - don't have the discipline for it.

 

I never bother with custom craft either. Yeah they make the regular vehicles pale in comparison but they feel soulless too.

 

Seeing your post has inspired to fire it up so let's see if I've still got it...

[The Peeps]

Awesome game. I loved that you could create your own vehicle. I really want to see F-Zero return but there's definitely nothing in development so far.

[Captain Falcon]

This is probably going to sound really bad (as in lame) but did anybody else avoid taking out the ships of the nice characters unless they were threatening their championship?

 

Like I'd never hit Jody Summer or the Arrows unless I was absolutely desperate whereas certain pilots I'd take joy in destroying.

 

And I've gone straight into trying to do Story Mode Cp7 on VH... which in hindsight is proving stupid because I've not got my control down yet hence why I've only managed to complete 3 full laps on any attempt.

 

Still, my attempts continue. I'm only 6 seconds into this go, but I've killed Black Shadow already so that's a start...

Edited May 31, 2011 by Captain Falcon
Automerged Doublepost

[drahkon]

This is probably going to sound really bad (as in lame) but did anybody else avoid taking out the ships of the nice characters unless they were threatening their championship?

 

No, I always tried to kill everyone. EVERYONE!!!!!!

 

F-Zero GX is such a great game. The story mode made me destroy one of my controllers. I've never done all the missions on very hard. I suck.

[Captain Falcon]

No, I always tried to kill everyone. EVERYONE!!!!!!

 

F-Zero GX is such a great game. The story mode made me destroy one of my controllers. I've never done all the missions on very hard. I suck.

 

Sometimes I'll have a go at killing everything that crosses my path but I do feel guilty for it so then I stop. Plus, I get so focused on that that I don't win... although when less than half the field is left, you don't stand to lose too many points overall.

 

To be fair, most people probably haven't done all the chapters on Very Hard so I wouldn't feel too bad about it. I got frustrated but never enough to break a controller... I just curled up in a ball and started crying :p

[drahkon]

I just curled up in a ball and started crying :p

 

That's not what I do. I scream at/insult every inanimate fucking object that's around. And when this is not enough I'll throw the controller against a wall.

 

Plus, I get so focused on that that I don't win

 

Killing everyone is a win in my book :p

 

F-Zero GX was one of the first racing games I thoroughly enjoyed. I might play it again sometime.

[Captain Falcon]

F-Zero GX was one of the first racing games I thoroughly enjoyed. I might play it again sometime.

 

The first racing game I enjoyed was probably MK64 but F-Zero X was the first I truly fell in love with. And F-Zero GX is only other one to reach such a place in my heart. 2D F-Zero (or mode 7 racers in general) just doesn't do it for me.

[ipaul]

I dam near completed F Zero GX 100% and even I couldn't do the goddam Chapter 7 Very Hard clusterfuck. Congrats.

 

It's a brilliant game though: simple to learn yet difficult to master, wonderful (for time) graphics and sound and best of all, loads of variety. Maps, racers, modes, difficulties. There's so much to it! A personal favourite moment was unlocking the AX tracks, those things kicked ass.

 

Oh another favourite moment, killing people on the first track of the Diamond cup - trident I believe it was called? A few times I managed to get the number of racers into single figures. Made the rest of the cup pretty easy.

 

I'm playing this at the moment actually, I think we should post our best custom made ships, ones that really work (because some of them are fucking terrible as well all know). I'll post mine soon.

Edited June 1, 2011 by ipaul

[dazzybee]

God I loved this game and really missed a version of it (and WAVERACE DAMN IT!!). Might crack this open soon too, see if it's as good as I remember! A cafe or 3DS version, online would be amazing. DLC of all retro tracks etc!

[Ten10]

This thread has inspired me to go back and try to kill EVERYBODY..........

[Patch]

Congrats! Though I think it took me considerably more than 50-odd attempts to complete Chapter 7 on Very Hard. Especially if you count all the 'retry within 3 seconds if you don't destroy Black Bull'.

 

If I remember rightly, Black Bull starts behind you and passes you on the immediate right (or was it left?) a second after the race starts.

 

You basically have to time your shunt to the right (or was it left) to hit him. If you get in a good hit, then you have a good chance to shunt him again. After two hits, he's out of the race. I would try this time after time and retry the race if I didn't manage it.

 

Only after destroying him do you then have access to the one in a hundred chance of winning the race!

 

I'd kill for a new F-Zero game. Preferably one that melts my face when I play it.

[mcj metroid]

Gx is my favourite racer ever too. I love everything about it, even the difficulty. Yes it's frustrating but I find most people can't control the damn game properly when they try it, so I suppose that's why it seems impossible to some.

 

I'd love a sequel by the same developers.

[Retro_Link]

What is it about GX that so many people prefer over F-Zero X, that makes it their favourite racer?

 

Is it specifically the fact it has a story mode?

[Wesley]

It was fucking fast!

 

A beautiful.

 

I love both F-Zero X and GX.

[nekunando]

What is it about GX that so many people prefer over F-Zero X, that makes it their favourite racer?

 

I actually played F-Zero GX before buying F-Zero X on the N64. It was my first F-Zero game and it simply blew me away I couldn't believe how exhilerating it was and the fine margins between success and failure. I've explained before how much I love the game so I won't go through it all again. All I will say is that it isn't just my favourite racing game of all time, it's almost my favourite game of all time full stop It certainly makes my top ten, anyway

 

I prefer the music in F-Zero X (which is also an outstanding game) but I definitely prefer F-Zero GX overall! The thought of a new F-Zero HD is mouth-watering

[darksnowman]

This thread has inspired me to go back and try to kill EVERYBODY..........

 

In F-Zero X this is how I played. I managed to murder everyone in a fair few races! The best I ever had was this X Cup stage which had a sharp bend off a jump... and I mean sharp. It killed the CPU for me! An easy 100 points for me, 0 points for my 29 rivals.

[Fierce_LiNk]

What is it about GX that so many people prefer over F-Zero X, that makes it their favourite racer?

 

Is it specifically the fact it has a story mode?

 

I'm a massive fan of both games. What made GX so brilliant is that at its core, it had the same heart as F-Zero X. They didn't tweak too much. They just took what was in X and magnified it about a million times.

 

The controls were tight as hell. You always felt in control of every turn, every boost and every landing. So that was fine. The content was incredible...it was very hard to get bored of this game. And that's without the awesome multiplayer. The story mode helped with this, but you also had the option to create your own craft, and there was more than enough with the time trials and the GP modes, plus the AX-courses added bonus. It added to the repeatability/replayability of the game, you could spend hours and hours on it, and it still felt awesome.

 

The courses were brilliantly designed. They were challenging yet exhilarating. I got a pure adrenaline rush off some of the levels in this game. It took some of the basics from X and just worked that to the extreme.

 

Although graphics don't mean everything, this game looked absolutely beautiful. Still does. F-Zero X was a great game, and it looked decent at the time. But this looked like goldust. The fact that the game was fast, contained 29 other racers and yet still looked mouth-wateringly beautiful with such a pumped up soundtrack, it was unreal.

 

We will never play another Nintendo racer like this. I'm sure of that. These types of games just don't come around often enough...If only somebody would put this much effort into a Mario Kart game, but even then you wouldn't get that sense of speed and that rush. Only F Zero could do this.

 

X was brilliant. But, GX wins in every single department. The only downside it possibly has is that its too fucking hard. I mean, its I'MGOINGTOKILLMYSELFBECAUSEOFTHISGAMEBUTISTILLLOVEIT hard. I'm not ashamed to say that this made me cry. Like a fucking baby. I'd hate you GX if I didn't love you so.

[Fused King]

Oh, the let-down, the let-down.....

 

After having tracked this game down by going to a town on my way back from the upper-north of The Netherlands by train to my home, I noticed that I didn't have my trusty purple Memory Card anymore.....

 

So, I did me some thinking, and remembered that I borrowed it to my friend a year or so ago in order for him to experience the whymsical world of The WindWaker.

 

Phoned him, was able to meet him in a week at his home, which happens to be about 15 kilometres from mine.

I cycled my ass over there, with heavy winds against me, obtained the Memory Card, cycled all the way back (another 15 kilometres) and found out that the thing was corrupted time, after time, after time, after time, after time, .....etc....

Unscrewed the whole thing, ...couldn't get it to work....noticed it was Third Party Crap (Piranha)

 

I was so psyched to play this game as there is so much lovin' for it on this forum, so after that incident I had to do myself a bit more thinking.

 

Eventually remembered that another friend, who lives about 8 kilometres away, has a GameCube on which we played Mario Power Tennis a few weeks back whilst holding our monthly Advance Wars: Days of Ruin clusterfudge with another 2 mates.

 

Phoned him, at about 21:15, he said I could come 'round, so.....indeed.....hopped on the ol' bicycle again.

 

Finally arrived, we tested the Memory Card, all was fine, did some talking, cycled back home.

 

My Game room was in the exact state I left it in, F-Zero GX waiting for me in my Wii.

 

My Wii didn't recognise the Memory Card (this time made by Joytech:nono:)

 

I eventually found out that I had to push the Memory Card a bit to the right, in order for the chips to connect to eachother. Now, I couldn't play the game if I had to do that the entire time, so I budged a small plastice ruler between the Card and my Wii, WHICH WORKED!!!!

 

Unfortunately, after 2 playing sessions, it needed to be formatted again, and no matter how often I blew in the thing, switched off the console or what have you, the Memory Card couldn't get over the fact that it wanted it's sweet little ass formatted all over the kitchen table.....

 

I gave in, I formatted (wasn't that far into the game anyway), and my Wii recognised the Memory Card again.................................................................................................................................................................................................for about 2 playing sessions....

 

The Memory Card still wanted me to format it up and down the room, but this time I said NO!

 

FUCK THIS! I'M ORDERING AN OFFICIAL NINTENDO GAMECUBE MEMORY CARD IN ORDER TO PLAY

F(ucking awesome) - ZERO GX.

FROM WHAT I'VE PLAYED I ABSOLUTELY WAS LEFT WANTING MORE, ESPECIALLY THE STORY MODE, FOR I'M A STORY WHORE.

 

Fuck this, untill the official thing arrives, I'm playing Pikmin 2.

 

So help me God if they reveal downloadable GameCube titles for Café, so help me God NINTENDO

Edited June 1, 2011 by Fused King

[Beverage]

What are your favourite vehicles?

 

Ooh ofcourse my personal #1 fave would 'ave to be The Captain. He's my Hero!! His Blue Falcon just feels like 'IT'. Also it just flaunts style all over the joint

 

I also love Bio Rex because, well, .... T-rexes are awesome!! And its Big Fang looked so cool like Batmans BatCraft Although in GX the Fang looked like it was carried straight out of the scrap yard, the paint work was just yelling out for pimpage!!! Also, the handling felt tampered with, in X it felt super sexy

 

Next up would have to be my lovable Mr. Ead. A real charater he is! And his fancy purple ride; the Great Star. It braced itself immaculately whilst in the air after the jumps. There was no need to hold on to my seat belt because the landing was just so balanced and comfortable.

 

No, I always tried to kill everyone. EVERYONE!!!!!!

 

Yeah grooming the right-hand side of the screen with those skulls was such a fulfilling hobby, it gave me feelings of pure ecstacy as my veins began to buldge out

The awesome music encouraged me to go beserk and just buzzin'-well lose it!!!

Edited June 1, 2011 by Beverage
Automerged Doublepost

[flameboy]

awesome game we need another f-zero and we need it NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Beverage]

awesome game we need another f-zero and we need it NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hopefully with online

I wonder who'd qualify for being "The Dickheads" out of us N-E'ers? I opt for TheKINGDickhead role but I know who's more fitting for that position than I would be. I hope I'd be labelled what ever Zell labels Samurai Goroh

[jayseven]

	Audio

 

F-Zero X was soooo cool. Mega fast, dark, dirty stuff. Pretty much the only racer I've ever loved to death. Loved the X cup's randomly generated courses. I went through a phase of basically doing all of the cups on all of the difficulties with all of the racers... Sold my copy to afford the Wii... then years later bought Rokhed's copy off him (which I must still have somewhere).

 

GX was a stunning game, and the music was good (but just not as memorable for me -- probably because I had weeks of gametime in X) but perhaps too much ephasis was placed on the looks/visuals, whereas with X I earned the stun :P

 

yeah, too many memories and stuff. I must've gotten the game when I was 12 or 13? Doesn't surprise me that younger guys prefer GX as that's just more readily accessed. Mmm.

[mcj metroid]

I can't imagine anyone preferring X other than nostalgia to be honest. It MAY win in music, I gotta admit I like the music in F-zero GX but nothing I would listen to right now..

 

F-zer gx has big blue twice really

	Audio

	Audio

 

They're my personal favourites.

[Kurtle Squad]

I never unlocked much; the Story Mode Levels are too frustratingly harsh.