After 6 years since F-Zero X was released, Nintendo brings the first real racing game to the Gamecube. F-Zero GX is one of the best racing games for any system and clearly is the best on the Nintendo Gamecube. It is also the best in the F-Zero series. What makes F-Zero GX so amazing? I find many racing games too repetitive which makes it boring. Some are too easy and make them boring after a while. F-Zero GX however is nowhere close to that crap. Gameplay F-Zero GX is one of the fastest racing games I have ever played. If you blink…BOOM! Game Over. Retry? Because of this, the game is intense and one must retry to beat the level. There will be a lot of crashing and retry because let me tell you…this game is HARD! It is probably the hardest game I have ever played. The outrageous speed of the game is the cause of the difficulty, which makes the game so great and addictive. Your machine has a little health bar. If it goes to 0, your machine explodes and you are forced to retire the race. You also have to retire if you fall of the course or in some cases, if the time runs out. After the first lap, you gain the ablility to use your boost. It uses up your health bar each time you boost so you don’t want to use it too many times. To regain energy, you go over the purple glowing stripe on the ground. You remember where they are use all your energy so that you can manage using your boost wisely. You get frustrated when you lose but you don’t stop until you beat the level. Once you beat the level you become the happiest man on earth. F-Zero GX is a great game because it has many more features than a regular racing game. It has two main modes: Grand Prix and Story Mode. Grand Prix is beatable and is pretty basic. There are 3 different cups: Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, which are basically equivalent to Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. Each cup has 5 races and in the races, there are 30 cars. You also have a rival, which is the racer with the most points. You collect points after each race (the higher you place, the more points). At the end of the whole thing, who ever has the most points wins the gold. At the end of the race, there is a mini interview of the character you won with. You collect tickets after each race and you can buy things. In Grand Prix, you can only die a certain amount of times so you don’t want to die too quickly. Eventually you will unlock a diamond cup, which will provide a very good challenge. You can unlock the AX cup, which features the tracks from the arcade game F-zero AX. Story Mode on the other hand is nearly impossible. It is the most unique thing about the game. There are 9 chapters and 3 different levels, normal, hard, and very hard but realistically, it is hard, very hard, and impossible. Sometimes normal is impossible. I managed to get to chapter 7 on normal, but I did not do any hard or very hard. You get a lot of tickets after each race you beat. Story Mode revolves around you as Captain Falcon and you race and the races are put together to make up a story. Story Mode adds extra frustration and a challenge to the game. There is a feature in the game that is called Customize. Garage is where your store your saved cars. There are lots of riders with their cars to unlock and choose from. Each has different stats which include Boost, Body and Grip and are shown by rankings of A(highest) to E(lowest). The large choice makes it great for experimenting different cars on different tracks. You can make your own car by putting parts together. They usually become your best all-around car and you must buy the parts and put them together. You can customize the color and simple things like that and you can add logos using the emblem editor. The game comes with emblems already but you can draw your own if you like. The item shop is where you buy everything like all the drivers, new parts of your vehicle for customizing, the next level in story mode, and also new songs to enjoy while playing. These items are bought with tickets that are obtained in Grand Prix and Story Mode. The other modes are Time trial, Practice, Replaym and Vs mode. Time trial is a basic run-against-the-clock mode, which is pretty easy. Except, as you get better at the tracks, you can unlock "staff ghosts," which were records set by the development staff of the game. These are extremely hard to beat, but it is very very rewarding to beat them.Vs mode in F-Zero is very good which surprised me. Although there aren’t 29 other racers like in Grand Prix, the graphics and everything are the same in Vs mode. You can race against friends and it is defiantly worth it. Most people will never master this game but with all the options, the game gives you plenty of hours of fun and enjoyment. Graphics The graphics in this game was unbelievable. The characters and vehicles are remarkable and made perfectly. With the speed of the game, the scenery is blurred very smoothly and the game is done really well so that it isn’t too blurred. It is amazing because of all the turning and loops from the track and how well they blurred it considering how fast the game is. The background also makes it feel as if you are going 100-200 mph. The annoying obstacles like the rolling boulders are very detailed. There is no lag at all and that is important in a fast game like this. It is very impressive how well they made the graphics in the game. Sound The scenery is blurred and less enjoyable but you can admire the sounds in the game. The voice acting is well done but it’s not important because it is a racing game. However, the music is enjoyable when you are frustrated by the speed and difficulty of the game. The music is fast like the game and brings a great enjoyment to the game. It also pumps you up before and during the race. Sound tracks can be unlocked such as the final song. However, some songs get repetitive and boring but overall it is excellent. The Character themes sound good also. The sound effects of the game are very good. The engine noises sound real and the crashes are explosions sound real as well. It was important that the explosions were good because they would be heard a lot. To get the type and volume of the effects are truly amazing and it makes the sound a quality that many notice. Value F-Zero GX is probably the best in the F-Zero series. It is one of the best racing games out there and is a must buy for all gamecube owners. The game is very hard but it makes it fun. Practice the tracks a lot, and know how to gain speed on every turn. Drift Turning is a must-know for the later tracks. What really blew me away is how many options there are on the main menu. There's just so much of everything. Since there are so many options, the game lasts long and is very fun. Friends can come over and play it with you because it is a great party game. The great graphics, fast gameplay, amount of tracks and racers, all the unlockables, and nice music are only a few reasons that make the game outstanding. Overall, F-Zero GX is an excellent game and is clearly the best game in the F-Zero series and the best racing game for the cube. Nintendo and Sega did a superb job teaming up to make the game. With great gameplay, graphics, sound, and value, F-Zero GX is a must buy for all gamecube owners. But, do you have the ability to overcome the intensity and difficulty of the game?
Introduction: There is no doubt that Nintendo's F-Zero franchise started the whole era of futuristic racing games being developed for our entertaining purposes. Well, ever since the first game in the series was released... Read Full Review
I had experience with various racing games before. Gran Turismo, Trackmania, Wipeout, Burnout, Need for Speed... I guess I didn't know exactly what to expect from this game because I had never played any F-Zero title bef... Read Full Review
