Written By Shaun McCracken
Like I said in the review for Burnout 2, which I published a few months ago,
I usually do not buy games on the day they come out. Well, recently, F-Zero GX
(as well as the GC version of Soul Calibur II) are another exception to my rule.
Perhaps it's because I actually have the money to get these games now, or more
of the fact that I'm just too damn impatient to wait for a price drop. What's funny
about my recent purchases of these two games is that I had pre-ordered SCII a
month before release. F-Zero GX was more of a spontaneous purchase (well, I did
plan on trading games in since I had so many, but at the last minute). As it turns
out, I've played F-Zero GX probably three times as much as SCII, and still working
at it. It should be worth noting that F-Zero GX is a very challenging game, and
probably the hardest racing game to date. But that doesn't mean you should avoid it.
It's one of those games where you master the gameplay down with each try. It's
kind of expected for this game to be dificult, since it was developed by Amusement
Vision, who did the Super Monkey Ball series, as well as Daytona USA (another racer
with a high learning curve and high speed).
Wait, what did I just say? F-Zero GX was developed by Amusement Vision, who
is owned by Sega? Is this Bizarro world? Nintendo's old competitor is now helping
out with their projects? Well, it's not so shocking in today's world, and something
like this was long overdue. I think many have waited to see Nintendo and Sega do
something together, and now it's finally happened, with pretty damn good results.
F-Zero GX may very well be the fastest game ever created. It blasts past futuristic
racers such as Extreme G3 and the WipeOut series out of the water, and now has
overtaken Burnout 2 as the Gamecube's speed king. The only thing to beat F-Zero X's
sense of speed is a sequel, and now we have F-Zero GX.
F-Zero GX is a pretty simple game to grasp in terms of your goal: drive fast,
rank high and win at all costs. But putting that into practice takes some mastering.
Those who played the hell out of every F-Zero game up to this one, especially
F-Zero X, may fall right into this installment without as much trouble as a person
new to the series. There are three things you need to master in this game: the
course layout, dealing with the AI, and handling the sense of speed. As a matter
of fact, if you master the speed, you'll have an easier time dealing with the
other items. Technique is more or less the key here. You have to decide if you
want to take out your opponent or risk losing speed. You'll need to decide if it's
more important getting one last boost out of your energy supply for that slight
edge or risk retiring the race from destroying your machine. You need to be on your
toes on each course, and remember where every boost and turn lie. F-Zero GX may
seem like a simple game, but there's a lot of technique involved, and that difference
can mean placing 1st or placing 27th.
The gameplay modes offered in F-Zero GX include the Gran Prix, a Story Mode,
a VS. mode, a Time Trial mode and a Practice mode. Let's get into the story mode,
which a pretty suprising element to the game. Here, you assume each mission/chapter
as Captain Falcon. Each mission/chapter has a unique task that is intertwined within
the story's FMV. You may do such things as race against Samurai Goroh or help
save Jody from an exploding track. Hell, there's even one mission that pretty
much rips off Speed, where if you drop under a given speed, you blow up. Of course,
rather than becoming Sandra Bullock driving a bus, your Falcon driving your, well,
Blue Falcon. What's even more suprising about the story mode is the FMV sequences
in between. They're done quite well, and does not look like a cheesy half-assed
job. Sure, there's some lame plot elements, but this kind of quality is quite
unexpected in this kind of game. I hope Namco sees this model, and hopefully somehow
adapts it into the upcoming R: Racing Evolution. It adds a whole level of depth
to the game.
Another layer of depth F-Zero GX has is the Garage mode, which can be found
in the Customize option. Here, you can take set pieces you've bought with your
tickets and create your own F-Zero racer. In a way, it's similar to the Carrozerria
mode offered in Sega GT, but you're limited to the booster, cockpit and hull. Still,
you can make quite a bit of combinations with the pieces you earn and buy. I've been
able to make a couple of racers that have outperformed the preset ones by a couple
of seconds (in terms of Time Trial). And, you can make up to four of them, so you
can experiment with what works and what doesn't. You can also access your racers
in F-Zero AX, by sticking your memory card into a slot in the arcade cabinet.
I'm not sure how widespread AX will be in the U.S., so you may have to search around
for an arcade that has the machine. My best bet is that it may show up in the
Gameworks arcades, if they still exist. I think I'll try to post where the cabinets
are showing up by help of people around the internet. Let's try supporting this thing!
Ok, we've talked about how it plays, but how does it look? For those who remember
or still own F-Zero X for the N64, the game ran at 60 FPS (constant), but sacrificed
a lot of detail. Pretty much, it was the track, racers, and maybe an occasional
blocky thingamajig. It was also pretty low-res, and dithered as hell. Not any more.
F-Zero GX is pretty much F-Zero X as it was meant to be. It still runs at 60 FPS
(constant), is hella fast, and features more things in the environment. There's
buildings and trees, and it isn't so plain anymore. Even better, the textures
are pretty damn good. I could swear that a lot of these textures are bump mapped,
but Amusment Vision claims they did not use bump mapping. That's a pretty good
illusion they pulled off, and I'm suprised that other games do not have textures
as good as this (well, Factor 5's games are an exception). The only things I can complain
about in the graphics department is that some of the objects do tend to "fade in"
upon approach. You don't really notice it that often, but it's there. Not as bad
as Cruisn USA's fade-in, but I did see it. Not a major thing. You have to sacrifice
a little for the speed. Oh, did I mention the game is fast? Really fast? You
really have to play the game to get the sense of speed given here. It's like
nothing you've ever experienced in a racing game.
The sound, while not overwheming, is actually not that bad, save for some
oddly forced dialouge here and there. The music is pretty good, considering that
the game was developed by Sega, which is notorious for some pretty nasty music.
While I miss some of the classic tracks of the previous F-Zero games, two do
make a bit of a return, but in a remixed state. The sound effects seem to almost
be absent in a way, since your engine is pretty quiet. There are the crashing sounds,
as well as the sound opponents make as they rush past you, but that's about it.
The voices in the game are pretty comical, and some are a bit ostentatious. Roger
Buster sounds like Randy Savage for some reason, and I don't know about you, but
Captain Falcon sounds a little gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
All characters seem to have personallity except for Mr. F-Zero. This guy has the
most forced dialouge I have ever heard in a game. It could have been worse. We could
have had the voice actors from the Resident Evil series.
In closing, I think you can pretty much gather what I think about this game.
It's very good, very challenging, very fast and very addictive. The last time I
played a game this much was Burnout 2: Point Of Impact. Perhaps it's no suprise
that it scored the same. Of course, they're completely different racing games,
and it's not that fair to compare the two. But in terms of futuristic racers,
F-Zero GX is at the very top of this genre's peak. It's fast, smooth, and longer
than games such as Extreme G3 or WipeOut 3. It's going to be hard to top this
one for quite some time. Blow the walls off this mutha, and get F-Zero GX.
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F-Zero GX
