In all honesty, I've never truly played an F-Zero game before F-Zero GX. I've missed many classic titles already, as I wasn't as "gamingly inclined," if you will, as I am now. I did enjoy my SNES, but not having internet in this time period in my life caused me to miss lots of great things, including the original F-Zero. During the N64 era, I somehow managed to skip over F-Zero X. Even Maximum Velocity I've not played, as I never took interest to check it out. Finally, we arrive at F-Zero GX. After seeing the game in motion, I was hooked and decided I just had to have it. When the game finally hit stores, I certainly went out and bought it. Am I satisfied? You bet I am.

Presentation:
F-Zero GX gives you a plethora of different choices and things to do, and they're all set up in a comfortable way. After the title screen, you're given nine different options:
-Grand Prix
-VS. Battle
-Time Attack
-Practice
-Story
-Replay
-Customize
-Options
-Pilot Profiles


Grand Prix and the Story mode are the major parts of the game. In Grand Prix, you begin with three selectable Grand Prix Cups (Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald) and three difficulty levels (Novice, Standard, and Expert), five tracks per cup. After enough racing and winning, you'll acquire a total of two more cups (Diamond and AX) and another difficulty level (Master). The Story mode is complete with beautiful FMV cut scenes and has nine chapters. Overall, the story is very cheesy, but it's kind of funny sometimes. Just don't expect some epic tale... unless you count the difficulty as the epic part. The difficulty in the Story mode fluctuates back and forth, and you may want to get some practice in the Grand Prix first. Beating the Grand Prix Cups earns you tickets and ship parts, whereas the Story mode will earn you tickets and, for beating it on the higher difficulties, the AX racers. Those who can't achieve the feats of unlocking the AX Cup and racers can find an arcade with an F-Zero AX machine and unlock the content there if necessary. The main data takes up four blocks on the memory card.

Time Attack is just what the name says, time trials on the courses you've unlocked. If you beat a default record time on a track well enough, you'll unlock a Staff Ghost, which you must then purchase. Staff Ghosts are hard and extremely difficult to beat without the infamous "Snaking" technique (which I've very little experience with). VS. Battle is also another no-brainer. In GX, you can race with up to four of your friends. However, it doesn't appear to have a Grand Prix multiplayer mode, but I think that can be forgiven for now. Replay mode allows you to view the replays of the races you've saved. The replay file takes up four blocks on the memory card as well.

Pilot Profiles allows you to view background story information on the characters you've unlocked, as well as listen to their theme song, and take some close up looks of their vehicles. Options presents---what else---options: Change Controller, Memory Card, and Screen Mode settings. Then you have Customize. Here you have the Garage, Emblem Editor, and F-Zero Shop. In the Garage, you can use parts you've acquired and bought and piece them together as you see fit. You select your own Body, Cockpit, and Booster, and then color each section however you'd like. The Garage takes up around 18 memory card blocks. With the Emblem Editor, you can put on different designs onto your car. In the F-Zero Shop, you purchase the chapters for the Story mode, AX tracks, pilot-exclusive machines, machine parts, and practically anything else you can unlock. It's best to have lots of tickets, since you'll definitely need them.

Before every race, you have a few settings you can adjust. You have a gauge that allows you to set your vehicle's Max Speed and Acceleration. You can put the gauge completely on one or the other, perfectly in the middle, or a little more of one than the other. You're also allowed to change your car and character's color with the L and R buttons.

Graphics:
Undeniably awesome. Amusement Vision did a fantastic job in this department. Cars and characters are well detailed. Tracks are also visually impressive, complete with background objects to keep things from getting too boring and bland. The tracks from Fire Field are a good example. The area is cover in lava, and visual heat representations rush towards your screen as you speed along the track at high speeds. The framerate never drops below 60 fps. No matter how fast you go, even in four player, the action never slows down. It's rather hard to stop and admire the graphics though, since, well, this isn't a game you need to stop in to win. To make things even sweeter, F-Zero GX runs in Progressive Scan mode and 16:9 widescreen if you're lucky enough to have the setup.

Audio:
It's bizarre. By all means, it shouldn't work. In all accounts, it shouldn't fit. There's no reason why you would think it would work, but it does. The game music is mostly techno and rock, and in the game, it somehow fits. Maybe it's the cheesy story, obviously exaggerated character voices, or funny dialogue that does it... but it works, and it works well. The music on the tracks is equally good, but you'll probably be too busy trying to win a race to stop and get your groove on. The voice work is over-the-top, but it's all in good fun. Good dialogue brings the characters to life for the first time, and it's a welcome addition.

Gameplay:
All of the other stuff is all well and good, but it doesn't amount to much if the game doesn't control well. Good thing for everyone is that it does. Control is sharp and responsive. The control stick manipulates your craft left and right, and it will keep you in the air for a shorter or longer amount of time when you press up or down after coming off a jump. The A button accelerates and makes your machine move its metal rear-end; B for brakes, and Y is for boost. The L and R buttons are used to pull your craft in the respective direction according to which button you press. Pressing them both at the same time and holding them down will allow your craft to turn corners and curves much more easily. Pressing up and down on the D-Pad will zoom in on or pull away from your craft. You can put yourself inside the cockpit in a first person view, but it's nigh difficult to race in that mode.

F-Zero GX doesn't have any of this "hit your opponent with an item so you can destroy them and win" kind of thing. It's just the track, your machine, and your 29 opponents. X and Z serve as attack buttons: When next to an opponent, you can hit the X button and "sideswipe" their machine. Usually, a well-placed hit to their side is an instant kill. Z makes your machine spin. Spinning can be used to get around tight corners and attacking your opponents. This has two downsides though: 1. Using this maneuver tends to slow you down. 2. This also isn't usually an instant kill attack, unless you just manage to knock your opponent off the track or they're low on Shield Energy.

On all of the game's tracks, you'll find two things scattered around each one: Boost Strips and Energy Strips. Boost Strips do just that, they give you a boost (much like running over an arrow in Mario Kart). Energy Strips replenish your Shield Energy. This is where more strategy comes in. Making a good balance with your Shield Energy is very important. The Shield Energy of your machine is represented by a bar on the top right-hand corner of your screen. Taking damage, be it from running into walls, other cars, getting knocked around, attacked, etc., lowers Shield Energy. The other catch is that your Shield Energy doubles as your Boost Energy. In Grand Prix, you can't use boosts in the first lap (excluding the Boost Strips), and the bar is red. You can still take damage, but you'll likely be able to refill it easily. Once the second lap begins, you must manage your damage intake, boost usage, and the location of Energy Strips. After so many boosts, a certain amount of damage, or both, your machine will begin to flash red with a warning sound. The little amount of damage or boosting you can do now will drop the bar lower, and the flashing and noise will speed up. Eventually, if you continue boosting while red, your Shield Energy will be depleted. No, the pilot won't die a horrible death when this happens ... at least not yet. After depletion, you cannot boost anymore until you refill the energy; but if you take any damage at all, you'll die. Manage carefully, as boost comes with a price.

Final Thoughts:
F-Zero GX is quite a difficult game. Some people may never see everything there is to see without help from the AX arcade machine, assuming they can find one near them. It's not for everyone, but I certainly enjoy the heck out of it... and will probably be working on it quite a bit. F-Zero GX is a wonderful addition to any racing fan's game library and is highly recommended.

Joe McCollum