F-ZERO GX

That is why so many games have tried to increase the speed and make the player feel as if he or she is actually moving faster.  Games became so fast and so futuristic that a new sub-genre was formed: extreme racing games.  Extreme racers don't have many simulation elements, if any, and generally fall in line with what today's arcade games would like (if arcades were still thriving).

Within this sub-genre was a title from the Big N called F-Zero.  While stuck in the second dimension, F-Zero was cool, unique, and above all else, fun to play.  It was somewhat futuristic, especially its hovercraft vehicle designs, and much faster than any game available at that time.  As a game released during the Super NES's launch window, F-Zero garnered lots of fan praise.

Absent for several years, the series finally returned on Nintendo 64.  Absent once again, gamers like myself got impatient, desperately wanting more of Nintendo's grand racing series.  This month Nintendo has finally released a new F-Zero, this time for GameCube.  Developed by none other than Sega, F-Zero GX has become GameCube's best racer.  Here's why.

If you've read any of my previous reviews, you'd know that my number-one request for a racing game is superior track design.  I always welcome games that try to redefine the genre by going further in that direction.  F-Zero GX does that and a whole lot more.  Forget what you know about the first two games in the series.  The Nintendo 64 release was cool, but really didn't feel how an F-Zero game should feel in 3D.  F-Zero GX, my racing-loving friends, is the game that puts the series back on top.  The track design is so unique and so incredibly cool that you won't believe it at first.  There are more twists, turns and thrilling surprises (both graphical and gameplay-related) that you'll be in a state of shock for the first 20 minutes of play.  What Sega did for arcade racing games with Daytona USA they have done for extreme racers.

Gamers will love the intuitive controls.  Smooth as butter and as responsive as Gran Turismo (if Gran Turismo were a futuristic racer, of course), F-Zero GX reminds us why Sega is the company that publishers look to when they want something done right.  Remarkably, the game still feels like F-Zero.  Not so much the Nintendo 64 version, but the original.  This the trend with GameCube sequels – to recreate the grand experience of the one that started it all.

It probably goes without saying, but to give you an idea of what the control scheme is like: the shoulder buttons act as left and right air brakes that allow you to turn sharp corners with increased precision.  The A and B buttons function as the respective gas and brake pedals, and the Y button is used to unleash the wonderful speed boost power.  The speed boost energy meter is the same as your damage meter, so the more you boost, the more likely it is that you'll total your vehicle.

In addition to the usual racing game modes – Practice, Grand Prix, Vs. Battle, Time Attack, etc. – there is a brand-new Story Mode.  Computer-generated movie sequences are used to tell the story of Captain Falcon's race to victory.  The story isn't too spectacular, but the various Gran Turismo-ish trials that you must complete are very cool.

It has been one month since Mario Golf was released and already Nintendo has topped their best multiplayer title!  F-Zero GX provides multiplayer action unlike any other.  The single-player gameplay is extremely exciting, and, to the joy of every GameCube owner alive, the multiplayer gameplay is just as good!  The goal of course is the same: whoever crosses the finish line first wins.  But it's what the game does and how it does it that makes the experience so addictive.  It's akin to the greatest fighting games.  No matter how much you punch and kick your friend (in a polygonal sense), it never gets stale.  The same is true with F-Zero GX.  You could race till the sun comes up and still want more.  That's true of the single-player game as well, however, you are more likely to take a break once the game has been completed.  With multiplayer, it only ends when you want it to.

F-Zero GX's graphics bring to mind the reaction that Dr. Evil had when he first saw his clone (Mini-Me) in The Spy Who Shagged Me.  He was clearly stunned, only saying one thing: "Breathtaking."  That pretty much sums up F-Zero GX's graphics.  This game uses existing technology in ways that you never thought were possible.  Polygons?  What polygons!  You can hardly tell that this is running on a current-generation game console.  F-Zero GX is not realistic in the way that Gran Turismo 3 and 4 are; it's realistic in its own unique way.

The lighting, the textures, the animation, the detailed vehicles – it's like Sega took a list of all the most important graphic features and checked 'em off as each one was implemented.  The gravity-defying backgrounds are particularly gratifying, as is the speed, which is seemingly unstoppable.  It can't be said enough that the speed is this game's number-one selling point of this game.  And even though many people don't realize it, a racing game's speed has a lot to do with the graphics, since the more polygons that are crammed onto a screen at once, the more likely it is that a game will be slowed down.  That is, above all else, what will really amaze gamers.  Any game can take your breath away when it's not moving, but to do it while four people are playing the game – that's a work of art.

To me, this game has been severely under-promoted.  Nintendo should've had a pre-release demo of it at every GameCube kiosk in the country.  The graphics alone would get people's attention, but it's the gameplay that would have made non-GameCube owners consider buying the console.  Its fast, incredibly intense, adrenaline-pumping gameplay makes F-Zero GX the top extreme racer out there.  F-Zero had fun (but flat) tracks, and F-Zero 64 was cool but just loopy.  GX, on the other hand, redefines the series with its (yes, I'm going to say it one more time) heart-pounding speed and the gorgeous and outrageous courses.  The controls are silky-smooth (did you honestly expect anything less from the makers of Daytona USA?), and the graphics are out of this world.

I know it's impossible for everyone to have every great game that's released.  However, there are a few games in this world that go beyond everything else and thus should not be missed, even if it means sacrificing some of the other games that are being released in between these masterpieces.  Do whatever you can to get it.  Beg your parents for an early Christmas present.  Ask your boss to be paid early.  Tell the utility companies you'll send them a check next time.  Crazy or not, anything is worth trying, so do yourself a favor and come up with a way to put F-Zero GX in your 'Cube.

Gameplay: 9.5
The "GX" in F-Zero GX must stand for Good to the Xtreme.  You won't be able to pull yourself away from the whiplash-inducing gameplay.  It'll send you swirling, twirling, upside down and everywhere in between.  The controls are excellent, surpassing the original F-Zero as well as some of the top GameCube racing games.  They are so good that you’ll probably mistake them for being the work of Shigeru Miyamoto.  The genius behind them is Sega.  Sega had the same development division responsible for Daytona USA work on F-Zero GX.  If that alone doesn’t sell the game to you, then nothing will.  This is a phenomenal creation, and will surely end up being one of the top racers of the year.  The only thing standing in its way on GameCube is Nintendo’s other top racing game: Mario Kart.

Graphics: 9.5
Unmatched.  Unrivaled.  Unbelievable.  Those are just a few of the words that can be used to describe F-Zero GX's beautiful graphics.  It's tough for game developers to continue to impress us on the current hardware, which appears to have aged a little too fast thanks to games like Gran Turismo 3, which to this day blows every simulation game out of the water (in terms of both graphics and gameplay).  But with games like F-Zero GX, which show off new graphic techniques and has unprecedented speed, GameCube still feels very young and will make gamers wonder what they have to look forward to next.

Sound: 8
Cool music, so-so music.  Good dialogue, so-so dialogue.  It would be wrong to say that for every up there is a down, but the sound just isn't what it could be.  Overall it is very good.  I loved hearing all the old-school jingles and sound effects that were introduced in the first F-Zero.  But the new sounds are a mixed bag.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 9
F-Zero GX is a sequel.  (Big surprise, I know.)  However, the gameplay is so impeccable that you could easily mistake this for an entirely new game that will launch an entirely new racing series.  It has WipeOut qualities and certainly could not have been made it if it weren't for that game and others like it (which paved the way for GX), but it doesn't copy what others have done.  F-Zero GX has some of the most impressive courses you will ever see in a racing game, creating an exhilarating experience unlike any other.

Multiplayer: 9.5
You and your friends will go nuts for this game.  Never before has a multiplayer racer moved so fast without losing something in the graphic department.  But let's put the graphics aside for a second, because as stunning as they are, it's the engaging, exciting races that really set this game apart from the crowd.  Its multiplayer mode is as good as its single-player mode.  (This was also the case with Mario Golf, but it's still a very rare occurrence.)

Overall: 9.5
F-Zero GX reminds us all that the GameCube was worth waiting in line for.  Those six treacherous hours in the cold were some of the worst, but look at what we have now because of it.  Metroid Prime, Zelda and now F-Zero GX.  I knew that if anyone could make F-Zero GX the best GameCube racer it was Sega.  They went all out with this title, polishing every aspect like it was a priceless antique statue.  The gameplay, the graphics, the multiplayer action -- it'll blow you away.  You and your friends will be consumed for hours.  I can picture myself on Christmas Eve, playing this with my cousins and fighting over one of the four simultaneous play slots.  You can't put a price on a game like that.  So few have that kind of longevity and that kind of open-ended appeal that encourages not only the hardcore gamers to play it, but draws in the casual players as well. 

I can't make you buy a GameCube (I wouldn't want to), but games like F-Zero GX can.