Posted: 3:41 AM - Aug 09, 2004
I originally wrote this for gameanon.net. It is down right now since Soul Hunter is doing "maintenance." I figured I'd post it here since I got nowhere else to put it right now. And it is a real review this time, not the spamage FF9 one.
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F-ZeroGX Review Gameanon.net
By Robin Kassim
Edited by JZL
March 3, 2004
Modified August 4, 2004
Speed is a key aspect for me with any game. I am always dulled-out quickly if a game starts to bore me even the least bit. F-ZeroGX pumped that constant feeling of heart-thrilling speed and excitement. It has CHALLENGE like no other game in its class. It also has the other goodies like great music, solid gameplay, and for the first time in any F-Zero game, eye-candy graphics. I have been a huge F-Zero fan since its release on the SNES. It was unique to me. It had a feeling that no other game captured. Extreme-G and Wipeout certainly did have speed and excitement. But it was F-Zero that erected my love for futuristic racing.
Features:
-41 machines
-26 tracks
-techno-rock soundtrack
-over thousands of customs to be made
-up to four players battle mode
-time attack with staff ghosts
-story mode with cinematics
-unlockable extras
F-ZeroGX offers a great set of features that take it beyond just an arcade racer. There are the basics of a racer, grand prix, time attacks, multiplayer and replays. But F-ZeroGX also includes a great story mode, custom machines, a shop to buy more machines, staff ghosts, remixes, and character profiles and videos. But is it all so great? Yes! This game combines arcade racing with great speed, great music, great tracks, great difficulty and great graphics.
Grand prix mode consists of a total of five cups, five tracks each and over 40 machines to use. Plus you can use your own custom-made machine. You will play through each race earning points as you go. The player will be limited to a number of machines (lives) depending on the difficulty selected. Do not underestimate the grand prix mode because it may seem the easiest part of the game. F-ZeroGXs grand prix doesnt slow down. You need to pick up the pace. Go faster, or be left behind. The player will also notice a rival in the grand prix. This is the machine with points closest to yours. You can wipe out the rival, and any other machine, to prevent them from accumulating more points.
Multiplayer mode of was not so great. It just goes to show that when you need more speed, you also need more screen. Multiplayer allows both horizontal and vertical screen split with two players. My normal playing abilities were limited even when using vertical split on 16:9. When using three players, the fourth screen becomes an automatic camera view of the race. And no AIs are allowed in the race with three or four players.
The time attack mode is the supreme challenge of the game. Playing alone might usually seem lonely, but not in F-ZeroGX. This game includes staff ghosts to race against for each track of the game. Each can be unlocked in the shop using your hard earned tickets. These ghosts redefine the meaning of hard and turn the players into machines themselves really fast-- that is if you can keep up with them. I hate the supreme frustration of overly difficult games; however, it is possible to beat these ghosts. Once that is accomplished, destroying your friends pride in F-ZeroGX becomes an easy task.
F-ZeroGXs story mode consists of a protagonist, Captain Flacon, and an antagonist, Black Shadow. Many people might be thinking it a joke to put a story mode in a racing game. I thought so myself. But I was pleasantly surprised. The reward for beating these next-to-impossible levels was worth the time spent playing them. The story was, as you guessed, a tournament. But the plot itself is not as bad as you would think it is in a racing game. The cinematics are beautiful and detailed. In fact, they are some of the very best Ive seen. They bring out the details of a plot a lot deeper than just a tournament. Beating a mission in story mode unlocks the next one for purchase in the shop and also machines and custom parts depending on the difficulty you beat it on.
The most interesting feature of the game is the customization mode. Here you will be allowed to use tickets earned in various parts of the game to purchase new machines, new custom parts, tracks, ghosts, and music. You can also make your own emblem for display on your machines. Best of it all is the custom machine production. Players can create machines from three parts: body, booster and cockpit, which make up the machines three ratings: body, grip and booster, and mass. The performance of the machines varies depending on your choices. There are over thousands of possible customs.
I cannot say much to describe graphics details, since I just suck at describing visuals. Although details will not matter much in a game like F-Zero, it certainly does a better job making the racing experience more comfortable. Unlike F-ZeroX, I never had the thought cross my mind, Geez, youd think they could have put some effort into make the game look a little less plain, A major improvement from the F-ZeroX game is the machine details. They no longer look like a chunk of low resolution textures. They have good detail and you can even see the pilot inside, controlling the machine if you have quick eyes. F-ZeroGX also has the details that make a unique environment for each different level, such as a forest for Green Plant, thunderstorm for Lighting, a volcano-like area for Fire Field, and more. And they look quite spectacular close up. They give the player a real feel of another world. However, if you are the type of person looking off into the distance, not paying attention to the track like you should, you will notice the plainness of the levels quickly. The track details only extend as far as most people will notice when their eyes are glued to the track ahead. One visual effect in F-ZeroGX did get my attention even at sonic speed, the boosters lighting particle effect when boosting. Watching these long lighting bolts that look like arms that reach into the ground is pretty (again, you will not have time to mind this during a time attack). Not the greatest thing in the world, but it is certainly eye-candy for the least bit.
The music was great. I did not find it repetitive no matter how much I such listened to the same track. The techno-rock beat soundtrack is addictive. The music is all new. It keeps the adrenaline in you going throughout the race. Along with the new tracks, there are extra remixed tracks of the classic F-Zero music. It does not end there. Each character in the game has its own theme song. Over 40 different character tracks can be heard by checking the character profiles. These character songs extend to far more than techno and rock. Some you will like and some you will hate. Any character theme or remix can be played during replays instead of having to listen to the alien like reply track. Unfortunately, the sound effects of the game were not as impressive as the music was. They did work decently for their part, but that is about it. Listening to the sound of the booster started to get irritating after hearing it like 15 times in a single race.
Despite any other feature, what really makes F-ZeroGX so great is the gameplay. It is all about speed and control. Not to mention it is off the charts in difficulty. This game can get very frustrating. Retire, retire, and retire. The word is in your face. Crashing is common. Loosing control and speed due to lack of practice is common. When racing in F-ZeroGX, if you want to keep up, it is essential to know the tracks well and know your machine. You will not be able to just pick or make a machine and start making record times. You got to get your ass in the chair and sit down with some pizza for a long time. F-ZeroGXs control is fairly basic and nifty. You can turn, slide, sharp turn and drift through corners. You can boost to go faster. Thats about it besides spinning and side swiping your opponents to wreck their machines and bump them out the race. Useful in the grand prix, but you might find that you will be wasting too much time trying to match their speed then worry about taking lead. It may sound like a simple racing game, but there is a lot of skill to mastering the control. It will require more than just practice, but a whole lot of time. Along with the regular gameplay, there is an interesting technique known as snaking. Before starting a race, players can select an acceleration/max speed ratio for their machine. Sliding the bar toward max speed allows all machines to reach higher top speeds on the straights and makes the machine a lot easier to handle. However, sliding it towards acceleration increases speed in the corners greatly, allows faster boosting, and gives more precise handling. This also allows for snaking; sliding the machine left and right on a straightaway to make it act as if it was in the corner and cause it to increase in speed. This is a popular technique and is practiced with the correct machines among F-ZeroGX fans for record-making and style. F-ZeroGX will never be mastered by someone who is not interested hardcore or who is getting frustrated with the difficulty. Finishing the grand prix or story mode on normal is one thing, clearing the game entirely is a whole new world unknown to the unchallenged.
To sum up, F-ZeroGX is speed unlike that found in any other arcade racer. It combines speed with extreme levels of skill and difficulty to take players to a world where more patience and time is necessary than luck-- that is if luck is even with you on this one. If you are the type that prefers ease and relaxation when playing games, do not even consider F-ZeroGX without a doctors permission. If you are more like me and need harder, faster, more extreme games that last longer to stay entertained, or you were a previous hardcore F-Zero fan, then you should have this game.
Sound 8/10
Graphics 9/10
Extras 8/10
Difficultly 10/10
Gameplay 9/10
FINAL 9/10
--------------
F-ZeroGX Review Gameanon.net
By Robin Kassim
Edited by JZL
March 3, 2004
Modified August 4, 2004
Speed is a key aspect for me with any game. I am always dulled-out quickly if a game starts to bore me even the least bit. F-ZeroGX pumped that constant feeling of heart-thrilling speed and excitement. It has CHALLENGE like no other game in its class. It also has the other goodies like great music, solid gameplay, and for the first time in any F-Zero game, eye-candy graphics. I have been a huge F-Zero fan since its release on the SNES. It was unique to me. It had a feeling that no other game captured. Extreme-G and Wipeout certainly did have speed and excitement. But it was F-Zero that erected my love for futuristic racing.
Features:
-41 machines
-26 tracks
-techno-rock soundtrack
-over thousands of customs to be made
-up to four players battle mode
-time attack with staff ghosts
-story mode with cinematics
-unlockable extras
F-ZeroGX offers a great set of features that take it beyond just an arcade racer. There are the basics of a racer, grand prix, time attacks, multiplayer and replays. But F-ZeroGX also includes a great story mode, custom machines, a shop to buy more machines, staff ghosts, remixes, and character profiles and videos. But is it all so great? Yes! This game combines arcade racing with great speed, great music, great tracks, great difficulty and great graphics.
Grand prix mode consists of a total of five cups, five tracks each and over 40 machines to use. Plus you can use your own custom-made machine. You will play through each race earning points as you go. The player will be limited to a number of machines (lives) depending on the difficulty selected. Do not underestimate the grand prix mode because it may seem the easiest part of the game. F-ZeroGXs grand prix doesnt slow down. You need to pick up the pace. Go faster, or be left behind. The player will also notice a rival in the grand prix. This is the machine with points closest to yours. You can wipe out the rival, and any other machine, to prevent them from accumulating more points.
Multiplayer mode of was not so great. It just goes to show that when you need more speed, you also need more screen. Multiplayer allows both horizontal and vertical screen split with two players. My normal playing abilities were limited even when using vertical split on 16:9. When using three players, the fourth screen becomes an automatic camera view of the race. And no AIs are allowed in the race with three or four players.
The time attack mode is the supreme challenge of the game. Playing alone might usually seem lonely, but not in F-ZeroGX. This game includes staff ghosts to race against for each track of the game. Each can be unlocked in the shop using your hard earned tickets. These ghosts redefine the meaning of hard and turn the players into machines themselves really fast-- that is if you can keep up with them. I hate the supreme frustration of overly difficult games; however, it is possible to beat these ghosts. Once that is accomplished, destroying your friends pride in F-ZeroGX becomes an easy task.
F-ZeroGXs story mode consists of a protagonist, Captain Flacon, and an antagonist, Black Shadow. Many people might be thinking it a joke to put a story mode in a racing game. I thought so myself. But I was pleasantly surprised. The reward for beating these next-to-impossible levels was worth the time spent playing them. The story was, as you guessed, a tournament. But the plot itself is not as bad as you would think it is in a racing game. The cinematics are beautiful and detailed. In fact, they are some of the very best Ive seen. They bring out the details of a plot a lot deeper than just a tournament. Beating a mission in story mode unlocks the next one for purchase in the shop and also machines and custom parts depending on the difficulty you beat it on.
The most interesting feature of the game is the customization mode. Here you will be allowed to use tickets earned in various parts of the game to purchase new machines, new custom parts, tracks, ghosts, and music. You can also make your own emblem for display on your machines. Best of it all is the custom machine production. Players can create machines from three parts: body, booster and cockpit, which make up the machines three ratings: body, grip and booster, and mass. The performance of the machines varies depending on your choices. There are over thousands of possible customs.
I cannot say much to describe graphics details, since I just suck at describing visuals. Although details will not matter much in a game like F-Zero, it certainly does a better job making the racing experience more comfortable. Unlike F-ZeroX, I never had the thought cross my mind, Geez, youd think they could have put some effort into make the game look a little less plain, A major improvement from the F-ZeroX game is the machine details. They no longer look like a chunk of low resolution textures. They have good detail and you can even see the pilot inside, controlling the machine if you have quick eyes. F-ZeroGX also has the details that make a unique environment for each different level, such as a forest for Green Plant, thunderstorm for Lighting, a volcano-like area for Fire Field, and more. And they look quite spectacular close up. They give the player a real feel of another world. However, if you are the type of person looking off into the distance, not paying attention to the track like you should, you will notice the plainness of the levels quickly. The track details only extend as far as most people will notice when their eyes are glued to the track ahead. One visual effect in F-ZeroGX did get my attention even at sonic speed, the boosters lighting particle effect when boosting. Watching these long lighting bolts that look like arms that reach into the ground is pretty (again, you will not have time to mind this during a time attack). Not the greatest thing in the world, but it is certainly eye-candy for the least bit.
The music was great. I did not find it repetitive no matter how much I such listened to the same track. The techno-rock beat soundtrack is addictive. The music is all new. It keeps the adrenaline in you going throughout the race. Along with the new tracks, there are extra remixed tracks of the classic F-Zero music. It does not end there. Each character in the game has its own theme song. Over 40 different character tracks can be heard by checking the character profiles. These character songs extend to far more than techno and rock. Some you will like and some you will hate. Any character theme or remix can be played during replays instead of having to listen to the alien like reply track. Unfortunately, the sound effects of the game were not as impressive as the music was. They did work decently for their part, but that is about it. Listening to the sound of the booster started to get irritating after hearing it like 15 times in a single race.
Despite any other feature, what really makes F-ZeroGX so great is the gameplay. It is all about speed and control. Not to mention it is off the charts in difficulty. This game can get very frustrating. Retire, retire, and retire. The word is in your face. Crashing is common. Loosing control and speed due to lack of practice is common. When racing in F-ZeroGX, if you want to keep up, it is essential to know the tracks well and know your machine. You will not be able to just pick or make a machine and start making record times. You got to get your ass in the chair and sit down with some pizza for a long time. F-ZeroGXs control is fairly basic and nifty. You can turn, slide, sharp turn and drift through corners. You can boost to go faster. Thats about it besides spinning and side swiping your opponents to wreck their machines and bump them out the race. Useful in the grand prix, but you might find that you will be wasting too much time trying to match their speed then worry about taking lead. It may sound like a simple racing game, but there is a lot of skill to mastering the control. It will require more than just practice, but a whole lot of time. Along with the regular gameplay, there is an interesting technique known as snaking. Before starting a race, players can select an acceleration/max speed ratio for their machine. Sliding the bar toward max speed allows all machines to reach higher top speeds on the straights and makes the machine a lot easier to handle. However, sliding it towards acceleration increases speed in the corners greatly, allows faster boosting, and gives more precise handling. This also allows for snaking; sliding the machine left and right on a straightaway to make it act as if it was in the corner and cause it to increase in speed. This is a popular technique and is practiced with the correct machines among F-ZeroGX fans for record-making and style. F-ZeroGX will never be mastered by someone who is not interested hardcore or who is getting frustrated with the difficulty. Finishing the grand prix or story mode on normal is one thing, clearing the game entirely is a whole new world unknown to the unchallenged.
To sum up, F-ZeroGX is speed unlike that found in any other arcade racer. It combines speed with extreme levels of skill and difficulty to take players to a world where more patience and time is necessary than luck-- that is if luck is even with you on this one. If you are the type that prefers ease and relaxation when playing games, do not even consider F-ZeroGX without a doctors permission. If you are more like me and need harder, faster, more extreme games that last longer to stay entertained, or you were a previous hardcore F-Zero fan, then you should have this game.
Sound 8/10
Graphics 9/10
Extras 8/10
Difficultly 10/10
Gameplay 9/10
FINAL 9/10
