F Zero GX
Format: GC | Released: 10/31/03 | Reviewed: 08/01/2006 | Words: Francis O Brien
It's all too easy to write off any sort of game that ends up whirring away in the disc tray of any of the consoles I own. In an industry full of mass marketed sequels, I have to ignore the hype factory of games journalism and seek out my own game of the year out from piles of forgettable titles that keep the shelves and the hapless casual gamer enthralled for weeks on end. While I can't slot the range of titles Nintendo have brought out for the Gamecube into the same soulless market, you can be forgiven for being dubious of their efforts; sequels to N64 titles that themselves were sequels to SNES titles that at first glance would seem like an sly attempt to milk the legacy their huge stable of IP has.
F-Zero GX is a game I bought and immediately disliked for all too quickly taking prejudices against it because it seemed to offer nothing new within my blinkered view of it. Not to mention the shock an unholy unity of both Sega and Nintendo logos on the same screen. Returning to it due to a combination of being broke and having many of those long holiday hours to fill gave me no great expectations and demands on the title this time round.
I was in eye watering future racing heaven.
Doing a practice run just to get used to the controls again I picked a Mute City track at random and waited for the numbers to tick down so I could take things easy and get back in the groove. I loved F-Zero X to bits primarily for giving a huge sense of speed to match the supersonic speeds the HUD claimed my machine was doing, while not doing it in the epileptic fit inducing manner which put me off the SNES original. F Zero GX builds on that sense of speed by adding polish by the bucket load; fleshing out tracks with dramatic mood setting backdrops and a more varied soundtrack than the heavy metal laden soundtrack F Zero X was given gives the courses their own flavour and character that you can enjoy without having to take your eyes off the action. Thrown in for added fun is a story mode which paints some colour into what were largely anonymous racers and machines that filled the started grids. Missions are inter spliced with almost comic book like cut scenes that, poor voice acting aside, are thoroughly entertaining.
Downsides are few and far between, but it's still a little too easy sometimes to become a homicidal maniac during a race and kill almost everyone on the track, while some of the courses can be hugely unforgivable; one small mistake and you're off the track, dropping to your doom and you have to start all over again. Regardless, it's a romp of a future racer that proves Nintendo right in farming out development to Amusement Vision, packing the title with depth and personality while building on the firm foundations the F Zero legacy has. Back to Reviews index.