From a graphical standpoint, the game is mind-blowing. The characters and vehicles all look good, but what's really impressive is the backgrounds around each race and how fast they go screaming by.
It’s F-Zero so that means it’s peak fiction. It has goated gameplay, a wild story mode a lot of drivers to choose from, fun maps, good music, and a lot to do and unlock.
At the end of the day, F-Zero GX is a speed-freaks dream come true. On top of being fast, Fast, FAST, FZ has great racing options, insane tracks, snappy control, a brilliant customize feature, and the ever-important fun factor.
In short – it will kick your ass. However, each time that you lose, you know that you could have done better. You don't lose because the AI cheats. Oh no. You lose because you simply weren't good enough.
A fantastic racing game, and easily the very best racer for GameCube. The only thing keeping this game from a higher score is the extremely steep learning curve.
As the videogame equivalent of washing down a pack of Pop Rocks with Coke, some will take the challenge head-on while others will listen to the naysayers. Either way, F-Zero GX is now the official barometer of hard-core gaming.
What should have been a fast, flashy, light-hearted affair is somehow grim and joyless. There's wonderful content here, but unfortunately most gamers won't ever see most of it because it's locked away behind a series of near-impossible challenges.
Incredible visuals for its time, a massive amount of variety for its stages, smooth slick controls at ridiculous speeds, and a ridiculous amount of variety in characters.
There is no doubt that every person that has a need for speed in racing games should at least play this game once in their life.
This is debatably one of the greatest racing games possibly ever made and definitely the greatest racing game Nintendo has ever published and I don't believe they'll ever be able to beat.
I am a huge fan of F-Zero and F-Zero X. Back when I tried to play this game 20 years ago, I couldn't get into it because it didn't feel right. 20 years later, its the same sentiment. I know Sega had their hand in the development of the game, but I believe their influence is what really derailed much of the experience. The music in F-Zero and F-Zero X was iconic, the tracks all felt very different and interesting, almost to the point where you wished that there was more lore to them. F-Zero GX just feels awkward in the presentation compared to the foundation set by the predecessors. Because of the influence of the Sega style presentation, it has the generic racing music from that era and really uninteresting backgrounds (although the graphics are excellent). The addition of content such as the characters having voiceovers, bonus videos, and more personal is awesome, but it feels very much out of place compared to what the franchise already had established. Its just awkward and goofy, and feels like its pulled straight **** Dreamcast racing game. The game just doesn't feel consistent with the series.
The gameplay is pretty good. Truthfully, I like the gameplay of F-Zero X a bit more. The cars in this game feel way too loose and slide around too much, and the bouncing off of the walls feels more goofy and out of place than ever before. Despite that, I do like how all of the vehicles truly feel unique, its definitely worth trying all of them at least a few times as they provide a huge variety in how they perform. The ability to make your own custom machines is also fantastic, not only does it add a really cool level of customization, it adds a surprisingly deep level of customization of performance. The levels are also really challenging, I appreciate the difficulty of this game, because you can feel the gradual improvement of your ability with each additional attempt. And if you really commit yourself to memorizing courses, you can spend hours trying to improve your scores and times. I also thought the addition of the story mode was cool, although one of the least memorable modes of the game.
This game did a lot to build on the formula that was established by the previous F-Zero games, while stripping it of the personality and presentation that made the other games great. Unfortunately the stripping of the personality really makes it feel way too much like a solid but generic racer of the era. There is a lot of fun to be had with this game, but it didn't pull me in nearly as much as the other two games. I feel like the game added the foundation for necessary steps for the franchise, but unfortunately 20 years later, this is just where they left off. One step forward, one step backward, but good enough.
This extremely fast-paced game was a lot of fun with a variety of vehicles to pick from with varying stats, a selection of stages to race in, and the fact that you can kill other players just adds a bit of a darker twist into the game. My main problem with this game, oh god, the difficulty. similar to Wipeout XL (or Wipeout 2096), it's one of those games where you die... alot. especially the story mode, which is pretty forgettable.
This game was clunky, people have nostalgia goggles on, the ones before it were better, honestly. The same nerds that hate on modern Nintendo games with challenge, praise this for far less.
The eyes of most players here are blurred by nostalgia, for many it seems, childhood nostalgia, while I skipped this generation (during my early 20s) and returned to this game later in life (having experienced 3 or 4 generations of gaming before the Gamecube even appeared). The parts of this game where there is a track that doesn't launch you into oblivion are great; superb high-speed racing. However, for many of the later tracks in the game then it is a matter of the game being so fast that you simply do not have time to avoid or see the ramps that launch you to an instant death. The only way to confront this unfair challenge is to play the challenges (or most annoyingly the whole cup) over and over again until you randomly succeed. This is not fun and massive design flaw. In many ways this makes the game impossible to complete without putting in a disproportionate amount of time (and anger) compared to the fun. I'd love a new F-zero game, but without this fundamental flaw. A game that is neigh-on impossible to complete, not due to size, but due to bad design = low score, simple as that.
SummaryPower down the straight. Lean into the hairpin bend, twitching the steering at the perfect moment to edge past two rivals. Manoeuvre onto the boost pad, just avoiding the smouldering shell of an unluckier racer's craft. Power up and scream up, around, and back down the 360° loop. Check the speedometer. 2000 km/h. It can only be F-Zero.
...