I'd say this is one of the best racing games on the Gameboy Advance or any handheld system period, but that would only be limiting my praise as this game is one of the best racing games on any system. There are 34 playable vehicles, 5 tracks, 6 modes including: story, gran prix, time trial, training, challenge and versus. The music is rock solid especially for the GBA a system in which audio was often compressed. The gameplay is what you expect from an F-Zero game, just fast, fluid racing with really tight controls. The story mode is somewhat engaging, I mean it's not high art, but it is fun if not very difficult as it follows several key racers from the anime. All in all, I can't recommend this game enough.
Mode 7 is an interesting beast. Made for the purpose of creating 3D artificially with 2D sprites, its one of those things that have been left behind by the games industry. Of all the genres that utilised Mode 7, I feel the one that aged the worst of any is racing games; their lack of true 3D seems to hinder them far more than any other genre out there. Perhaps that is why I found F-Zero GP Legend so surprising, in that it doesn't feel dated. In fact, I would argue that this was as close to perfection as a Mode 7 game ever got.
When one thinks about F-Zero, one thinks about blazing speed. No other series quite managed to provide that raw, unparalleled adrenaline quite like F-Zero. Despite that, I always felt that was an area that the 3D games did better than their Mode 7 counterparts, but GP Legend challenges that idea, proving that a Mode 7 racer can reach fantastic speeds. The core racing from the SNES F-Zero and Maximum Velocity is upgraded through improvements from the 3D games: boosting is tied to your health, you can attack other racers, there are tons of machines with different statistics, and visuals and sound design are as close to perfect as the GBA can handle. What really shines here though is the course design, which is actually surprisingly interesting. Courses might base themselves on shapes making for unique designs, or have complex split tracks, or even have absurdly difficult but satisfying shortcuts to pull off. The courses are genuinely spectacular, feeling unique and requiring some genuine thought for certain difficult tracks or sections. Match this with the best controls and gameplay feel of any of the Mode 7 F-Zero games, and you get a brilliant racing game that seriously deserved to sell better than it did.
I feel that a good way to end this is to compare it to its sequel, F-Zero Climax, the final game before the series' grand and painful nearly 2 decade hiatus. While Climax offers more tracks and a course editor, it really had no interesting ideas to put in its courses, and I feel that is the strength of GP Legend, not only that controlling your vehicle was realised so well, but that the courses were extremely fun to race on. That's why I think F-Zero GP Legend managed to be the best amongst its Mode 7 peers.
GP Legends will go a long way in providing hours of racing entertainment for the F-Zero buff. It's easy to get into and allows a lot of racing growth as your experience increases.
Make no mistake, even though GP Legend can be a tough nut to crack, the consistency of the track design and handling means this high difficulty level invites rather than discourages another go. [June 2004, p.118]
You won't even break a sweat before you get to the Silver Cup in the Expert class, and F-Zero stalwarts will feel patronised by the ease with which this short-lived Tournament mode can be completed. [Feb 2004, p.110]
An excellent racer and an improvement over Maximum Velocity. I really enjoy this game and is probably my favorite racer on the GameBoy Advanced. Great music, a large selection of racers and is very hard in Expert and Master mode (they are always right next to you!). A great game and highly recommend it.
GP Legend does little more than add an extra story mode that's a series of challenges that amount to "beat your rival to the end of the course". As an extra it's not too bad, but the real meat of the game is still the GP mode which is more of the same. I have no complaints as the F-Zero games are the best racers on the Advance.
F-Zero GP Legend is a solid racing game, especially on the Gameboy Advance, but there are far too many issues that keep it from being a perfect game.
Each machine has different stats: Body (the amount of damage it can take), Boost (how fast the machine goes when you boost), and Grip (how well the machine turns). Each machine is supposed to have a balanced build (EG: If it has a strong Body and good Boost, it has poor Grip), so there's not one notably rigged machine.
However, in this game, Grip is the only stat that really matters. There is almost no racetrack where having a strong boost really makes a big difference, but more than half of them have hairpin turns that, unless your Grip is rank A, you're going to be constantly bumping into walls and hazards (and off the track, depending on the stage). Never choose a machine with Grip rank B or worse, or heaven forbid, rank E.
The second problem is the story. There are eight story paths you could take that follow different F-Zero characters (like Captain Falcon, Zoda, Jody Summers, etc.) Each of them have five races and cutscenes, explaining what they're doing and the conflicts they face (and their resolution).
Compared to F-Zero X and older, this sounds awesome! The F-Zero universe has all these well-illustrated characters that feel like they need a story to flesh out their character arc. But not only do you get the stories of only about ten of the characters, but each of them is so poorly written and have no development in the grand scheme of things.
Example: You're introduced to a character named Zoda, who's this weird-looking criminal that apparently died 150 years ago in an accident with another character, Rick Wheeler. This is explained in Rick's story, where he's working for the police force, still hunting him down trying to figure out why both of them are still alive.
This is a really cool concept, but what happens in the story? You chase Zoda down, he's replaced with another character (that has no dialogue), you have to save someone else, and then you get a "to be continued" kind of dialogue.
Do you get an explanation in Zoda's story? Not a chance!
This Story Mode had so much promise, but when you go nowhere with it, it's just a frustrating experience.
SummaryThe F-Zero series grows with new racing circuits, an intense storyline, and multiplayer modes. F-Zero GP Legend lets you take control of one of eight characters, including Captain Falcon, racing star Rick Wheeler, the evil lord Black Shadow, and more. Guide your character through various Grand Prix cups, time trials, and challenges that ...