Months before I bought F-Zero GX I asked myself how I could get the best experience out of the game. Then I found out that Logitech's Speed Force steering wheel was compatible with F-Zero GX. I had never owned nor played with a steering wheel in my life, and I had to do quite some research before any impulsive buy. I found out that this is the best wheel out for the Gamecube and there probably wont come any wheels throwing it off its thrown, so if I would get a wheel this was the one. But the big question still remained; Is it good enough for F-Zero GX? Well I took the chance and bought the wheel and pedals, afterall it's similar(as in performance) wheel they use for the F-Zero AX machines. This review will de directed towards how the wheel handles for F-Zero GX, if it's worth the money if F-Zero GX will be your only game featuring the wheel and not give an overall view compared to other wheels and games etc.
The wheel feels really great in your hands, just like the officially Gamecube controller sorta melts into your hands so does the wheel. All over the wheel you'll find official Gamecube logos, the reason is because Speed Force an officially licensed wheel for the Gamecube. You might want to ask what you get out it other than be able to say it's official. Well, the wheel uses the official gamecube bottons, and if you've ever tried any 3rd party controllers you will understand how great Nintendo's official bottons are. The only things that have changed is that the Z botton is now round and is placed above the d-pad. Also the X and Y bottons have been turned counterclockwise by 90-degrees, in order for you to able to reach them properly. The only grip I had with the controls is that they are placed a bit too low. Intuitionally you would want your hands to be pretty high on the wheel, but you will have to move a few inches down in order to have your tumb comfortably reaching the A botton. Though you will get used to it after an hour of play.
The default controls for F-Zero GX are:
Steer - Wheel Left Right
Slide Left Right - L R Botton
Machine's Center of Gravity - D-pad Up and Down
Adjust View - Botton X Y
Accelerate - Accelerator Pedal
Air Brake - Brake Pedal
Side Attack - Quickly press the L or R botton twice
Spin Attack - Press the L and R botton simultaneously and turn the wheel
Boost - A botton
Luckily you can change the controls, because it's really hard to peform the spin attack succesfully with the wheel, and ones you do make a spin attack you will have your machine out of control(because you've just turned your wheel) and you'll often end up in the rail. I suggest that you change the spin attack to the unused Z botton. Also you might want to change the Center of Gravity to the X Y bottons instead of the d-pad. You really don't use your left hand for anything so it really feels annoying when you come to a jump and will have to adjust your grip on the wheel in order to reach the d-pad which is a bew inches to low on the wheel, when you can use the X Y bottons instead. Also don't forget to adjust the calibration for the wheel, or you will go through hell whenever you have to turn. Around -75/75 feels the best. If you are planning to buy the wheel, you have to buy The Speed Force Accessory Package, which comes with pedals and lap adaptor. You'll defintely want the pedals for the full driving experience, and the lap adaptor is very important if you wanna sit in a comfortable position. The lap adaptor fits perfect in your lap and you almost forget that it's there, but try it without and you wont take it for granted anymore. A nice realistic detail on the pedals is that the brake pedal is harder to push than the gas pedal. Polishness at its best.
Both the wheel and pedals feel like they will never break, they really are solid. Under the pedals there is some anti-sliding rubber, i'm sure it works as it should on wooden floors but on my carpet they tend to slide once in a while, it's not a big problem but you will get a little annoyed when you have to pause in the middle of the game to readjust the pedals position.
If you like small features the wheel also comes with 3 different colored decals that you can changed in the center of the wheel. Useless really, but at least the wheel will match your spicy cube if you have any.
Enough with the specs, how does it feel when playing F-Zero GX?
First of all, the learning curve for the wheel is probaby twice as long, than with the Gamecube controller. The first time I tried the wheel I used a good 20 minutes to adjust the calibration so that I wouldn't have to turn the wheel like mad for a little corner in the game, after that it got quite easier. But after a few hours of play, I was totally smacked down by Big Blue: Ordeal in the Emerald Cup. I tried the course with the controller and though I was still owned by the course I managed to beat it alive. Later on I've always used the controller for the master difficulty, you simply can't be precise enough without screwing up with the wheel, and there are no room for mistakes in master. However for story mode, where you also have to be precise, but here you can just retry without having to play through a whole cup again, it's very fun to use the wheel. Except for Chapter 3 and 7, it feels so great to beat the chapters with the wheel. I can't explain how great it feels to use the, old side attack from F-Zero X by double clicking on L or R, while almost slamming the wheel side to side against the Bloody Chain in chapter 4. That alone is almost enough to justify your purchase of the wheel. I'm not saying that it's impossible to beat a master cup or Story Mode on Very Hard with the wheel, it's just that it's a tad harder than with the controller. And the problem with F-Zero GX is that it's already a very tough game. I have done this mental thing so when I play with the wheel each level difficulty is one level higher. So when I play a Standard Cup it's really Expert Cup if I play with the wheel. I know it sounds really weird, but this keeps me from getting frustrated about not being able to beat a master cup. And I'm defintely not bad at the game. It's simply just harder with wheel. Some might say: Hey, I can beat master with ease this will just be another challenge, but honestly I think that F-Zero GX is hard enough as it is, if you want all the pilot FMW's use the controller not the wheel.
However if you want fun, then the wheel is to the rescue. Earlier I said that the wheel had a longer learning curver, it's true enough but you can still have an awesome time with your friends even though they are handicapped with the wheel. A freind of mine who used the wheel actually managed to beat me on long pipe, it might have been because of the small gap there's between an experienced player and a beginner, but one thing is sure, we had fun when playing with the wheel.
The fun value will increase heavily when playing with the wheel. The realism it gives you works like a drug that gives you an instant smile on your lips. In my opinion this if one of the most important factors when playing a game. After watching how Falcon slips down into the cockpit in the intro to chapter 1, you look at your wheel and can't help to think; So this is how it fees to be Captain Falcon. It feels complete.
Closing comment:
Before I gave this review a grade, I just played the wheel one more time to make sure I gave it the right score. But it really deserves it. Small cons like the difficulty in the later cups, and the low placement of the bottons are easily ignored when the value of the game gains a giant boost, the game really does get better. I'm sure that when I pick this game up in a few years, where I wont be playing it so much anymoor, then I will defintely be playing it with the wheel. Call yourself an F-Zero fan? Then save up some money and get the wheel as fast as you can! This is the ultimate experience you can get out of F-Zero GX!
9/10
Even though this is a review for how the wheel handles with F-Zero GX, I cannot help to say that the wheel will also work with Mario Kart
ouble Dash, which I'm sure the majority of all Nintendo owners will buy. Two great racing games, one wheel to bind them
