F-Zero GX is a rebel. At a time when LotR is all the rage, the mass market wants more epicness and more story from everything. F-Zero GX rejects all that and even seems to mock it. Any "story" elements in the game are clearly designed to be cheesy, over-the-top, and laughable. Captail Falcon is probably the most vanilla-flavored, beige-colored hero of this generation. Why, to see that, one just needs to hear his interviews, which are something along the lines of:
"Why do you think you were able to beat all the other racers?"
"I am here to win."
Let's talk graphics: What a shame... a shame, shame, shame. It's a shame that this is one of the prettiest games to ever grace a console, and it's also the one in which you can least afford to look around at all the beautiful models and backgrounds. Each and every vehicle and part is exquisitely detailed. Almost every course features attractive backdrops of spanning space-age cities, forests, deserts, or oceans. There are times (mostly when your friend is repeatedly trying to beat your best time on a course) at which you begin to wish you could get your character out of the vehicle and begin exploring the beautiful environments. Add to all of this awesome effects, like the lightning caused by the use of your boost, and the game's look is enthralling.
Sound: If there is something that doesn't blow me away about this game, this is it. And I'm not even saying anything bad about it. The music is very fitting to this type of game, one in which you must find yourself "in the zone" if you wish to reach any sort of significant success. The rhythmic, technoish tunes almost match what your brain and heart are doing as you navigate a tight turn or slowly inch (if this phrase can be used at 1700 km/h) up to your rival to move in for the kill. The best music in the game can be found in the Pilot Profiles section and while watching replays. That's right: each of the 40 pilots has his own theme music, and most tunes are catchy enough for you to hum them in front of the cool kids at school.
OK, I admit it: I'm not too knowledgable on graphics or sound, and I probably make each one sound less spectacular than it is. But here is the good stuff:
Control: Holy shnikes. This deserves a category of its own. People like to say that Nintendo designs its controllers around its Mario games, which might be true to an extent, but I'm almost ready to believe the GC controller was specifically made for F-Zero GX. Everything about the control layout says "natural" and "intuitive." Your fingers immediately know where they're supposed to go and what to do (although knowing when to do it will come later
), but if I had to make up a thought sequence, it would go something like this:
"Hmm... which button will I be pressing the most? The accelerator, eh? I wonder if this huge green one. Now if I want to boost, I want to go forward even faster. Let me try 'rolling' my thumb forward. Oh, there's this nice, curvy gray button here. Oooh, that feels nice. I might tell the girlfriend to stay home tonight. Hmm.. I have a side attack? I wonder if it's this button on the _side_ of the gas. If only I had a way to decide whether I want to attack left or right... What's this -- a stick... that goes in different directions? Woah, this baby is tight."
OK, so I dug deep for a joke and came up with nothing. The point is, everything feels right. The shoulder buttons lean your vehicle to help you make sharper turns, just as one would expect them to. I feel I have to focus on the control stick for a bit, however. The way it is utilized in this game is amazing. I should've expected this from the team that gave us Super Monkey Ball, but I was still unprepared. The control is extraordinarily tight. It is amazing. It is mind-blowing. It is smooth. It is responsive. Throw in any positive adjectives you'd like. When I move it a little, I feel it in the movement of my machine. When I move it a lot, I feel... well, that's the point: I feel. You can really "feel" the control. With experience, the control stick begins to (and does) essentially feel like an extension of your hands, which is really what any interface optimally aims to do. When you've passed a certain skill level in F-Zero GX, you'll be able to look at your racing ghost and recognize that anything less than perfect in its performance is your fault and can be made better. While this sounds very logical and obvious, it is rare nowadays and a sign of a very excellent game.
Gameplay: The genius of the game is that it's always one step ahead of the player. Assume you've never played a racing game before, let along a futuristic racer. When you start up the first GP, you will crash into walls. Here's your first challenge: don't hit the railings, which is really the same as getting accustomed to the controls. Master that, and you will encounter another problem: you keep bumping into the other racers. Well, now we get into the subtleties of controlling, and soon you will be able to weave in and out of groups of racers. But you still can't finish first or near the top consistently. In fact, sometimes, you run out of energy and crash and burn. Boost-management is a whole category of race skill and strategy, and one very important to your success. This is just the basic set of skills, and not the complete one. You WILL have to take out your rivals in some GPs if you want to come out the winner. You WILL have to hit 90% of the track boosts on some courses to be first. But like I said, there's always a higher level in the game. Next, you can work on finding the absolute shortest path on a sharp S-curve. Then, you can try to figure out whether it's better to boost before it, coming into it, or just as you're making the last turn. You're never done with this game. When you think you are, there's always advanced techniques to master. But don't worry -- you're not there yet.
Unlockables: Start with 2 unlockable full GP cups, an extra difficulty level for GP, and 9 Story Chapters that await with 3 difficulty levels each to be uncovered. Add a plethora of CGI endings, car parts, and interview questions. Throw in a staff ghost for each of the 26 tracks and a couple of extra tunes. This game is choc-full. The garage mode itself can take up your whole time. Trying to build the "perfect" machine is impossible. A trade-off is required, and trying to find the best balance for you, personally, is an adventure in and of itself.
This is a very broken-up and step-by-step explanation of the game, however. It's impossible for me to convince someone that it's good, and explain to them why exactly I love it so much, unless s/he plays it and reaches a certain skill level. It's an intense game. I haven't found an emotion in this generation of video games equal to that of winning the last race in a GP by 3 hundredths of a second in order to come out 5 points ahead of your rival and take the gold. I haven't felt a sense of accomplishment greater than waking up one morning and beating Story Mode Chapter 1 on Very Hard on my first try, or rattling through the gate at the end of the tunnel in Chapter 5 and just making it out in time. In fact, I don't think I've gone through a learning experience as satisfying as improving my Time Attack records bit by bit in all my years of school. The game is all about feeling and the emotions it can invoke in you, and it does it all as a video game. It does not try to emulate a movie. It does not try to be a book to you. It does all the amazing things about which I wrote as a video game, and as such it represents all that is right in video games and none of what is wrong. Whether or not a person agrees with my perception of what video games are meant to be, seeing that F-Zero GX is a tremendous accomplishment in its field is universal.
