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:: F-Zero GX for GCN Review |
Two purchase-worthy games come out at the same time [F-Zero GX and Soul Calibur 2]. How fair is that? Not very, that’s how much. So, I flipped a coin, and it landed F-Zero GX side up. So here’s my magical F-Zero GX review. It’s magicalicious.
MAGICALICIOUS REVIEW, GO GO GO!
So, after wasting your time for eight sentences (counting this one), I think I’ll get onto the review. When I first picked this game up, I regretted my purchase. It totally lost all of the charm that made the first F-Zero so great. On top of that, the voice acting was sub-par (Samurai Goroh is the best ah har har har), the tracks were all freaky and new, and that sort of stuff. Then I realized that I was acting like a complete retarded fan boy, and looked at it from a normal point of view. A human point of view, if you will. I quickly realized that there was a lot to this game, more than I could see when I was clouded by the fact that the tracks weren’t totally and completely flat. The game grows on you, and the more you play, the more addicted to it you become.
First of all, the game is CHALLENGING. Thank you, God, for bestowing upon the world a racing game that can’t be beaten in five hours. Plus there’s a ton of replay value. There’s nothing more satisfying than finishing up a cup and finding out you can now purchase new machine parts from the game’s F-Zero store.
Whazzat? Oh, I forgot to mention.. YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN MACHINES. There are three part types: Cockpit, Body, and Booster. Cockpit is where your pilot sits, and this determines the ship’s turning capabilities. The body determines how well your ship will hold up to hitting walls or other ships, and the Booster is the engine, which determines the vehicle’s speed. You can buy ships with tickets earned in the Grand Prix mode at the F-Zero shop under the Customize menu. You can also buy other characters and their ships at the store, as well as the next chapter in story mode.
…and that just happens to be the perfect segue into my next paragraph: The story mode. This has the most hilariously bad voice acting, and the most frustratingly high difficulty level. Of course, high difficulty level is a good thing. This means you have to WORK to get somewhere, just like in the NES days. Ahhh, yes, those were the days… Spending hours upon hours lost in the maze of Metroid’s Planet Zebes just because every room looks exactly the same as the last… Erm, but I digress. You’ll follow Captain Falcon on his journey to do stuff. Probably the most entertaining story mode chapter I played is the one I’m on right now (and am having problems getting past). It’s an homage to the movie Speed: You have to zip through a course full of turns and speed reducing terrain without dropping below 700 km/h. This is great for all you people who are obsessed with stories, no matter how poorly or haphazardly put together they are. …It’s fun, though. So the poor voice acting and writing can be excused.
There are a total of 20 courses, 4 cups of 5 tracks, 30 characters and their vehicles, and it links up to F-Zero AX for some more tracks and characters which you can take back to your lovely little GX, as well as some more ship parts.
Getting back onto the subject of customizability, because I love it so very much, is the emblem editor. Although somewhat difficult to use, the coolness factor of having a Triforce stamped on your own machine never goes away. The tracks are thought up really well, and the environments and designs are nothing short of astonishing. This is probably the most engaging and worth-while racer available on the Gamecube as of right now. Will Mario Kart: Double Dash!! claim the throne? Only time will tell.
Rated 4 out of 5 eggs for good replay value, lots of customizability, and a great fun value. Points deducted for poor voice acting in story mode, and for not doing anything too revolutionary.
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| Reviewed by Shoshi Eggshell ::
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