F-Zero GX (2003)

I spend a fair amount of time in racing simulators, so it often comes as a surprise to people when I tell them that my favorite racing title is actually an entry in a franchise that hasn't seen a main series installment in nearly 20 years. But with that being said, F-Zero GX a blindingly fast-paced, frantic racing experience that I've just not found anywhere else. Overall, F-Zero GX is one of my favorite titles and one that any arcade racing fan should at least try.

At a glance

Pros:

• Crazy fast
• Completely unique look and feel
• Graphics and controls still feel great
• Tons of different machines that all feel different
• Tons of unlockable racers and custom machines add great variety
• In my opinion the definitive racing game of the GameCube era

Cons:

• You shouldn't play this for the story mode.
• The difficulty can be BRUTAL if you play very casually
• Lacks the "personality" of F-Zero X

In more detail:

F-Zero is one of my favorite franchises, so a glowing review is no real surprise. Though GX has a few flaws (and may be "objectively" worse than its predecessor, F-Zero X) it easily ranks as my favorite racing game, as well as the one I've probably spent the most time playing. GX, like the other entries in the series, is an extremely fast-paced futuristic racing game that balances extremely satisfying controls and breakneck speeds with the constant, looming threat of failure at a moment's notice.

The most memorable feature that F-Zero games have besides the zero-gravity courses and blinding speed is one of my favorite gameplay mechanics in any arcade racer - the energy meter. Bump into walls or get hit by other racers, and the meter will go down. The meter isn't just a health bar, though: it's also how you activate the boost on your machine. Using the boost gives you a lot of extra speed, but also drains your energy bar. You can recover some energy on specially marked zones at certain spots on each track, but if you run out of energy your machine breaks and you are out of the race. You have spare lives in the form of extra machines, but if you run out before the end of a grand prix, it's over. This adds an extra bit of tension to a grand prix since you don't just have to worry about pushing 100% to finish first in the races - push too hard and you might not even finish the grand prix at all. This dramatically ups the tension, especially with just how easy it can be to crash out of a race. Using a lot of boosts is all but mandatory to finish in a good position on higher difficulty settings, which means that not only do you frequently run low on energy during a race, but collisions that drain your energy meter also cause you to potentially lose out on boosting later on. This produces a balancing act where you have to try and use as much energy as you can boosting, but not going too far and restarting the race (or losing an entire grand prix!) when you nick a wall with 0 energy left. The faster you go, the cleaner you have to drive - but the more you take it safe on the boost, the harder time you'll have keeping ahead of the other racers! It feels a little like tire management in a realistic racing game, but with MUCH higher and more immediate stakes. The more you know the tracks (and your own limits), the more you can push the machine.

Speaking of tracks, this game has 26 of them (including the tracks from the arcade game that can be unlocked) and they are pretty much all a blast. While a few are gimmicky or a bit annoying to me, the vast majority of them feel like unique, challenging, and extremely fun courses. Learning the tracks is a big part of the game, since once you start pushing a machine to its limits it can be very difficult to take turns without hitting the wall unless you know where they are in advance. Each track feels unique, even though there are recurring locations (multiple tracks in Mute City, Big Blue, etc.) and all of them are fun to learn and master. The music being fantastic is an added bonus as well.

In addition, GX boasts over 40 unlockable machines/racers and the ability to make custom machines out of different parts (there are over 9,000 potential combinations!), and the different machines all feel unique. This gives GX great replayability since it always feels worth retrying a grand prix to see how a new machine feels.

Very hard games are often a turnoff for many people, but in this case I absolutely LOVE the almost brutal difficulty that this game can offer. The crazy, fast-paced racing action is a complete adrenaline rush that forces you to pay total attention to what you are doing the entire time you play, and the constant risk of crashing out in less than a second is a rush I just can't get anywhere else. Well, besides in F-Zero X. On the subject of F-Zero X, there's a strong argument to be made that it is the better title. The machines all handle differently but it still feels just as satisfying to play (and fast!) while also offering much more personality with a grungy, hard rock style and feel. But to me, the faster, snappier controls of F-Zero GX sell me every time.