projo.com | Providence | punchbutton: gamecube

Here’s a hardcore gamer question for you: Do you remember Mode 7 graphics? This was Nintendo’s foray into 3-D graphics on a home video game console (in this case, the SNES). I was all over Mode 7. For the first time, home video games had a true 3-D perspective -- and even though they were kind of flat, they looked amazing at the time.

The first game to take advantage of this (then) cutting-edge technology was F-Zero, a hovercraft racing game that was the granddaddy of ALL hovercraft racing games. After numerous copycats and a few mediocre sequels, Nintendo and (shocker of shockers) SEGA bring us the true successor to the F-Zero throne with GameCube-exclusive F-Zero GX. Mode 7 is such a thing of the past.

GAME PLAY

Nintendo / Sega
F-Zero GX features some very cool tracks and environments.
Pretend that you have never played a hovercraft racing game. I know, just pretend. It’s just like any car racing game on the market except these racers forgo the hassle of wheels and gas engines and instead rely on magnetic levitation and jet propulsion. This free-floating style of driving lets F-Zero GX bring a whole new set of racin’ rules: gravity, laws of physics and speed limits are all thrown out the window.

Like any racing game the object is to cross the finish line first. What’s new in F-Zero GX is the fact that you are racing against 30 other competitors. Thirty! Combine this grandiose number of vehicles, some truly insane track designs and the game’s mind-bending speed and the result is not too unlike a roller coaster ride trough a pinball machine. It’s hilariously chaotic, but quite challenging at the same time.

Nintendo / Sega
You should really play F-Zero GX on a giant HDTV set. Go buy one now.
F-Zero packs a lot of cool play modes, including the standard head-to-head and Gran Prix versions, but also brings a funky Story Mode that’s kind of like Gran Tursimo’s license tests. And being that this is Nintendo game, there’s a lot of collecting stuff: new ships to find and new parts to buy to help customize your own hovercraft of doom! It’s nice to see this boatload of options and adds to the longevity of the game.

I have been playing the Japanese version of F-Zero GX for a few months now, and just recently switched to the U.S. version. Admittedly, I was put off by the game's difficultly the first few times I played, but once I got the hang of using my craft’s boost feature (I didn’t know it existed, since the game was in Japanese) and the strategic use of my hovercraft's defense systems, placing high up in the top of the pack got easier. Not to say that it was too easy; often I would be in first place for 95 percent of the race, only to bump a wall 5 feet from the finish line and end up No. 29.

GRAPHICS

Nintendo / Sega
It's like Gran Turismo but without those silly wheels.
Maybe I am at an unfair advantage, but I have been playing F-Zero GX on a widescreen (16-by-9) HDTV, with Nintendo’s GameCube component cable. The game looks stunning. The environments and the tracks are jaw-dropping. Even the game’s vehicles, while simple in design, are quite cool and have some great weathered textures on ‘em.

What makes F-Zero a true graphic powerhouse is the fact that it’s all presented in 60-FPS splendor. Rarely does the game slow down and there just isn’t another racer out there, on any console, that can tap this one’s sense of speed. It’s nuts -- and at times it will make you a bit queezy.

Nintendo / Sega
The loudest menu screen audio EVER!
AUDIO

I dig about 80 percent of the tunes in F-Zero GX. Most are upbeat, techno and hip-hoppy. It’s the goofy Japanese metal anthems with cheese-ball lyrics that litter the game and make me cringe. Why, Nintendo, why?

The rest of the sound effects are quite cool. The menu sounds are some of the loudest and scariest around. My neighbors were pounding on the walls and all I was doing was entering my name at the main menu. That’s a first.

LONGEVITY

F-Zero GX has a lot to keep you busy: tons of game modes, lots of craft collecting, 20-odd tracks and upgrades galore. But the game even transcends the home console experience by allowing you to take your saved game and memory card to your local arcade. If you can find an F-Zero AX machine in your neighborhood, you can unlock even more goodies and show off your hover-racing prowess.

Sadly (sniffs and sobs), Nintendo and SEGA have left out online game play, something that would have made F-Zero GX a super-stellar title and a lot longer lasting. Last I checked it was 2003 ... shouldn’t everything have some sort of online component? I am getting worried that outside of Phantasy Star Online, we will never see a networked game on GameCube.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

If I lived in the future, I would probably aspire to be a hovercraft racer. You get to wear goofy outfits, drive fast in cool ships and listen to bangin’ tunes. It beats a desk job, but until then I will keep flyin’ around in F-Zero GX.

This game is easily the best racing game of any type on GameCube and it’s nice to see another top-notch franchise title from the big N. I hope in the near future there will be some sort of online version of this game -- it begs for it. Until then I am deducting a button from my score. That’ll teach ‘em!

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FINAL GRADE: 4 out of 5 buttons