RetroActive #29: F-Zero X/GX (Live) Official Discussion

NWR Interactive > Podcast Discussion

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ClexYoshi:
My only access to this game was my friend's copy which got mauled by his dog. I do have F-Zero X I can talk about, but I do have GX memories I can share between watching one of my favorite Let's plays of it and my own memories of the game.

Honestly, F-Zero as a whole is a tad bit too fast for my liking, although I still really like the games for their cheesy cyberpunk aesthetic, hard rock and electronica scores, and very... bizarre tie-ins with the Star Fox games. [such as Octoman being in Star Fox: Command, that same game having an ending where Falco Lombardi becomes a G-Zero Grand Prix pilot, and The whole... James McCloud thing.

I also remember with GX im particular that while Vehicle Customization was fun, I would get controller tossing infuriated with the story mode where suddenly you'd have a bomb strapped to your car and if you hit the walls you instantly died. I also remember my friend always picking courses I could barely complete a lap on without falling off. of course, my friend was also a hyper aggressive prick and was a master of the spin attack.

F-Zeor X I picked up on the virtual console a while ago and played it some on and off. I think I really enjoy the 60 frames per second, even if the game looks super basic. with a game that fast, you REALLY need the smoothness there to make it not another exercise in frustration. I've been playing a lot of death race for preparation for retro-active, because I want to understand how the hell my friend got so good where every time I'd dare try to pass him unless it was in a situation where the track was split off into segments that he would spin attack me EVERY TIME WITHOUT FAIL.

Weetrick:
Did anybody watch AGDQ (Awesome Games Done Quick) last week? It's an annual week long speedrunning marathon for charity.

A player by the name of CGN0 did an absolutely mindblowing speedrun of F-Zero GX's story mode on very hard mode. My feeble mind can't even begin to comprehend what he is doing with his hands. He must be a cyborg.

You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvrepvisxA0

Ceric:
I keep saying I"ll go back to this but I'm worried it will crash my Wii like it did my Cube.

pokepal148:
F-Zero X is an interesting case of gameplay over graphics to it's greatest extreme from what I've played of it.

Weetrick:

F-Zero X - "Alright, First Place!"
NOTE: I played this on a Wii with a GameCube controller

I used to love this game back in the day. I never owned a copy, but I would play at a friend's house and I'm pretty sure I rented it about 3 times. Here are some of my thoughts:

The Difficulty:
This game is difficult! The controls take a while to master, especially when combined with vehicle selection and tuning. I started doing a little better when I discovered that favoring max speed over acceleration helps a lot. Even so, I failed Expert Jack Cup one too many times and got anxious to start GX. I gave up and used the code to unlock the bonus tracks, just so I could play them before moving on. No surprises - Joker Cup is super hard and X Cup is just insane. I'm assuming most people never saw the bonus tracks because you have to beat the other 3 cups on expert mode, which isn't easy!

Track Design:
As a lifelong roller coaster geek, I've always loved F-Zero's track designs. Many of them revolve around a single signature element (or "whoa!" moment) like a giant loop, jump or half pipe. I remember being blown away by the tracks that have you racing inside or outside a tube! Revisiting the game, I'm still impressed by a lot of the tracks.

Framerate vs Graphics:
I'm impressed that the N64 can handle such a fast, smooth framerate even with 30 racers on screen. It still plays great to this day. The graphics aren't so hot though. The vehicles look plain and the backgrounds are almost nonexistent. They did the right thing by focusing on framerate and gameplay, but the graphics were hurt badly because of it.

Vehicle/Character Design:
I love the over-the-top vehicle and character design. I mean, come on - the cast includes a space monkey, a space T-Rex, a space octopus, an old man, and James McCloud! Awesome.

The Character Portraits:
Sweet Baby Jesus, the character portraits are awful! (I'm talking about the smaller face portraits, not the full character drawings) They have about 15 pixels and are unrecognizable without squinting.

The Music:
I remember this game having a metal soundtrack but damn, it is so metal. Some songs even have double bass pedals and harsh vocals! Cheesy as hell, but songs like Mute City and Big Blue are Nintendo classics.

Overall, I had a great time replaying F-Zero X. It holds up surprisingly well for an N64 game. I was worried that my nostalgia would end up letting me down, but it didn't!

I'll return with my GX impressions once that game beats me down...

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