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E3'2003: F-Zero GX Preview
Stephen Leyton
27/05/2003
Headed up by one of Sega’s finest development teams, Amusement Vision; Nintendo have entrusted them to develop the latest title to one of their strongest franchises.
E3 gave us the opportunity to check out a virtually complete version of F-Zero GX in action; suffice to say, fans are in for the most exhilarating race of their lives.
Headed up by one of Segaās finest development teams, Amusement Vision; Nintendo have entrusted them to develop the latest title to one of their strongest franchises. With a team comprising of some of the key developers of the classic Daytona series, F-Zero GX will simply blow your mind with its fast paced action that is closely reminiscent to the goodāold 16-bit days.
For those of you unfamiliar to the F-Zero universe, let us ease you in to the pure class gaming youāll be expecting when itās released later this year. The basics are very simple; pilot a high-speed hovercraft along a vast selection of high-speed, vibrant and action-packed tracks, hopefully finishing first out of a total of 30 competitor ships. Since its incarnation on the SNES, F-Zero has been a true gaming classic; with an updated release on the Nintendo 64, and now a GameCube version that will link up to an enhanced arcade version powered by the Triforce Board - a collaboration between Nintendo, Sega and Namco.
On display at this yearās E3 we got the chance to take control, and hopefully prove that our many years of gaming are still up to spec.
3, 2, 1, GO!
The lights are green, and the race begins; the first thing that grips you with F-Zero GX is the pure speed, it really is the fastest game we have played to date, at times it almost becomes uncontrollable, however with a certain amount of skill and practice everyone will be able to master the controls and speed. With over 30 contenders racing at once the screen becomes jam packed with action, the tracks are huge, filled with cork-screws and 360° turns; at first it seams impossible to finish the race at all, let alone in a good rank. After at least three attempts we got to grips with the controls, mastering the sliding is vital as there are so many 90° turns that require you to pull this technique to perfection, stopping you from crashing into walls and thus slipping positions.
The control system is relatively simple, āAā allows you to accelerate āBā obliviously allows you to brake. Using the āL & Rā buttons you can make your ship lean to either side. This technique is vital if you are to complete the course without crashing into the sides and falling of the edge as they allow you to perform incredibly tight and fast turns. The āZā button is also used to perform your Nitro burst.
At speeds of up to 1,000kph, hurtling over vertical drops that swoop down to 90° turns, levelling out through a twisting and turning corkscrew youāll certainly feel your stomach rising into your mouth on numerous occasions. The speeds throughout are crazy, and dotted throughout the tracks are speed boosts that make the action that little bit more frantic (if it wasnāt enough already!). At the start of each new lap you are given a special Nitro Burst that gives you around five seconds of manic speed to hurtle past your opponents, these need to be used wisely as you can easily lose control of your ship with this feature activated ā“ itās classic F-Zero material and fans will instantly become accustomed to what lies in store.
With all that speed you could easily dismiss the backgrounds in F-Zero GX, simply because you really donāt have time to look at anything bar the few meters in front of you. However we could quite honestly say the environments are some of the nicest we have seen on the GameCube to date! The backgrounds are huge, comprising of fantastic architecture that helps to create the futuristic look and feel of the game, complete with the stereotypical brightly coloured neon lights ā“ what would a futuristic racer be without them!!! The draw distance is also quite remarkable, with everything that is happening from what we played, there was not one point where scenery or objects suddenly popped up? Nintendo fans will simply squeal with delight the first time that they notice R.O.B hanging around on one of the games circuitsā¦
Although the version we played at E3 only had a select few courses and characters to choose from, we have been assured from Nintendo that the final game will feature a massive thirty characters to choose from. Our old time favourites include; Captain Falcon, Dr Stewart, Pico and Samurai Goroh.
As in previous F-Zero games, each ship is ranked in a number of different attributes including; Ship Mass, Ship Body Grade, Ship Boost Grade and Ship Grip Grade. Each of these features will effect how effective your ship performs in each race, a bulky ship will sustain most collisions but will most likely have a lesser boost grade.
One of the most interesting features to come from the Triforce collaboration is the link-up features between the Arcade and GameCube version of F-Zero. Whilst only a few details have been confirmed we do know that you can buy a License Card that will allow you to store your best times and high scores from the arcade for future use. You can also stick your GameCube memory card in the arcade version to download more information for home use.
