| Nintendo Reviews Rating: Age 10+ |
| Posted: March 8th, 2004 By: Webmaster-Josh |
| The long awaited sequel to F-Zero X for Nintendo 64 is here exclusively on Nintendo Gamecube. But did it live up to expectations? Read the full review here. |
| Sound This game takes place on many environments, yet there always seems like there are some sounds missing that should be there. Most of the sound effects are good, but some get redundant, and like I said above, sometimes it feels like there could be sound effects when there isn't. Like in Sand Ocean, when that snake thing eats the fish, we could hear the fish struggling, or the snake moving, but we only see it; not hear it. However, the sound effects are only minor flaws, and don't effect the overall feel of the game too much. The music is good, if you like to hear variety. For the most part, the samples are composed to fit the mood, but since there are a lot of levels that use the same music, some feel a little overused. Still, if you play different levels, you will enjoy the music, and it won't seem so redundant. The other cool thing is that on the third lap, the music changes slightly to make it seem a little more intense. This is more creative than Mario Kart's speedy last lap music. There's also different songs for each character in the pilot profiles. That's 30 songs right there alone! The voice samples are great, but this game definitely could have benefited from Dolby Surround. There are times when you just can't make out what they are saying, and you wished subtitles were on. This happens particularly in the Story Mode cutscenes. Overall, these minor things don't take off too much for the score, but I couldn't give this a higher score because there are so many minor things wrong with this. |
| Control Very smooth control, once you get used to it. Loading for the most part is quick, and will have you on the course racing as quick as you can say Captain Falcon. Most people will adjust to the controls, once they know what they are, which makes you wish that there was a tutorial. I didn't know you could boost until I found it out, which helped a lot. I still feel really stupid about it, having never played an F-Zero game before. Anyway, the menu designs are good, but there's one major flaw. If you go to course select from the end of a race, and then you decide you want to go to the main menu, you can't just press B! You have to reload a race, with all the characters, then press Start there and return to the main menu from there. This really bugs me being used to Mario Kart: Double Dash's menu designs being nearly flawless. Another flaw is, you have to keep reloading garage data every time you go select your craft. This is annoying, because if everyone else has already chosen their characters, and you load garage data, then they have to choose again. The game should load garage data automatically. Although all the flaws are in menu design, it's still a big deal because this is something they should have fixed. The overall quality of the game's controls are very good. Although controls are different per character, you will get used to them, just like Super Smash Brothers Melee. Since you can only play as Captain Falcon in Story Mode, players will get used to his controls more than anyone else. Overall, it's flawed, but mainly in the interface. The actual controls save the score from a major slump. |
| Graphics Finally something good to report. The graphics are fantastic! The game can clearly show up to 30 craft at once plus all the amazing backgrounds on the courses. Even though you'll be at some worlds in more than one race, the developers actually made each track look unique. From the start of the first race, I knew this would look good. All the effects and everything else about this game just seems to blend together perfectly. This game even runs in Progressive Scan! The different craft designs is where the score goes up. Each craft design looks original and fits the style of each character. The story mode cutscenes are realistic, and I love the camera angles the developers gave them. Even the characters themselves look nice. But after being used to the game's graphics, I couldn't give this an excellent score. They are very well done, but not a revolution. Other developers should be taking after these graphics, instead of some who have bad graphics designs. Don't take this for granted, you'll appreciate what there is to see in this game! |
| Replay At first, I didn't think this game would have too much replay value. But I was wrong. There's plenty of tracks, in both the regular game and story mode. The game's difficulty challenges you to try both a lot. Even after you beat the tough story mode normally, try beating each chapter on hard and very hard modes. And believe me, they are hard! There's Grand Prix that you can play with different characters, and by winning those, you can get interviewed and it's nice to hear what each character says. You can even unlock a fourth cup making the track total to 20. Oh, and there's tons of characters to choose from, over 30! They are all unlocked by saving tickets to buy their craft, which basically means you're buying them as a playable character. You can read more about them in their biographies. Speaking of tickets, there's a whole shop full of stuff to buy including story mode chapters, characters, ship upgrades and more. What really makes this game cool is the ability to customize, and the ship parts allow you to do that. Customization doesn't stop there! You can build your own craft and race it on track from your garage data. You can build up to four on one Memory Card. There are so many options. Garage data can be used for just about everything including multiplayer modes. You can make your vehicle unique by drawing emblems and placing them appropriately. You can save your best replays in a replay section so you can view them again. Replays are for any craft, and you can even save replays with custom crafts. You can also save ghosts for your own records, and race them again. With all there is to do, including multiplayer mode with four people, this game will keep you coming back for more. The level of difficulty challenges you to get better and better by playing more and more. If you can find a F-Zero AX machine, you can bring your memory card and play its courses. There's plenty to do, and you'll want to do it! |
| Design The game's design is based in the racing genre. This is a solid racing game, with a bit of other elements to keep the pacing fast. It would have been neat to see items instead of boosting. But what is incredible is what they've done with boosting alone. The courses you play early on, won't require boosting as much. But later on, boosting at the right time is important for a win. That means you'll have to choose when to use up all of your boost power, and sometime saving a boost may sacrifice a first-place win, but eliminate the risk of a bad move that costs you the entire race. Strategy in racing has never felt so fun! This is like Mario Kart and Star Wars: Episode One Racer combined. It's fast paced, requires thinking skills, but is always fun. The individual level designs are creative. Unlike Star Wars Racer, each level feels different, even when they are on the same world. And unlike Mario Kart, you'll be coming up with strategies a lot more than blasting people off the course with shells (You can't do that in this game anyway, but you can make other crafts fall off the course with some skill...). The design isn't too arguable, and some people may even prefer this over Mario Kart! |
| Scores |
| Sound 8.1 |
| Control 7.7 |
| Graphics 8.6 |
| Replay 9.6 |
| Design 8.9 |
| 8.6 |
| Final Words Overall, this is a great game with everything a gamer could want. There are minor flaws though, that I felt could have been fixed, and I feel that too many other reviewers out there overlooked them. While some are only minor, others are a big deal. This is one great racing game that I would recommend for a rent first. Unless you've played F-Zero X, like a lot of replay or don't mind playing the same levels with different characters, then you'll be fine. This is a very good game, but there are few who won't like this. At least the price tag is only $20, for those who do like this game! |
 |
 |
