Welcome back to Save State, where the waters flow red with blood. I’m not sure why that’s happening, but I’m sure it’s just a plague or something. I’ve been doing some reorganizing in my house, finding a better way to display my games collection as it’s gotten a bit unwieldy of late. After moving all of my older games to their own set of shelves in the living room, I saw the cover art for F-Zero GX and realized I hadn’t even thought of it in quite some time. Before I knew it, I had already hooked up my Wii to the television and had slotted in both of my old Gamecube’s memory cards.
F-Zero GX is one of those titles that is so good, apparently even Nintendo thinks they can’t top it. F-Zero GX was developed by Amusement Vision, better known nowadays as Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios, the creators of the popular Yakuza series. It was published by Nintendo back in 2003. F-Zero GX is a high speed racing game that contemporary studios have tried to replicate the success of, but even the more successful of these, like Wipeout, have either gone without new titles for over a decade, or simply entertain mechanics that make them not quite as fun to play as F-Zero GX (Redout, specifically).
F-Zero GX’s story mode is that special combination of early 2000s goofy that just worked. In a futuristic sci-fi setting, the F-Zero Grand Prix is sports entertainment taken to its absolute limit, and everyone wants to win. Within seconds of starting up story mode, you’ll be treated to a cutscene of a hulking man in a giant bull costume being grabbed by Dollar Store Sigma from Mega Man X, telling the Emo Bull Mascot that he has to win the Grand Prix or else. Moments after that scene, you see Captain Falcon in full skin-tight regalia walking down the street of a futuristic city and then sneaking into an alley to enter what I can only describe as the Fortress of Falcontude. It’s so delightfully goofy and early 2000s that it’s kind of charming, honestly.
F-Zero GX was released during a time where developers would throw out an idea and fully commit to it, no matter how silly: of course, terrorism can be resolved through a race, of all things, why wouldn’t it? I like to call this level of full devotion to in-universe problem solving the Pokemon Battle Conflict Resolution Theorem. The story mode of F-Zero GX is full of incomprehensibly awesome moments, and even references to the movie Speed that tie into gameplay, forcing you to maintain speed above a certain value or your vehicle instantly explodes. The story mode only had 9 missions, but you get an intro and outro cutscene for each one, and they’re all reasonably challenging so you might find yourself having to redo them a time or two in order to succeed, especially if you’re playing on Very Hard difficulty.
Beyond the entertaining story mode, every character in F-Zero GX is a wild caricature with their own theme song and special movie that plays if you beat a cup on Master mode. There are 5 total cups in the title with 5 or 6 tracks each, though the AX tracks and special characters need to be unlocked by beating the story mode on Very Hard and clearing the existing cups on Master difficulty. Thankfully, though, these were already unlocked by 15-year-old me, so I got to experience them without all that hassle- it always pays to come prepared! While F-Zero GX is fast and frenetic racing in all the best ways, the excellent and intuitive controls are what make this an all-time classic.
Your controls on the tracks are simple: Maneuver with the analog stick, and you can take tight corners by using the analog stick and shoulder buttons to drift. There are also some advanced techniques to help cut sharp corners without having to let off the accelerator, and you can also learn the infamous snaking technique to dramatically increase your speed on straightaways. Though, of course, these techniques aren’t necessary to beat or even 100% the game. The controls are simple to begin with and have more advanced techniques you can pull off if you really want to test the absolute limits of F-Zero GX, which is great for both accessibility and to keep skilled players invested.
The most important thing in F-Zero GX is to learn the tracks and how your vehicle works. If you spent a lot of time playing the story mode, you’re probably excellent at driving the Blue Falcon, but that experience may not directly translate to the Black Bull ship since it’s significantly heavier and has a harder time zipping around corners. On the second lap of any track, you unlock boost power which lets you spend your vehicle’s shields to get more speed. If the shields of your ship get too low, driving into a wall or an opponent attacking you can take you out of the race instantly, so you have this delicate balance of maintaining enough shield to protect yourself from opposing drivers while also spending enough boost to maintain your lead.
On top of having 26 tracks and a challenging story mode, you can also craft your own specialized vehicle in the garage by combining different parts you unlock by racing. You can completely customize your own vehicle, taking control of its handling, acceleration, weight, and maximum speed stats, to fine tune it to be exactly what you want. I vaguely remember years and years ago using a custom vehicle called Frost Lynx G4 to beat Master mode, which was still quite a challenge despite that being a fast vehicle with decent cornering ability. Unlocking custom ship parts from winning races can really help form a custom machine that fits your driving style perfectly.
All in all, F-Zero GX is a racing game, but it’s not just any racing game. It has 25 extremely fast and intricately designed tracks, with a wide variety of colorful characters to fit your interests. There have been many, many challengers in the zero-gravity racing genre, but even 21 years later it’s difficult to say that F-Zero GX has been completely topped. Perhaps, then, that’s why Nintendo has never graced us with another 3D F-Zero title on home consoles: they’re unsure if it can be surpassed either.
With that said, I think that’s enough time waxing poetic with nostalgia. Join us again for another Save State entry in two weeks!