F-Zero GX

North American box art.
Developer(s)	Amusement Vision
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release Date(s)
GameCube	NA: August 25, 2003 JP: July 25, 2003 EU: October 31, 2003 AU: October 2003 KO: March 6, 2004
GameCube	NA: August 25, 2003 JP: July 25, 2003 EU: October 31, 2003 AU: October 2003 KO: March 6, 2004
Platform(s)
Classification(s)	This game was labelled as Player's Choice
Genre(s)	Racing
Rating(s)
ESRB	05
PEGI	01
CERO	01
USK	01
ACB	02

F-Zero GX is a racing video game for the GameCube released in mid-2003. It was the first in the series to be developed by Amusement Visions (a department of Sega) and was correspondingly released in the arcades as F-Zero AX as part of the Triforce System.

It is the fourth game in the series, with previous installments appearing on the SNES, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Advance. F-Zero GX includes various racers both old and new, and features an all new story mode that places the multitude of characters within quality-made CGI movies. It's often considered one of the hardest games featured on the console, and arguably one of the hardest racers, partly due because of the story mode, which will give players a struggle early on.

Gameplay

F-Zero GX retains the essence of the series perfectly. Each race features a whopping 29 cars at one time. Players will have to use their wits to both outrace the opposing forces, while maneuvering the challenging courses and using speed boosts at appropriate times, recharging when needed.

Time attack is usually present in racing games and thus is the case with F-Zero GX. In this mode, you are able to test your own time on tracks. You are the only vehicle on the track. If you manage a certain time, you are able to challenge a Staff Ghost of the respective track.

In VS. Mode, you'll be able to go up against three of your friends with the need of four controllers. In story mode, you'll watch cinematic movies that revolve around pivotal characters like Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh and Black Shadow.

Using tickets you've won by completing various missions and races you can purchase objects that can be attributed to your vehicle. In all there are over 8,000 possible combinations. Once you've found your perfect vehicle you can then upload it to your memory card and then race with it in the arcade video game F-Zero AX by placing it in a specific slot.

Turbo boosting

Turbo boosting cannot be performed during the first lap of the three lap courses. Rather, it can only be done during the second and third laps. According to the game's instruction manual this is because of the "marginal distances between all participating machines at the beginning of the race". Each turbo boost you perform will deplete your energy, which also happens to be your health. So it poses as a large risk.

If you're confident that you won't be harmed, then it's suggested that you use it as much as you want, though eventually you won't be able to use it any longer. This is when you should find a power strip to recharge your energy. If the power strip is long, then continuously use the turbo boost. Turbo boosting off of a ledge will send you extremely far.

Characters and vehicles

Various vehicles from F-Zero GX, with the Blue Falcon in the front.

In all there are 30 playable characters, plus an additional 11 unlockable characters. They each have an individual personality and a vehicle whose stats varies. The characters in the game include (in order of vehicle number):

• 01: Mighty Gazelle - Red Gazelle
• 02: Jody Summer - White Cat
• 03: Dr. Stewart - Golden Fox
• 04: Baba - Iron Tiger
• 05: Samurai Goroh - Fire Stingray
• 06: Pico - Wild Goose
• 07: Captain Falcon - Blue Falcon
• 08: Octoman - Deep Claw
• 09: Mr. EAD - Great Star
• 10: James McCloud - Little Wyvern
• 11: Billy - Mad Wolf
• 12: Kate Alen - Super Piranha
• 13: Zoda - Death Anchor
• 14: Jack Levin - Astro Robin
• 15: Bio Rex - Big Fang
• 16: The Skull - Sonic Phantom
• 17: Antonio Guster - Green Panther
• 18: Beastman - Hyper Speeder
• 19: Leon - Space Angler
• 20: Super Arrow - King Meteor
• 21: Mrs. Arrow - Queen Meteor
• 22: Gomar & Shioh - Twin Noritta
• 23: Silver Neelsen - Night Thunder
• 24: Michael Chain - Wild Boar
• 25: Blood Falcon - Blood Hawk
• 26: John Tanaka - Wonder Wasp
• 27: Draq - Mighty Typhoon
• 28: Roger Buster - Mighty Hurricane
• 29: Dr. Clash - Crazy Bear
• 30: Black Shadow - Black Bull

The unlockable characters are as follow:

• 0. Deathborn - Dark Schneider
• 31. Don Genie - Fat Shark
• 32. Digi-Boy - Cosmic Dolphin
• 33. Dai San Gen - Pink Spider
• 34. Spade - Magic Seagull
• 35. Dai Goroh - Silver Rat
• 36. Princia Ramode - Spark Moon
• 37. Lily Flyer - Bunny Flash
• 38. PJ - Groovy Taxi
• 39. QQQ - Rolling Turtle
• 40. Phoenix - Rainbow Phoenix

These characters are unlocked by playing F-Zero GX's story mode, or by inserting your memory card into an F-Zero AX game machine, then playing as that specific character.

F-Zero AX

F-Zero AX is basically an arcade port of GX, but with some exclusive tracks and vehicles, which could be unlocked in GX if you took your GameCube memory card with GX game data on it and inserted it into the arcade machine. The idea was for the most part, well received well, but unfortunately for fans, the arcade cabinet is very rare.

But, during the month of March, 2013, hackers have revealed F-Zero AX was hidden inside F-Zero GX all along. Using a specific code, players can now use a cheating device, such as Action Replay, to access F-Zero AX, without even leaving the house.

External links

• Official F-Zero GX/AX website
• F-Zero AX found in F-Zero GX news article