I've just been to the Namco Arcade in the Meadowhall at Sheffield and was suprised to see that they'd finally gotten hold of a F-Zero AX arcade machine.
To cut a long story short i was nothing sort of completely unimpressed. I've been playing the GX version since the day of Japanese release and after putting at least a couple of hours for nearly every day since into the game its become my favorite Gamecube title and probably my favorite game this year. However quite a few things spoiled the AX experience as far as i'm concerned.
- Uncomfortable Seat. Basically the back of the seat is tilted at such an angle that for me at least its impossible to sit comfortably. Unless you sit up at a funny angle, getting back ache in the process you feel like you're sitting in a luge.
- Tilting Seat. Definitely the worst thing about the AX machine IMO. I'm sure that the main joys of playing the arcade game, as in the home game is to knock 100th of a sec from your laptimes. To do this you need to be able to achieve pixel perfect control of the craft. This is near enough impossible when you're being thrown around by the chair. After a couple of credits i unbuckled the seat belt which locks the chair in place. A vast improvement.
- Steering Wheel. Now i know this is all down to personal preference but i felt the steering wheel didn't give anything like the same precision control as the GameCube controller does. I thought at first it might just be a case of getting used to it but after ?15 worth of credits things were no better. Also the airbrakes didn't work as well as they do in the home version. To perform a slide in GX you simply hold down both airbrakes and the craft will slide effortlessly around corners and retain its speed. This appears not to work in the AX incarnation and instead it appears you must use the normal brake and either the left or right airbrake to induce a slide. I guess this isn't a case of better or worse...just different. Its just that i much prefer the GX way of doing things.
Now before anyone bollocks me for being negative i can assure you that i'm not. No one wanted to love the arcade version more than i did and i'm a huge Sega and Nintendo fanboy. Its just that to me at least, the arcade version neither lived up to my expectations or the fantastic Gamecube F-Zero GX. Given the choice of a GC and a copy of the game or my own deluxe arcade cabinet i would choose the GameCube everytime.
To cut a long story short i was nothing sort of completely unimpressed. I've been playing the GX version since the day of Japanese release and after putting at least a couple of hours for nearly every day since into the game its become my favorite Gamecube title and probably my favorite game this year. However quite a few things spoiled the AX experience as far as i'm concerned.
- Uncomfortable Seat. Basically the back of the seat is tilted at such an angle that for me at least its impossible to sit comfortably. Unless you sit up at a funny angle, getting back ache in the process you feel like you're sitting in a luge.
- Tilting Seat. Definitely the worst thing about the AX machine IMO. I'm sure that the main joys of playing the arcade game, as in the home game is to knock 100th of a sec from your laptimes. To do this you need to be able to achieve pixel perfect control of the craft. This is near enough impossible when you're being thrown around by the chair. After a couple of credits i unbuckled the seat belt which locks the chair in place. A vast improvement.
- Steering Wheel. Now i know this is all down to personal preference but i felt the steering wheel didn't give anything like the same precision control as the GameCube controller does. I thought at first it might just be a case of getting used to it but after ?15 worth of credits things were no better. Also the airbrakes didn't work as well as they do in the home version. To perform a slide in GX you simply hold down both airbrakes and the craft will slide effortlessly around corners and retain its speed. This appears not to work in the AX incarnation and instead it appears you must use the normal brake and either the left or right airbrake to induce a slide. I guess this isn't a case of better or worse...just different. Its just that i much prefer the GX way of doing things.
Now before anyone bollocks me for being negative i can assure you that i'm not. No one wanted to love the arcade version more than i did and i'm a huge Sega and Nintendo fanboy. Its just that to me at least, the arcade version neither lived up to my expectations or the fantastic Gamecube F-Zero GX. Given the choice of a GC and a copy of the game or my own deluxe arcade cabinet i would choose the GameCube everytime.
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