[August] F-Zero games

[Mofoman]

Playing through F Zero GX again myself, trying to finally complete the story mode, as well as the master difficulty.

I like F Zero GX, but to me it's nowhere near to Nintendo's pinnacle of the series(like many of their greatest game's it arived on N64/64DD) F Zero X with the F Zero eXpansion Kit for the 64DD. This was to me the ultimate F zero game with Miyamoto's touch and finesse, and Ead's beatiful course design and flawless control system, the fact that you got expansion cups, and a fully fledged EAD track creator with the 64DD disk makes it the ultimate F zero, I still make and swap track coordinates with friends in japan all the time, and we have time trials on them too. It was an amzing game, and overlooked by many, any passionate F zero fanatic like myself should definetly grab a 64DD to experience the game with the expansion kit, it's brilliant!!

Second on my list would be the original Super Famicom game, amazingly bright and a quatum leap forward in video game graphics at the time, it still gives me that rush every time I play it, also Miyamoto polished this and X on the 64 till they were perfect for their generation. There's another Super Famicom game with just a few tracks that any fan should play too, though the majority will have to play through emulation, and that game is F ZERO 2 BS grand prix, it was a satellaview title, that is a brilliant little diversion for any fan of the original snes game.

I liked the Gba titles, but imho F Zero GX beats them hands down, the GBa games are great and I enjoyed them, but I think that a Ds game would be more like X and satisfy my yearning for another EAD title in the series.

I think the Gba games would go in this order: F-Zero Advance, F Zero:Falcon Densetsu, and F Zero Climax. Though the games all have their moments of brilliance, and I feel they could have made one highly polished Gba title with all of the best moments of each of them. I particularly like the japanese F zero:Falcon densetsu with the E reader cards,,of which I bought a couple of boxes to get all the cards to get the extra tracks, challenges, and cars, and I felt this added a whole new dimension to the game, and like Super mario Advance:Mario 3 with the e reader ard levels, you really have to have the whole setup and cards to get the most out of these amazing games!! The Gba games have Super Famicom moments, but none of them manage to capture the perfection of the original.

After I bash though Gx again though, I am going back to F zero X and expansion kit.

Sorry for raving on, but these are among my favourite game/series of all time, and I love to discuss them. I also have an idea, why don't we ressurect a new Time trial thread for each of the games, and get F zero mania month really going?? We could have a competition for GX, X, and the Super famicom original. Anyone up for it??

[Skull Commander]

Spurred on by this thread I fired up the forst one on the Snes for the first time in a while. Still looks lovely and the music is amazing. Special mention to the Duran Duran sounding piece that plays when you finish the cup!

I only ever owned the first GBA one, but I felt it didn't have the magic of previous versions. The feel just wasn't there for me.

I loved the N64 one, but last time I played it, I felt that it had aged a lot.

The gamecube one is a strange one. I like it but it's far too tough for me.

While I'm here, who does everyone pick? I like Pico (the green one). Always picked him since the early days!

[Tetsuo]

Mine are:

F-Zero: Fire Stingray (it's the fastest)
F-Zero X: White Cat (one of the best for grip and acceleration)
F-Zero GX: Captain Falcon (good all-rounder)

[Mus]

F Zero X with the F Zero eXpansion Kit for the 64DD. This was to me the ultimate F zero game with Miyamoto's touch and finesse, and Ead's beatiful course design and flawless control system, the fact that you got expansion cups, and a fully fledged EAD track creator with the 64DD disk makes it the ultimate F zero

Thanks for the info - that sounds fantastic! I never knew there was a track editor for F-Zero! I *must* play this!

[kryss]

You'll have to get yourself a 64DD then. And I need to spend more time with mine...

[Mofoman]

Dusted off al the game modes in Gx with more ease than in f zero x, the courses were a bit harder to master but wondefully crafted, but something felt wrong about the ai, it was definetly the sega touch that did this I feel, it was more arcadey, than other f zero's , still a sublimne game, but I yearn from ead and miyamoto to get this back and work on that gorgeous engine Amusent Vision done, it's great collabarative work, and nagoshi done well, but he couldn't quite get the Nintendo feel to me, and my main gripe is the story mode is jsut ridiculous, it makes no sense at all, and is pitched at too high a difficulty some of the tasks are just silly.

Anyway, I'll finish it, and get back to ther F zero's.

[Supergoal]

I wonder if there will be another in the series. I'm not sure how they can continue it to take it to the next level. Would be nice though.

[charlesr]

So Max Velocity then. You tap A to straighten out corners. Do you have to time it just right so you are pointing at the exit or do you just end up tapping a few times on the way through? And how about drift? How does it work in this version?

The AI looks pretty dirty so far.

[kryss]

I just used to bash the button until I was going the way I wanted to. I thought it was a stupid idea doing that and still do.

[charlesr]

That was my worry. If I have to tap the button the whole way through, this game is going to be rubbish. Why didn't anyone tell me about this lameness before I purchased?

How about the drift triggers? Any use?

[Tetsuo]

I always thought you let go of the acceleration to turn corners? You'll move ever-so slightly slower, but get maximum turn and grip. That's how you play it in the SFC version anyway, but I think the tap technique also works and was brought to the fore in Maximum Velocity, so it might be different.

[Mofoman]

I always thought you let go of the acceleration to turn corners? You'll move ever-so slightly slower, but get maximum turn and grip. That's how you play it in the SFC version anyway, but I think the tap technique also works and was brought to the fore in Maximum Velocity, so it might be different.

You have to use brake in the SFC version, it's that simple, you also have to do other tasks with the humping early on in the game relativey speaking, whereas with F zero Advance, the tapping technique pretty much works throughout ,lol. Thats why I disliked the title as much though to get better times etc..there are different techniques you can use.

The SFC version is a classic Miyamoto Nintendo game, classic game,waaay ahead of it's time, unfortunately the GBA title is a rather average interpretation of the first game. It's still a ok game but doesn't come close to the original.

[charlesr]

I'm still not happy with this A button mechanic in Max Vel.
What's the mechanic in GP Legends like? Perhaps I'll pick that up instead. Anyone want to try this one for what I paid? £5+p&p I think.

[kryss]

GP Legends has the best controllability of the three GBA games in my opinion (which I did say a few pages back I think...)

[Mofoman]

GP Legends has the best controllability of the three GBA games in my opinion (which I did say a few pages back I think...)

You did and I may agree to an extent, but I think that Gp and Climax, both have good controls compared to maximum velocity but each offers a totally different experience.

None of the Gba games are amazing, but they are still nice games, just that it's time Nintendo's EAD took the series back to it's rooots and gave it a brand new game on DS or wii that sticks to the bright original but more importantly gives that triple a nintendo experience like the first 2 games.

I would agree with Kryss though, if you don't like velocitys controls, and don't like the time trialling aspect of it, then go onto falcon Densetsu, or Gp legends as it's called here, but the japanese version with the e reader support makes the title actually right up there with an amazing F zero with the expansion it offered, but the UK/us versions are just a decent game.

Climax is one I am looking forward to going back too, as I realy enjoyed alot of parts of it, also this japanese exclusive game, is closer to X in it's style and apprroach, and has a tarck editor too, for people who can't affoard a 64dd to make f zero x tracks, you can make thirty mode 7 ones on the jap exclusive climax. The problem i had with climax is it's developed with another company, Suzak who done it pretty much 50/50 with Nintendo, and you can see the difference in quality over the whole game this has, some of it's amazing, other bits you know just weren't sone by nintendo. I'm looking forward to playing it again though.

Started playing Climax again, so an edit here, just whittled through some of it's features again, and played a cup and I must admit this is much, much better than I remembered it, it's actually well worth a good look by F zero fanatics like myself .

Here is the website, as you can see it's more like X and GX and has alot of things you can do like battles, no crash modes and other challenges, emblem editor, and also the track editor too. http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/bftj/index.html