E3 2003: F-Zero GX Hands-On

Gamers who experienced the original thrill ride are in for a major treat with the next installment of the venerable futuristic racing series. Impressions plus the new screenshots.

When news first broke about Sega handling the development of one of Nintendo's key franchises, the whole of the gaming world seemed to stop moving for a minute.

For Nintendo to farm out one of their big franchises and entrust it to the capable hands of Sega spoke volumes to the amount of faith they showed in them. And with Sega's track record of providing highly addictive gaming of all styles and flavors, and in perfecting the high speed arcade racing formula, who better to handle the development of F-Zero GX?

Developed by Amusement Vision, F-Zero GX not only lives up to the hype, but smashes it into another dimension! The game sports super fast racing, intricate course designs, Great graphics with beautifully detailed environments and some cool futuristic neon lighting effects.

The super fast sense of speed and dizzying long jump scenes will have gamers going "WOW" just from witnessing this game in action and have some people experiencing motion sickness from all the fast paced twisting and turning of the tracks, as well as the high speed hovering over the insides and outsides of rotating pipes.

The game's music was pretty much standard techno fare, but some very catchy techno music. I was a bit disappointed to hear the Mute City theme changed as it was always my favorite F-Zero theme, but since Sega has a fantastic track record with game music, I'm definitely looking forward to hearing what they've graced F-Zero fans with this time.

Admittedly, one of the coolest surprises in F-Zero GX to me was at the start of Port Town when the camera sweeped and panned through the course before the start of the race, revealing a giant Nintendo R.O.B. robot (NES robot peripheral of old for the new-age baby boomers out there). Standing tall at a later portion of Port Town, seeing ol R.O.B. just brought a feeling of nostalgia to me and made Port Town my favorite course in the game.

Playing the game in one of Nintendo's small theatre rooms with a steering wheel controller was definitely quite an experience. The wheel took a little getting used to at first since I've never played an F-Zero game with one, but a minute later I was twisting and turning the wheel like a maniac trying to keep up with the tricky course designs and hunting for Turbo Boosts to try and keep up with the lead racers.

Even though I preferred the Gamecube controller, the game controlled very well with the steering wheel and played like a dream.

Playing in one of the small theatre room was great as every element of the game could be appreciated more thoroughly especially the soundtrack which could be heard quite clearly as opposed to playing at one of the standard setups on the main floor with hordes of people crowding around you and tons of other game sounds just drowning out the game.

F-Zero GX contains 20 courses and has over 30 pilots to choose from, making the selection process a bit tough in the beginning. Using your memory card with the F-Zero arcade unit, you can do some pretty cool things like race your home built machines in the arcade, or transfer new pilots or machine parts that can be used for customization on the Gamecube. With such a rich set of options it's too bad arcades are pretty dried up around these parts, I'd really dig utilizing such a feature!

The E3 version was simply incredible and we're really looking forward to getting my hands on the final product. Mere words cannot describe the amazement that is F-Zero GX and it makes owning a Gamecube just for this title worth it.

With its superb and highy addictive gameplay mechanics, wicked level designs, graphics and great sense of speed, F-Zero GX is definitely one to look out for later in the year.

Stay tuned for exclusive video coverage of F-Zero GX later.

Joseph Jackson
Staff Writer, Kikizo Games