F-Zero GX (Nintendo GameCube, 2003)

F-Zero GX is one of the best racing games I've ever played. With unique, yet intuitive play, thrilling tracks and crisp beautiful visuals, this game is a must have for any racing fan and Wii / Gamecube owner.

GREAT:
The game will continue to surprise you with its depth. It's got the basic multiple difficulties while racing through different cups, like you'd expect from any racing game, but outside of that there's so much more.
TIGHT CONTROLS let you strafe left and right as well as turning. This lets you weave more easily through traffic, catch on-track power ups, or just assist in making a really tight turn.
NASCAR STYLE hordes of cars on the track at once. With 30 racers at the beginning of each track, there's tons of explosions, neck-in-neck finishes, and bitter rivalries as you attempt to work your way through the ranks. You may cringe at first when you get 11th place, but then you realize that somebody else got 27th or 30th... and 11th ain't half bad!
CUSTOM CARS are one of the biggest and most fun features of this game. If you participate in and complete a cup (you don't even have to place in the top 3) you will earn tickets (money) and unlock a car part. Using these parts you can construct a car that flies just the way you like it. And then you can trick it out to your liking!
CUSTOM EMBLEMS make your car truly unique. Sure, there are a few pretty good-looking stock emblems that you can paste across your car (at any angle you please, might I add), but the best part is when you lovingly craft your very own logo and stick it on your car. With a robust paint-program in game, the sky's the limit with how cool your car looks. Add this to the fact that set any (yes any) color to be the base coat for each of your car parts, and you'll be flying in style.
DOZENS OF RACERS to unlock. While the art style is very, very cheesy (think super-hero anime), each racer has his own personality and backstory, complete with his own car. Of course, you can put any racer into your own car, completing the combination that fits your personality.
THE SHEER SPEED becomes a huge satisfying part of this game as your commend your own reflexes. You'll occasionally travel at over 2000kmph, flying through 90-degree turns, and when you don't mess it up, it's very, very gratifying.
WIDESCREEN mode is one of the game's options, something rather rare for the Gamecube age. Especially when playing vertical split-screen with a friend, you'll really appreciate this feature.

MEH:
THE DIFFICULTY, while challenging and fun in its own right, is often just down-right unfair. Because of the game's depth, you'll find shortcuts and new tricks to push your car into first place, but the game is basically un-finishable without them. You really have to get "stupid-good" at this game in order to beat it, and that can be frustrating.
THE STORY MODE has a few convoluted tracks, a stupid storyline, and you're limited to using Captain Falcon and his car (say goodbye to your custom machine). It's got some cool cutscenes, but is generally more frustrating than it is fun.
LIMITED MULTIPLAYER holds this game's LAN party lifespan back. With only 15 tracks and no Co-operative mode, it's only good for a few hours until you've seen all the content you can see in multiplayer.

SUMMARY:
Don't let the game's age fool you. It's gameplay designs and visuals are at least as good as anything on the Wii these days. Fun, challenging, and will give you hours of play.

This game took the original F-Zero and completely turned up the volume by about 300%! It's the same old F-Zero racing, but with new graphics and gameplay. The levels are so intense, with sharp turns, jumps, tubes and there will be times were you are racing on a winding cylinder like structure that some people are racing on the top...some are on the sides...and some are on the BOTTOM! The 3D capabilities make this game so much more enjoyable. Also, the cars are uniquely designed to their drivers and have different attributes. The story mode is alright, but sometimes they make you complete some pretty bogus missions just to advance. What's great is that there are a lot of characters and race cars to choose from, several different modes and even a mode where you can construct your own racer. So the graphics are great, but what about the gameplay? Well, it's fast...super fast...this game can get going so fast sometimes that you might forget to blink. There is always a ton of other racers on the tracks and the tracks are all so unique and like nothing you've ever experienced in a racing game before. I think that fans of the old one will enjoy this one more, just because of its enhance presentation and game play. The controls are very easy for anyone, by the way. Also, if you enjoy racing games in general, you may enjoy F-Zero because of it's individual style and uniqueness - it's not the same old car racing in the streets or on a track. Another thing I loved about this game was the ability to bump the other racers in an attempt to take them out of the race completely! It's just a wild game and it's great when you're taking on your friends! I highly recommend this game!

I bought this game because I've played F-Zero X on N64 emulators and really enjoyed it. When I found out there's an F-Zero for the GameCube I had to have it! The courses are awesome, the speed feels great, and the custom machine creation is fun. It's harder than F-Zero X as the turns are sharper and the jumps are much harder to land. I didn't really enjoy story mode. Practice mode is fun, and battle mode (multi player) is awesome and super intense! 4 players on F-Zero GX is so much fun! I like how everything is more fun, challenging, and interesting than F-Zero X was (don't get me wrong X is great). Also, the stuff you should be able to see (i.e. speed boosts) actually show up with enough time to steer toward them! This is one of my favorite games! Definitely the best racing game I've ever played. Great for any speed freak!

How I know that a lot of people will be mad at me for saying this but F-Zero GX is twenty times better than the original. I mean, the original may have been good when it came out and everything, but lets face it, the original just isn't exciting. It's all flat and you die very easily and the graphics are terrible. This new game, F-Zero GX is way better. The courses are in 3-D and the graphics are sweet. The Nintendo 64 version of F-Zero was great to because it had good, 3-D maps and other cool features, but I have to say that GX is the best F-Zero game ever. I play it constantly! F-Zero GX also has other cool features. You can build you own racer with your own emblems, you can choose from about a billion different racers already designed, and there's a story mode. The story mode is difficult, but the game is rated T for Teen and most teenagers should be able to pull it off. The story mode is very fun too. There's tons of levels! There are also tons of different courses with different difficulties. There's a course there you race around this tube in a lava like area and there's a corse with three different roads to choose from. Choose the one that will get you to the end the quickest! And I still can't get over how totally sweet the graphics are. It would be really really cool if they made a version of this game for the Wii. This game is deffinitely a good buy and it can be purchased pretty cheap. Good Luck beating the Grand Prix!

I don't usually play racing games except for a rare few. F-Zero is among those rare few. This game is intense. It has excellent graphics, challenging races, and furious speeds. This game is great for people who can handle intense speed and love the old F-Zero gang. Captain Falcon, Black Shadow, Samurai Goroh, and many more old and new faces are up for racing after you unlock and purchase them by going through the story mode. You can even make your own F-Zero machine (minus a big cut to your memory card). The challenge will come from the races and computers because the controller layout is virtually flawless. You will never have a problem with the controller. Although the story mode is not very good, it is good enough for a racing game. You don't play this kind of game for a story, you play it for the races. This game gave me great respect toward the Gamecube because it proved what the Cube could handle and offer. This game will take you time to get used to but it is well worth it. You just have to play it more than once. The story alone will keep you busy for days. This is definetly a must have.