Before F-Zero GX had any movies or pictures out, and when it was announced Amusement Vision (you’re surprised this game is hard and you’ve played Super Monkey Ball? 
Nah, it probably has more to do that you thought the difficulty would be more fun.) Where was my thought? lunges out the window and catches it onto furiously, forcing it back into his head as it kicks and screams There now, yes, when it was announced AV was doing the game, I kind of had a quandary. I really didn’t know which play style I prefered. The 2D, SNES and GBA F-Zero’s or the F-Zero X-style. Now I know prefer the 2D type.
Its not that I don’t like the F-Zero X-style, far from it. I really enjoyed F-Zero X, but actually, difficulty is something I feel was improved in GX. Because despite all the amazingly unbelievable twists and corkscrew design of X I didn’t really much intensity, mostly because the entire game wasn’t very challenging. I really like how much detail Sega put into all the tracks as well, now they feel well and truly NUTS! With all the stuff you’re racing by…it can feel like your inside a techno kaleidoscope.
But even with that, I still think something falls short in the intensity factor. In the SNES (and the SFC update) F-Zero and Maximum Velocity, the emphasis is more on traps and enforcing your position. You can’t kill enemy racers, at least not with any precision, so that’s all moot. There’s a vicious and downright cruel energy I feel that fueled the original F-Zero when you crashed, the close-up, the pull-away, the sharp turn-around, with the words “YOU LOSE” prominently displayed against the screen. It kind of felt like the game was saying, “YOU LOSER.” I think the carnival, rollercoaster trackstyle of X and GX takes away from the stark, more minimal presentation of the 2D games. When you lose, it doesn’t seem to fit as well into the theme. Its like F-Zero mixed with Sonic, and I think the deliberately evil tone of the originals fit in better, it gave the game a kind of demonic intensity, whereas this feels more like you’re falling out of your seatbelt at Space Mountain in Disneyland.
I also like techno midi much better than…butt rock, is it? Still, I feel its important that the difficulty fit the tone and atmosphere of the game as closely as it can. That’s one reason I think Working Designs is so damn stupid, as Lunars are much easier to enjoy in their light-hearted, lackadaisical way, without a stupidly hard boss to refight over and over, or overpowed regular enemies. Smash Brothers is another good example, the higher difficulty modes and challenges can be extremely challenging, but the context is hilarious. People screaming as they get flung back with extreme whiplash, cartoon-style whams and blams like Looney Tunes gone videogame crazy, and twinkling out in the distance like Team Rocket when Satoshi and friends prevail once again, or when you hit the screen in front. When you die on some of those really frustrating challenges, it seems like Looney Tune Law.
But getting back to F-Zero GX, actually the Story Mode is my favorite part and I really wish the entire game had been centered more around it, as I enjoy it more than any of the other parts. I didn’t really have any trouble with the main Grand Prix mode until the third difficulty level. But this may be because I mastered the arcade version before I started playing GX and so had nearly all of the unlockables relatively early in the game. That one AX car that’s so good for modding, I guess, could really help out.
Anyway, it looks like you’ve given up on the game, but if you’re still interested, I recommend choosing cars that shore up your greatest weakness and almost nothing else. If its falling off tracks, get a really good grip car to the exclusion of all else, from your discussion, it really doesn’t like its cornering, but same idea there, if its losing energy and blowing up, get a really tough car and just improve in your other areas until you can drop the handicap. That’s how I’ve played both X and GX/AX.
Again, don’t get me wrong, I think GX is great stuff, but I really would have preferred bringing the more trap and track-danger oriented nature of the 2D games into 3D, and I think this is why I enjoy the Story Mode more. Maybe there’s a reason why that doesn’t work, because maybe in 3D you expect the game to go even faster than you do in 2D and so for visual acuity you need to drop that play style because no one will ever be fast react to it, I’m not a developer, but if its a question of that, I’d rather have a lower speed and more of that style of play. It would also be lovely to have the squeaky sterile, Space Harrier-style planeworld of minimalistic beauty that it is in the 2D games transferred to a 3D style as well. But that’s more my own dream that what the developer’s intended, and when what they’ve done is still lots of fun, I can’t complain too much.
Tom Chick said:
I am a Lover of Manuals. I read my manuals, and when I read them, I read all of them. I know things other people do not know because I read manuals. It is a lost art and I am one the Last Manual Readers on Earth. So, yes, I have read the manual.
Same here! Its a pity they don’t seem to take as much as care with them as they used and they aren’t as fun to read, but I still get a lot of reading the manuals. I really liked reading the Arcanum manual, for instance, it felt like some rich butler guy was explaining how to play a game. “And now we daintily press the enter button with our left index finger like so!” He he. I also liked the Fallout, Disgaea, Ico and Shadow Hearts manuals, Dragon Quest manuals always rock without fail too. It used to really piss me off in the US when you rented a game and it came with no manual. In a way, its a good thing that’s not an option here.
-Kitsune
