23 September 2003
F-Zero is the Gamecube incarnation of the insanely fast futuristic racer. Not out in the UK yet, but anyone with a Freeloader can import it from the USA. And I didn’t say that, right?
First things first: despite this being yet another quality Nintendo franchise, it’s been developed by Sega’s AV team, who were responsible for the Super Monkey Ball games, Daytona USA, Virtua Striker, and more. While it was sad to see the Dreamcast ‘fail’ and force Sega out of the hardware business, they do a mean line in game development. If ever Nintendo head the same way, there will be one almighty bidding war between Sony and Microsoft for their services.
So, it’s got pedigree. That’s not enough, nor should it be. Thankfully that issue doesn’t arise, though, because AV and Nintendo have done an absolutely stonking job. While it looks incredible, you don’t notice because — save for those brief, blissful moments spent getting big air — the racing is so fast, so furious that you can’t do anything but focus on the track.
All the classic machines from games past are there. Big Fang, Wild Goose, Dark Schneider, Astro Robin, and my personal favourite, Wild Boar. And yes, those names are part of the fun: would you prefer to be racing in a Wonder Wasp (F-Zero) or an Auricom Craft (Wipeout Fusion)? Exactly.
Naturally I’ve mostly played it multi-player, four-player, split-screen. The draw distance is cut back a fair bit, which is only really a problem on the Casino Palace: Double Branches stage. And there aren’t the thirty-odd racers on the track as in single-player, just the four. But it’s still intense. With my friends yesterday we raced through the three regular cups, fifteen tracks in total. I finished a creditable third considering my appalling start, and managed to string together a few first places in the third quarter. This included a victory by two thousandths of a second. Now that’s what I call racing.
Single-player is good as well, although less forgiving and very tricky (if you fall off or blow up, you don’t get a second chance). I’m not sure why anyone would have expected anything else considering the difficulty of some of the Super Monkey Ball single-player levels.
Even though it’s hard, I would have liked to have seen the return of the Big Hand track. It was the outline of — you guessed it — a big hand. That you drive around. Which means lots of short straights and tight turns, with no barriers to prevent you plunging to your doom (well, plunging to a loss of crucial seconds anyway). Utterly bonkers and a true cult favourite.
Oh, and I can recommend the Cooper Temple Clause as providing quality F-Zero multi-player music. Because the in-game stuff sucks (although you can unlock the old tunes).