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F-Zero GX<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;"></td></tr>
Developer(s)	SEGA / Amusement Vision <tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>Nintendo</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Designer(s)</th><td>Shigeru Miyamoto (Producer) Toshihiro Nagoshi (Producer) Takaya Imamura (Supervisor)</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Engine</th><td>Heavily modified Super Monkey Ball engine<ref name="Engine">“Mat Allen. F-Zero GX review. ntsc-uk.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref></td></tr>
Release date(s)	Image:Flag of Japan.svg July 25, 2003 Image:Flag of the United States.svg August 29, 2003 Image:European flag.svg October 31, 2003
Genre(s)	Futuristic Racing game
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer <tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)</th><td>ESRB: T (Teen) CERO: All ages PEGI: 3+ OFLC: G8+</td></tr>
Platform(s)	Triforce (arcade board), Nintendo GameCube <tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media</th><td>1 × GameCube Optical Disc</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">System requirements</th><td>4+ Memory Card blocks</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Input</th><td>Game controller</td></tr>

F-Zero GX (エフゼロ ジーエックス, F-Zero GX^? F-ZERO GX) is a video game for the Nintendo GameCube console. It was released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan on July 25, 2003, in Canada and the United States on August 29, 2003, and in Europe on October 31, 2003. Its arcade counterpart, F-Zero AX, was developed in conjunction between Nintendo, Namco, and Sega. Despite being ranked as one of the best futuristic racing games to date,<ref name="GameRankings">F-Zero GX Reviews. gamerankings.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-15.</ref> F-Zero GX suffered in sales. This was caused because of it's close release to Soul Calibur II. When game releases are too close together, they may cannibalize each other's sales. F-Zero GX and Soul Calibur 2 are a perfect example of this since they were essentially released at the same time.<ref>Nuyens, Jason (November 25, 1998). N-Bits Volume 4. n-Sider.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-11.</ref>

F-Zero GX is the fourth installment in the F-Zero series, which began with F-Zero in 1990. Sega's Amusement Vision department - the same studio that developed Daytona USA for the Dreamcast, Yakuza, and the Super Monkey Ball series of games, was commissioned to develop this game. In fact, F-Zero GX/AX runs on a heavily modified version of the engine that powered Super Monkey Ball.<ref name="Engine"/> Graphically, it looks much better than any previous F-Zero title and it is one of the more technically advanced games available for GameCube, along with others including the Metroid Prime series, Resident Evil 4 and the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Story mode 1.2 Customize mode 1.3 Techniques 2 Development and history 2.1 Critical response 3 F-Zero AX connectivity 4 Circuits 4.1 Ruby Cup 4.2 Sapphire Cup 4.3 Emerald Cup 4.4 Diamond Cup 4.5 AX Cup 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

As with all F-Zero games, GX is a futuristic racing game. Pilots race plasma-powered hovercars in an intergalactic Grand Prix at speeds that can exceed over 4000 km/h. The game is noteworthy for its intense action, high level of difficulty and for its very high sense of speed - which is accomplished partly by the visuals and detail in the tracks.<ref name="Review" /> There is a large amount of variety in the track design, including loops, half-pipes, cylinders, and jumps. Before a race, the player is given the opportunity to adjust their vehicle's balance between maximum acceleration and maximum top speed. There is a wide variety of machines available for the player to choose, each with its own characteristics including Top Speed, Grip, Boost, and Body, and each driven by a different character. Custom machines can also be created.

A race in F-Zero GX consists of three laps around the track. Each machine has an energy meter, which serves two purposes. First of all, it is a measurement of the machine's health and is decreased when the machine hits another racer or the side of the track. Additionally, the player is given the ability to boost after the first lap. Boosting greatly increases the racer's speed, but also drains their energy. Energy can be replenished by driving over recharge strips that are placed on the track. If a player falls off a track or runs out of energy, the race will be restarted, or their machine will be restored to the track with severely depleted energy. As with all F-Zero titles, combat is not a crucial part of the game, but machines can attempt to damage and destroy each other using side attacks or spin attacks.

Modes include the following:

• Grand Prix: The player will choose a grand prix circuit and race against twenty-nine opponents through each track in that circuit. Players get an amount points for finishing a track depending on where they placed, and the winner of the circuit is the character who receives the most total points. There are three difficulty levels available at the start: Novice, Standard, and Expert. Master difficulty can be unlocked by beating the Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald cups on Expert. Placing first in a cup on Master difficulty with a non-custom car unlocks an FMV featuring that car's pilot.

• Vs. Battle (multiplayer): Two to four players can play simultaneously.
• Time Attack: Choose a track and complete it in the shortest time possible. Ghost data to a Memory Card can be saved, racing against a staff ghost or an transparent re-enactment of a players best run is possible.
• Story: A new Story mode allows the player to follow Captain Falcon as he races through missions and completes a wide array of challenges.
• Replay: Where saved replays can be viewed under different camera angles and music.
• Customize: This section is where items pilots, machine parts, etc can be bought, build machines and produce emblems to place on them.
• Practice: Practice any track with an adjustable amount of laps and opponents.
• Pilot Profiles: Biographies of each character, as well as their music, information on their machine, and any character movies that have been unlocked, can be viewed here.

There is also a Internet ranking system whereby players will enter a password on the Internet and will get ranked based on that in the database. In essence, players can receive a password after completing a race, write it down, go an enter it into a webpage database, and it'll track their time and the machine they've used.<ref name=Conference>F-Zero Press Conference. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-04.</ref>

[edit] Story mode

The new "story mode" is suppose to give the player a deeper understanding of the universe of F-Zero and the F-Zero characters. Toshihiro Nagoshi then goes on to state that it was included because they felt that the F-Zero universe was very unique and they wanted to take that opportunity to explain some of the character motivations and flush out the F-Zero universe.<ref name=Conference>F-Zero Press Conference. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-04.</ref>

This mode provides a scripted adventure as Captain Falcon in the form of various non-standard racing scenarios. The player will go though nine chapters (missions) such as Falcon's training regiment, battling it out against rivals, racing through closing blast doors under a certain time limit and facing 29 other veteran pilots to win the F-Zero GX Grand Prix. Each chapter has a "Normal", "Hard" and "Very Hard" difficulty level. Normal unlocks the next chapter, while completing the last two can unlock new parts and driver-specific vehicles from the arcade version, respectively.<ref>F-Zero GX story guide. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-24.</ref>

[edit] Customize mode

The new "customize mode" allows the player to create emblems to place on the machines and buy items and use a variety of them in many ways. Such as parts to customize a machine that range from extremely heavy to extremely light ones, in-game sounds, unlockable pilots, circuits and finally "staff ghosts" that players can try to beat - these ghosts do particularly fast runs on tracks and are exceedingly difficult. All of these things, once unlocked, are purchased using "tickets", which the player wins by completing one of the five Grand Prix Cups (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, and AX) or story missions, or by achieving specific minimum times in time trial mode (which also unlocks that track's Staff Ghost).<ref name="Customization">F-Zero GX Customization. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-24.</ref><ref name="GXSecrets">F-Zero GX Secrets. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-24.</ref>

[edit] Techniques

A curious aspect of the game's physics modeling is that, after properly navigating out of banked turns, F-Zero machines can get a boost of acceleration if it has high grip, high acceleration and/or heavy weight. Players can exploit F-Zero's finely tuned physics model to simulate special boosts caused by correctly leaning into curves using the controller's shoulder buttons. This can be done easily on a wide straight stretch of a circuit to generate movements likened to actual snakes.<ref>IGN staff. Tips & Techniques. guides.ign.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-04.</ref> These back and forth snake-like movements set a high rate of oscillation, achieving speeds of over 3,000 km/h. This controversial "technique", called "dakou" or snaking, has been known to reduce race times by a factor of three or more. Most, if not all, of the quickest Time Trial records in F-Zero GX were accomplished using the snaking technique. It is an extremely challenging technique to employ (the constant back-and-forth motion wreaks utter havoc with traditional steering), not to mention a painful one; players can find their hands aching after just a few minutes of snaking.<ref name=Techniques>Metroid Killer. F-Zero GX Techniques. Smashboards.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-24.</ref> Because this gives the user a distinct speed advantage over other, "non-snaking" opponents, players regard snaking as anything from legitimate and advanced racing strategy, to an unfair tactic, or even outright cheating. Snaking can also be compared to a similar snaking technique called "wavedashing" in Super Smash Bros. Melee, as well as other phenomena such as bunny hopping in first-person shooter games.

Another technique, called flying, allows the player to finish many courses with higher than usual speed records and lower than normal times. Using this trick makes one unbeatable up against trackbound opponents. It requires high speed, and either a jump plate, a siderail that bumps vehicles into the air, or an open drop in the course that can be used to fall off and quickly turn around in the air. Airtime is limited, but more time can be gained from higher launch speeds. It can set a moderately skilled player to stay ahead of the pack for an entire race. Perfect positioning in the air sometimes allows the player to escape death and fall through the map, which causes them to reappear at the top of the map and land on the air, but it still counts as a finish.

Snake flying is a combination of snake and flight. Snake to maximum speed, sometimes reaching into the upper regions of the 4000 km/h mark, and then launch. Launches allow for extremely high altitudes, resulting in increased flight time, useful for exploration or for using launch areas that are too far away from the start gate for normal flight laps.

Suicides finishes, as they are called, allow a broken vehicle to finish. An intentional explosion just before the finish line, if properly timed, allows broken down vehicles to slide past the line on momentum alone. There is no use for this other than being a sometimes challenging novelty. Suicide launches are performed by hitting a wall at extreme speed with no shields. Vehicles are then blasted far beyond the circuit, where it becomes apparent that the course is a small area floating in an empty space.<ref name=Techniques/>

[edit] Development and history