Ah, another GameCube racing game. This game got me into the F-Zero series, but does that mean the game is excellent? Read on to find out. Anyway, if you don't know a thing about this game, I'll say it's a very high speed machine racing game. 0-4 star scale, as always...

Graphics: ****

Beautiful. Awesome. Excellent. This game's graphics, they.... blow me away. It makes games with even very nice graphics look like nothing. The machines, the tracks... it looks very realistic. Not many games at all can get better than this when it comes to graphics. I'm not lying, either. This game is very superior in the graphics category.

Sound/Music: ***

While the music doesn't have a "classic" feel to it, I can't say it's bad. It's nice enough, actually. Mute City and Big Blue aren't as good as the songs for those stages in the original F-Zero, but still they aren't horrible. Not even close. A lot of the music is actually really nice... I like that Port Town music, as well as the Fire Field theme. And that Red Canyon music in Story Mode (remix of the same track in the original F-Zero) is pretty nice, too. As for the voices, well, to tell you the truth... I haven't even heard every single voice in the game yet, because there's no sound test or anything like that. And besides, I've forgotten what a lot of the voices I've heard sound like. So, it's really hard to grade the sound part of this category, and, so, it's not really part of the score here. But if I was to grade the voices, I would say it is good.

Difficulty: ****

Don't get me wrong... F-Zero GX is a very difficult game. But it IS beatable, with lots of practice and skill. The Story Mode chapters are a pain in the butt, and so is doing Grand Prix on the harder cups on harder difficulties. It takes a very long time to be good enough to beat Master class. As I said before, the Story Mode chapters are very hard, and even beating all of them on regular difficulty isn't a walk in the park. It takes practice, practice, and more practice to conquer each cup in the harder diffuculty. But, I will say again the game is very beatable. Really, it's more of a very challenging game than a very hard one.

Controls: **

Mediocre. Acceleration and boosting is nice and easy, but sliding is not so perfect. Sometimes slide turning won't help you in stages with no walls, which is annoying. The drifting is actually not so bad, at least for me, unless you're talking about "snaking" using the drifts, which is pretty hard, but not necessary. The attacking is quite annoying. The side attack is hard to attack with, but useful for kills. And the spin attack is just... useless. Anyway the controls are just not so good. Good thing it doesn't have a major impact on the rest of the game.

Characters: ****

Awesome! So many different characters... it's really good. Not much explaining here, but I just like a lot of the characters in the game. Really the reason why it's good is because the characters actually have character in them, if you know what I'm saying. They actually have personalities. They're cool. I'm not saying the Mario games don't have this stuff, it's just F Zero GX really is good when it comes to this one category.

Vehicles: ***1/2

There are tons of vehicles, and many of them look different. That's a good thing. The vehicles aren't too similar to each other either, when it comes to stats. Sure, there are some similar-looking cars and some vehicles with very similar stats, but overall, not that many problems here. And the variety is great, I must say.

Tracks: ***1/2

Seriously, I'm not trying to overrate everything. But, when it comes to the tracks... I like them. They're good. They are very nice. Inside/outside pipes, two/three way junctions, loops, corkscrews, and more? Awesome. Really. Good effort put here. Very good. Ok, why am I using very short sentences?

Grand Prix Mode: ***

The main mode of the game, and a "solid" good one at that. The points system's pretty fair, even though there's not much of a difference in points for the last eight or so places. Attacking other vehicles is a challenge, but it's not impossible. This mode gives a difficult but good challenge, which I actually like. So, overall, it's a good mode.

Time Attack Mode: *

Boring, but what did you expect? At least there are staff ghosts times for you to try to beat (very hard to do), but this mode is what you would expect: boring!

Story Mode: ***1/2

I really like the idea, for a racing game. This mode is where you play as Captain Falcon through nine missions, each being quite unique. I personally like the one-on-one races, the death race in Chapter 4, and the speed test in Chapter 6. The only problem is, why can't there be Story Mode missions for another character too? I know F-Zero: GP Legend (coming out in September) is going to fix this one problem, which is great. Anyway, this mode was a great idea, and a great addition to the game.

Garage Mode: ***

Another nice mode. You create your own machine! Nice, isn't it? Anyway, this mode is great, I have to say. You get to create, color, and place emblems on your machine, a nice touch. You can't name your machine though. But that's not a major problem. One thing I don't like is that you can't design how the acceleration/max speed capability of the machine is. It would be good if that was added. Overall, this is another good mode that I like.

Replayability: ***1/2

This game will keep you coming back to it (at least that's what I think), but it's not incredibly addictive. For this game, the replayability fits it nicely, actually. The game will last a long while, which I really like. This is a good category, I must say.

Fun Factor!: ***

I have to say this is a pretty fun game. Some races will really be fun, but frustation from the harder races is what prevents the four-star rating here. Not much to really say here, but overall it is a pretty fun game.

Overall: ***1/2

In my opinion, F-Zero GX is a very nice game. I like it, and if you don't have the game right now but decide to get it, you might like it too. It's definitely a great game in my mind. It did get me into the F-Zero series. So, this game is worth a pick-up, especially if you like racing games.

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