F-Zero GX: The craziest racing game I've ever played

I'm old school. I was there when someone you knew had a Pong machine. Later everyone went nuts for the Atari 2600 and then things got weird. When NES salvaged the video game market it showed that Nintendo was a powerhouse in the video game realm and I was a fan, because of certain Nintendo-specific games, and therefore I stuck with them all the way to the Gamecube and when it was revealed that there was going to be an F-Zero game on that system, I probably shouted out "hell yeah!" when I read about it.

Getting the actual game though, unfortunately was a much different experience than I had hoped for.

src

As far as I know there wasn't any other F-Zero games released on any platform since the SNES and the original F-Zero was just outstanding. It was a game that blew everyone away and even though there was only a handful of tracks and a mere 4 "cars" to choose from, it was something that everyone has fond memories about back in the early 90's. EDIT: There was a game on the N64 called F-Zero X in the late 90's. I somehow managed to totally miss that... whoopsie!

src

Original F-Zero had super-tight controls and was just incredibly fun in every way. All the tracks were flat and the 3D aspects of it were simulated in what would be today regarded as "poorly." It was amazing for the time period though and is regarded as one of the best games on the SNES.

F-Zero GX on the other hand, kind of disappeared into the memories of most people because while it was a visually impressive game, it was in mine and many other people's opinions, too much of a departure from the original series and it was also tough as nails.

src

This game is exceptionally fast to the point where for me and many others, simply keeping track of where the hell the track is going was really tough. Blink for too long and you have flown off the track and have to be carried back to it by some emergency robot thing.

src

I tried to get into this game because I felt as though there must be some sort of learning curve but it is widely regarded as being "too hard" and while I realize this is very subjective, there are a lot of people that never even completed the 2nd track in time trials.

One little mistake sends your rocket car flying wildly out of position and there are a ton of jumps where you are just taking some sort of leap of faith hoping that the track is actually going to be under you when you get to the other end.

src
_{good luck!}

Some people have called this game "ahead of its time" and while it did sell well, there wasn't as great of a reception for it as there was for the original SNES one. I experienced difficulty staying interested because if you made even a tiny mistake, you would be hard-pressed to make it to the end of a race, let alone in first to third place.

This video isn't the best but I selected it because most of us, when the GC was released, were still dealing with old-school televisions, perhaps even a CRT so the grainy nature of this video does a good job of correctly reflecting how frustrating playing such a high-speed game is. The person who made this video is clearly quite familiar with the track and still has what appears to be a lot of difficulty maintaining a position near the front. Now imagine if he crashed into one of those walls and how far that would set him back seeing as how even minor mistakes result in him getting passed by several other racers.

Blink for too long and your racer is off the track or ramming into the walls and I can see how he, someone who is clearly very good at this, really struggling with the D-pad controls to keep the racer in a straight line.

This game was a real let down for me because I kind of wanted to casual fun that the original F-Zero delivered. This game was massive, beautiful, and extremely tough... I suppose a bit too tough for my liking because I never really played it a great deal and I didn't seem much reason to even bother with couch co-op because it was already damn-near-impossible to keep track of without sharing a screen.

Of course just like with anything there are going to be differing and kind of jerk-like opinions about anything. Tons of people dedicate channels to trying to prove that F-Zero GX isn't hard, it's just a "skill issue." They love to gloat and go ahead guys! The maker of this last video does make it look easy, but that is because he is very good at it. Just like if I watch an experienced person play Elden Ring it looks like a lot of fun but if I play it myself I want to throw my controller and my PS5 out the window.

So for me I think that GX was a disappointment and the sales were not really good on it but much of this can be attributed to the fact that GameCube generally speaking wasn't a huge seller and was getting their butts kicked by Xbox and Playstation.

Did you play GX? What did you think about it? Am I wrong? Please tell me how if so!