Yeah after looking at crazy priced copies on ebay, I decided 10 bucks for the vc version was better.
I’m still shocked I bought something off the wii u shop in 2021.
With all the Sony news I’m shocked that you can still buy on Wii U eShop!
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So I’ve spent my free time this weekend dipping into X and it’s so much better in all respects then I remembered it being, I was firmly in camp Yakumo when this thread was first made! I have no idea why I had such negative memories of playing it before, it’s absolute magic. But is it me or is the master difficulty much harder than in GX? It feels crushingly difficult right now.
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Yeah, master difficulty is bananas. I haven’t gotten first place on it yet.
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Maybe it can help, this is how I play :
The most important is to not drift, so you have to get in the curve gently, more than GX, then you can turn at max. Work your driving line on practice, I used to do it 5~10mn on each track of the cup I was going to play. Skim the apex and let the ship get out properly of the curve so it gains maximum speed. In the same way on a loop or a spiral road let go the ship on the good line for max speed, for example on the loop of Mute City 1, it goes left so you let go the ship on a line to the right (you can see it on the video below).
Never use the L or R to turn (except one corner in Port Town 2 where you may also want to break, and except some very rare chaotic moments). The best ways are in order :
- just turn in the perfect line with gaz. Particular deep technique to develop in this game. Practicing on Mute City 2 is a good training;
- of course it’s not always possible depending on speed and curve, so to take the hard curves with the less loose of speed you’ve got to attack (L+L or R+R) in the good direction entering the corner (early is the best, it’s important). Very powerful technique (if you can do it in Red Canyon 1 you’ve learn it well), you may have to make two or three attacks to pass some corner at very high speed, resulting in a pumping of the trigger (like you will may hear in the last circuit of the video). And it has the advantage to pierce the mob like a bully. But remember that it slows you down a bit so first way above-mentioned has priority when you can, it’s a risk we often gauge in X;
- you can simply release the gaz, you loose more speed but in some case it’s the best choise because collisions:
Collisions with other ships must be avoided at all cost, they will make you loose speed a lot and if you are turning while crashing you will drift miserably, we don’t want that. So look how the competitors move far away until you pass them, release gaz for quick dodge and, this is why you may release the gaz in some corner, when you just feel that you may touch an opponent. The collision will be far less punishing, very important.
Take a nosedive in air for speed but prepare an horizontal landing. Unlike GX you don’t have to release the gaz after landing to keep the speed (important and strange GX technique by the way). Press up to max before a springboard for boost.
The arrows on traks give the same boost for all the ships, so if you have a medium boost ship like the Blue Falcon, arrows deliver a better boost than yours and vice versa, so strategy.
Tube tracks, internal or external, must be drived like normal curves but in 3D, take the inside line but it’s more difficult to keep it so do not hesitate to release frequently and rapidly the gaz, like in the first F-Zero, it’s better than being catapulted on the other side.
Same for the halfpipe track (White Land 2), but there’s a specific technique for this one. It’s a bug that programmers have decided to keep cause it’s fun : reach the edge of the pipe and attack in the outside direction while turning toward to the middle of the road, it gives speed. Just doing it time to time when it’s cool can offer a great advantage. You can’t perform this on the last part of the track, with the lines parallel to the edge.
Drifting technique can help on some tracks like Big Blue 2 or Devil’s Forest 3, even if I personnaly prefer to keep it for TT fun : setting to full acceleration, use L or R in the opposite direction and control your drift. Boost while drifting twrow you like a bullet.
Here’s a video I made two years ago of the first cup, master, all first (Silence and Sand Ocean are tricky to race), I could do better nowaday but it could help :
Obviously the spin attack in the first tunnel is for fun, it can destroy five ships if I’m lucky (or zero). If I don’t do that I’m first before the last lap so I try to keep it fun.
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Thanks for such a thorough write up, can see from your video that I still have a way to go before I can drive that well!
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That’s some fine racing. I need to practice to get to that level. Thanks for sharing.
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I’m sold. I’m going to play it.
Not having an N64 I now need to decide how exactly. Paralysis of choice.
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You have either unofficial emulation, Wii VC (which is defunct), or Wii U VC which is still active but may have some input lag which would be tough for this game in particular.
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I’ll report back!
Somewhere on eBay a NTSC N64 is wanting you B|
More seriously maybe non-official emulation can make it, but it’s common knowledge that you will need an original N64 controller with original stick in good shape to appreciate this game.
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I agree. It’s really built for that controller.
Personally, the original does hold up. It’s super smooth, and it has my favourite atmosphere and music in the series. It lacks analog controls but since the game wasn’t designed around them, it doesn’t really feel held back by that.
X is awesome, too. It would be the one I would most recommend to newcomers since some might be turned off by how old school the original is or how punishing GX is. If GX wasn’t so extreme on the memorization, I would have ranked it higher.
Nothing to do with the comparison of the games, but I thought it was totes appropes.
There must be $50k worth of synths, pianos, organs, and gear in this studio, but he’s dedicated to arrangements of classic VG music. 
He has some other awesome covers on his channel.
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Not just you, anecdotally I was never able to clear Master on F Zero X while I did so on GX, and can still do so on GX just fine.
It does lend credence to a lot of the observations that @Peltz and @Tchiko pointed out too. I might have found the parts of GX which are more challenging easier to get to grips with.
I’m looking forward to revisiting X when my Japanese copy arrives!
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Let us know your impressions. Looking forward to hearing what you think.
Don’t get me wrong GX is a complete joy and one of my favorite games of all time.
But X just has something “extra” that takes the gameplay up an extra notch. Plus I prefer the soundtrack by a long shot over GX.
The SNES game is the best racing game that generation. So yes, it holds up great compared to anything. Is it quite as exceptional as F-Zero X, no, but that’s a very, VERY high bar! F-Zero X is my second favorite 5th-gen racing game, after only Rush 2049. Recalling that the N64 is my favorite platform for racing games, sure X is better, but both games are all-time greats. The original F-Zero is kind of easy, but that doesn’t make it much less amazing.
As for GX I have very mixed feelings for that one. On the one hand it’s a stunning accomplishment with some of the best graphics, tracks, and design in the genre, but on the other hand it’s almost brokenly hard and often totally stops being fun because of how hard it is. GX is an amazing game but it’s the least great of the three main F-Zero games, and it’s not in my top three 6th gen racing games either. Sometimes you can make a game too hard.
I wonder if there are mods or cheats to make GX more approachable?
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My Japanese copy of F Zero X arrived yesterday in an act of good timing!
The previous owner courteously wiped the save data to give me a good excuse to get stuck in from the very beginning again!
And so I played on Expert Jack Cup through to the unlockable Joker Cup last night, unlocked the credits, and now I’ve got Master to tackle.
It’s almost scary how effortless it all felt thanks to Muscle memory! I did struggle with King Cup though, a couple of courses can cause you to gain to lose grip and fly off the track if you’re not careful. But it’s one exhilarating game, perhaps too easy on Expert if you’re familiar with the course design.
Expert appears to require solid understanding of the fundamentals of the track design and driving physics, while Master requires absolute mastery of the entire game. I tried Jack cup on Master briefly, played like I did Expert and didn’t come close to winning the first race - a very good sign.
Success in GX’s Master Mode seems analogous to X’s Expert mode in that respect, since the GX courses have more tricks and more polygonal variety to them, and if you master the course designs you’re generally good to go for the entire game. Probably explains why I can beat F Zero GX consistently on Master but F Zero X gives me trouble.
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