F-Zero GX - AX cup, Outer Space - Meteor Stream

Channel:

MrThunderwing

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Published on November 26, 2009 7:06:21 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCgb5n3gK3Q

Game:

F-Zero GX (2003)

Duration: 2:30

5,212 views

17

Edit: The guy at the following link does a far more eloquent job of explaining the difficulty level of F-Zero than I ever could:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=711267

One of the AX tracks, unlocked by coming first in all the original Cup Grand Prixs in Master. I like this track a lot as, like Cosmo Terminal, it's an entirley new setting for a level and has it's own unique stage music. However, unlocking these AX tracks is hard enough to nearly make a grown man weep (well, this grown man anyway). The cynical part of me is well aware that if you took your memory card to your local arcade, plugged it into an F-Zero AX arcade machine and managed to come first in that track, that track would become available to play on your Gamecube version of F-Zero GX at home. I honestly think the absurd level of difficult required to unlock the AX tracks was a cynical ploy by Sega and Nintendo to get punters to pump all their spare pound coins into the arcade version - a theory that I think is backed up even further by the fact you couldn't transfer your F-Zero data to another Memory card. Leaderboards, my arse!). Anyway, without further ado, here are my top tips to unlock the AX tracks (if, like me, you're in your thirties and aren't all that good at games anymore):

1) Perhaps most importantly of all: CHEAT IF YOU CAN - the level of difficulty required to unlock these tracks is ridiculous. F-Zero GX is a great game, but it frequently crops up in polls that list the hardest ever games of all time. Anyone who says it's easy is lying out their arse. On Master the CPU opponents all gang up on you depleting your shield, which you need full because you need to boost pretty much continually to keep up, the number of continues is sparse (1 for fuck's sake!) -and coming off the track will result in instant death, something that will happen a lot in the first two Diamond Cup tracks. Why not level the playing field a bit? I luckily got a free disc on the front of a UK Gamcube magazine that had action replay codes that gave your ship unlimited boost and unlocked all the machine parts. Beating Diamond on Master was still unbelievably hard though, because it's just so easy to fall off the track when you are having to boost continually to keep up with the cheating CPU AI. And then when you fall off a second time it's game over (Aaaarrggghhh!) re-start that cup from the very first track.

2) Use an original machine. The standard ones just aren't fast enough against the CPU at Master level. I've found the best is the Acro Lynx G4 (made from Sky Horse, Super Lynx, Titan -G4 parts). It's a great all rounder and goes like shit off a shovel speed wise.

3) Make the Fat Shark guy the pilot. Fat Shark was the ship that seemed to always be waaay out in front of the others and kept giving me a headache (well, even more of a headache) when i was trying to unlock the AX tracks. Making him your pilot takes Fat Shark out of the running as one of the CPU opponents.

4) If you manage to come first in the first 4 races in the Diamond Cup you will have gained enough GP points that you can come in last place on the 5th track, Phantom Road: Slim-line Slits, and still win the GP. It's actually worth doing this to make sure you don't die stupidly on the final track after all the hard work of placing well in the first four. Also, your rival's progress is linked to your own, so if you place badly, so will they. Even if you haven't placed first in all tracks, if you have a big enough lead, this may still be enough to net you the win in the GP, by making sure your rival places badly enough to not get any points in the last track.

5) The first two tracks in the Diamond Cup, Cosmo Terminal: Trident & Sand Ocean: Lateral Shift are the hardest in my opinion, so could potentially put people off before even trying. Once you've beaten them you can relax (a bit) on Fire Field: Undulation & Aeropolis: Dragon Slope. Then, as stated in the tip above, if you place well enough in those tracks, just have a nice, very slow, leisurely Sunday drive round Phantom Road and enjoy the sights as your rivals speed past and you still win the GP despite coming last.

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