GAME BOY GAME REVIEW
F-Zero: Maximum VelocityZoom, zoom, zoom - the future of Formula One is finally here |
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If you were asked to pick the most unlikely, unglamorous and downright idiotic things to race, trucks would probably come at the top of your list. But hovercrafts probably wouldn't be that far behind, right?
So, the fact that the craft in F-Zero are effectively hovercrafts hardly bodes well. Yet this is the future, and in the future hovercrafts have metamorphosed into highly tuned racing machines, fiercely competing against each other at speeds that would see you effortlessly overtake an Airbus.
Given the velocity involved, it's encouraging to find that the controls are as straightforward as you could wish for. An accelerator, a brake, and left and right with additional cornering ability provided by the GBA's shoulder buttons take care of the fundamentals. But proving that you can never have enough speed, there is just one other thing to consider in the form of a boost function that's operated by pressing simultaneously on both shoulder buttons.
Naturally, the speeds of the craft dictate the nature of the tracks. Forget negotiating the narrow market alleyways of Monaco, for instance; here you can expect wide corridors of futuristic tarmac, sporting fast, open bends, with only the rarest of hairpins on later tracks interrupting the all-out velocity-fest.
Keeping everyone on the straight and wide are plasma boundaries which, when collided with, deplete your ship's energy; run out of energy and it's race over. Avoiding these when you're in a pack of 14 other racers all jostling for position is easier said than done, but there's always the option of recharging your ship by hovering over a strip that runs along the start/finish straight as you zoom past.
And that's it, really: frenetic racing, silly speeds and some fierce competition between you and a series of championship trophies. Simple, really. But sometimes, that's just what you need.
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity |
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Pure racing exhilaration. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less.
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