This review contains spoilers
F-Zero GP Legend is the beginning of the end for the F-Zero franchise, with not only just the game, but the anime of the same name that the game was based off of both bombing hard commercially, leading to the end of the franchise just a couple of years later. Despite the doom and gloom of the previous statement however, F-Zero GP Legend is still a solid racing game that is well worth your time.
Like all GBA F-Zero games, GP Legend's gameplay is based heavily on the original SNES F-Zero's gameplay, even utilizing a similar Mode-7 style system for the backgrounds. Unlike the previous GBA entry, Maximum Velocity, however, which aimed to replicate virtually everything about the original SNES F-Zero game to a fault, GP Legends adds in all 30 of F-Zero X's characters, as well as many of the mechanics introduced in F-Zero X - including FZX style boosting (the ability to boost as much as you want after the first lap, at the cost of your health, important because like in all F-Zero games, running out of health signifies the end of the race), Side Attacks (which not only allows for a way to directly attack opponents, but also functions as an alternative way to make very sharp corners), and the Acceleration/Max Speed slider, which allows players a way (ableit a very small way) to fine-tune their car. If there's one thing I'm not a fan of, it's that getting the boost start is not only relatively difficult (as the timing you need to get the boost start differs not only on which car you're racing with, but how you tuned your Acceleration/Max Speed Slider), but also it somehow makes the next few seconds feel relatively slow by comparison. However, that's pretty much the only thing I'm not a fan of race-wise, as otherwise, the entire racing gameplay is fun and very solid, whilst still keeping the sense of speed that F-Zero is well known for.
One thing that is very well known about the previous F-Zero game, F-Zero GX, is its insane difficulty (as you'll see countless times on this very website). GP Legend on the other hand is mostly a relatively easy game (at least for me), even on the hardest difficulty settings - I'd recommend starting out with F-Zero GP Legend due to how easier it is compared to GX. Do be aware however that despite what I said, there will still be a few very difficult sections (especially in Story Mode, where there are a few races that will test your mettle), and on the highest AI difficulty settings, the AI will rubberband extremely closely to you (most obvious on tracks with huge jump shortcuts, such as Big Blue - Slip Road, Lightning - Volute, and Port Town II, where the AI will literally teleport behind you when you make a massive jump).
Whilst none of the new characters from GX make their appearance in F-Zero GP Legend, GP Legend does introduce a few new characters from the anime into the game. New characters introduced include: brand new protagonist Rick Wheeler (Ryu Suzaku in Japan), Misaki Haruka/Miss Killer (Rick's girlfriend-turned-assassin), Lisa Brilliant (Samurai Goroh's wife, expanding the Goroh family yet again) and Lucy Liberty (rookie trainee). All four characters fit relatively well into the game, with my personal favourite character being Lucy Liberty, with her extremely easy-to-handle car, Elegance Liberty, basically carrying me all throughout the game.
Most of the classic F-Zero SNES locations return in GP Legend, with the only exclusion being the Death Wind location. Three additional locations however join the game, each with their own gimmicks, and all of them I think are natural, deserving additions to the game. Lightning (appearing in the anime and returning from F-Zero GX) retains its very fast nature from its home game with lots and lots of boostpads - with the additional gimmick of lightning flashes that briefly blind you for a microsecond or two. Mist Flow, a location so new that it did not appear in any of the anime episodes, has its track permanently covered in mist that obscures the player's vision. Lastly, Illusion (another brand new location that does not appear in the anime for some reason) is set to take the place as the final "boss" location ala Rainbow Road from Mario Kart, as it is the only location in the entire game whose tracks lack any walls. All three locations also have killer theme songs to match, with Mist Flow in particular being among the top tier of F-Zero soundtracks. Speaking of soundtracks, all of the other race songs are remixes taken from either SNES F-Zero or F-Zero X, with Lightning's being the only outright new song for an old location.
Going through each of the main modes of the game. Story Mode returns in F-Zero GP Legend, with a few new tweaks from GX. Instead of one singular "story" as in GX, there are now 8 separate stories for players to complete, with each being 5 races long (with a couple having a hidden sixth race) and each focusing on one character that you play as through the entirety of it. Initially, only Rick Wheeler's story mode is available, but as you play through each of the stories, you progressively open up each of the remaining 7 stories.
As far as I know, GP Legend's story mode does not adapt any of the episodes of the anime it shares its name with, instead being extra side-content that explores the character's personalities, from Jody Summers' desire to find her missing brother, to Jack Levin's desire to surpass rival Rick Wheeler. These story mode plotlines also intertwine within each other, as opposed to being completely separate, disconnected storylines. Storyline beats you discover in one chapter get expanded upon in other stories. One such example is in Captain Falcon's story mode; in one chapter, you race against longtime rival Samurai Goroh who bizarrely accuses you of poisoning him - afterwards, you then unlock Samurai Goroh's story, which focuses entirely on Goroh's search for who poisoned him. This helps each of the stories, and the universe that it contains, feel connected within each other rather than all separate and disjointed.
Credit also goes to the mission objectives - as not every race is a standard fare. Some races will require the player to play somewhat differently - whether it be making your car worse, requiring you to take out an opponent, or removing the ability to boost, giving races a bit more variety than usual. Unique tracks that cannot be raced on in other modes are also encountered: several of these are short point-to-point tracks where you have to reach from point A to point B, though there are a couple of full tracks that cannot be raced on in other modes outside of story mode which...I'm not particularly the biggest fan of.
Playing through one or two stories is fine enough, but when going through all the stories, this game's biggest problem becomes apparent. that being just how much reused content there is for Story Mode. This isn't a problem with the racing itself, but so many chapters of Story Mode involves the same situation happening, with the same buildup, background, and race, with the only difference being that you play as a separate driver. Out of the 42 chapters in the game, about a third of these were recycled from other chapters wholesale (with two separate races somehow managing to get recycled for 3 chapters each (one race where Captain Falcon and Rick Wheeler chase Zoda through Mute City, where you play as all three characters at various points, and another race where Rick Wheeler, Zoda, and Jack Levin race at Big Blue, in which you also race as each of the three characters) - madness considering how small story mode is). I'm sure reused content might have been a necessity, but definitely not one-third's of the content worth, especially with how many characters aren't even in the story mode properly (including two of the four brand new characters in the game!).
One other thing I also dislike about Story Mode as well is the Bounty system - or what is basically your currency system. You get bounty for doing story mode stuff and...that's literally it. There are only a couple of stories in the game that will cause you to spend your bounty (which also is how you get the hidden stories in the first place): one where Rick Wheeler badly wants to enter a race with a high entry fee, and one where Captain Falcon has to fix his machine. Other than that, and how you unlock characters in Story Mode (simply redo races until you get like 2.5 million Bounty for each character) and...it's both a grind, and a real waste of potential. Giving us actual ways to spend Bounty like how it was in F-Zero GX (such as buying new cars, tracks, etc.) would have been a much better solution than what we got.
Like Story Mode, Grand Prix Mode remains the same as per usual, with a few new tweaks to spice it up. Grand Prix mode is your standard 'Do X amount of races and get enough points to win' stuff. There are four cups in the game - Bronze, Silver, Gold, and the unlockable Platinum. Each of these cups come in three different difficulties: Novice, Standard and Expert.
Bronze, Silver and Gold Cup have five races each (with Gold Cup having a fancy gimmick in that the last race is randomized between two tracks: Red Canyon: Peak Jump, and Illusion: Abyss Drop). All three of these cups are already unlocked (though they're ordered in difficulty, with Bronze Cup having the easiest tracks, Silver Cup having slightly harder tracks, and Gold Cup having the most difficult tracks). Each cup also has a set amount of "Spare Machines" - serving as retries in case you either run out of health or wish to restart to get a better position (though thankfully, they scrap the Rank Requirement from SNES F-Zero and Maximum Velocity).
One extra gimmick that GP Legend introduces is Expert-mode variants of tracks, with all 16 tracks from the Bronze, Silver and Gold cups receiving modifications to make them more difficult, with not just alternate, more difficult track layouts, but also additional obstacles (and a couple of tracks where you have to race in reverse). Expert-mode variant layouts were a neat touch, a throwback to how SNES F-Zero did their alternate layout tracks, whilst giving players extra replayability and an extra touch of difficulty. Having said that, whether or not you find the tracks to be too different or not to justify it is up to you - I myself thought those were at least more meaningful than Story Mode's reused chapters at least.
After completing all three cups (Bronze, Silver and Gold), you'll unlock the hidden fourth cup, the Platinum Cup. Similar to the GBA version of Mario Kart, the Platinum Cup all consists of remakes from the SNES version of F-Zero, with one race from each location being represented (except for Death Wind and the three new F-Zero locations). This totals in to a whopping 8 tracks in Platinum Cup, a marathon compared to the 5-track cups of the other circuits. These tracks however transitioned very well from the SNES to the GBA, and the length and difficulty of some of these tracks make it a worthy "final cup". To further add to the retro-ness, some locations also get special remixes of their SNES themes specifically for those tracks (those being Red Canyon, Silence and White Land).
Unlike the other three cups, the Platinum Cup has no Expert difficulty modifier (in part because additional tracks either only appeared in the relatively obscure BS F-Zero 2 (such as Big Blue II, Silence II or any of the Sandstorm tracks) or flat-out didn't exist (Sand Ocean and debatedly Fire Field, though they could have reused a Maximum Velocity track since that game also had Fire Field). Instead, Expert difficulty sets the amount of spare machines you have to zero, making it a true no-death run. By no means this is impossible - I was able to do it after only a couple of tries, but this does make even the tiniest of slip-ups potentially run-ending. Do it on Expert if you really want a true challenge only.
The last major mode is Zero Test, which basically apes Gran Turismo's license tests wholesale, down to the Bronze/Silver/Gold times. I...don't really have much to say about it, it's basically like every license test ever (except you all these do is unlock a couple of vehicles. I can appreciate more content but honestly, I never dabbled on it too much when I could just race instead. If you don't like those sorts of things, then at the very least you can avoid it unlike Gran Turismo, but the mode itself felt relatively uninspiring to me.
One last thing before I finish the review - whilst officially you can't play the e-Reader levels yet in the English version, there already exists a hack that lets you play the e-Reader stuff (and that's assuming Nintendo doesn't patch it in if and whenever they rerelease it for the Switch or something). In my opinion...they're not exactly good. They're worth it for a couple of test runs at least, but at the same time they're only available in Practice and Time Trial mode, and the additional tracks themselves mostly aren't that interesting in my opinion. If you're looking to get it to take a look at the e-Reader stuff, just watch a video or something on those tracks.
F-Zero GP Legend I think is a very solid racing game. If you enjoyed playing SNES F-Zero, you'll probably enjoy playing this one as well: I felt it was a worthy successor to the SNES-styled gameplay. It's relative easiness (especially compared to GX) makes this game the game I'd recommend to players looking to get into F-Zero. Even when comparing this game to the sequel, F-Zero Climax, there's still enough here that isn't in Climax (namely tracks and a story mode) that I think this game is still worth getting.
...that and the fact that Climax still can't be gotten legally in English yet.
Like all GBA F-Zero games, GP Legend's gameplay is based heavily on the original SNES F-Zero's gameplay, even utilizing a similar Mode-7 style system for the backgrounds. Unlike the previous GBA entry, Maximum Velocity, however, which aimed to replicate virtually everything about the original SNES F-Zero game to a fault, GP Legends adds in all 30 of F-Zero X's characters, as well as many of the mechanics introduced in F-Zero X - including FZX style boosting (the ability to boost as much as you want after the first lap, at the cost of your health, important because like in all F-Zero games, running out of health signifies the end of the race), Side Attacks (which not only allows for a way to directly attack opponents, but also functions as an alternative way to make very sharp corners), and the Acceleration/Max Speed slider, which allows players a way (ableit a very small way) to fine-tune their car. If there's one thing I'm not a fan of, it's that getting the boost start is not only relatively difficult (as the timing you need to get the boost start differs not only on which car you're racing with, but how you tuned your Acceleration/Max Speed Slider), but also it somehow makes the next few seconds feel relatively slow by comparison. However, that's pretty much the only thing I'm not a fan of race-wise, as otherwise, the entire racing gameplay is fun and very solid, whilst still keeping the sense of speed that F-Zero is well known for.
One thing that is very well known about the previous F-Zero game, F-Zero GX, is its insane difficulty (as you'll see countless times on this very website). GP Legend on the other hand is mostly a relatively easy game (at least for me), even on the hardest difficulty settings - I'd recommend starting out with F-Zero GP Legend due to how easier it is compared to GX. Do be aware however that despite what I said, there will still be a few very difficult sections (especially in Story Mode, where there are a few races that will test your mettle), and on the highest AI difficulty settings, the AI will rubberband extremely closely to you (most obvious on tracks with huge jump shortcuts, such as Big Blue - Slip Road, Lightning - Volute, and Port Town II, where the AI will literally teleport behind you when you make a massive jump).
Whilst none of the new characters from GX make their appearance in F-Zero GP Legend, GP Legend does introduce a few new characters from the anime into the game. New characters introduced include: brand new protagonist Rick Wheeler (Ryu Suzaku in Japan), Misaki Haruka/Miss Killer (Rick's girlfriend-turned-assassin), Lisa Brilliant (Samurai Goroh's wife, expanding the Goroh family yet again) and Lucy Liberty (rookie trainee). All four characters fit relatively well into the game, with my personal favourite character being Lucy Liberty, with her extremely easy-to-handle car, Elegance Liberty, basically carrying me all throughout the game.
Most of the classic F-Zero SNES locations return in GP Legend, with the only exclusion being the Death Wind location. Three additional locations however join the game, each with their own gimmicks, and all of them I think are natural, deserving additions to the game. Lightning (appearing in the anime and returning from F-Zero GX) retains its very fast nature from its home game with lots and lots of boostpads - with the additional gimmick of lightning flashes that briefly blind you for a microsecond or two. Mist Flow, a location so new that it did not appear in any of the anime episodes, has its track permanently covered in mist that obscures the player's vision. Lastly, Illusion (another brand new location that does not appear in the anime for some reason) is set to take the place as the final "boss" location ala Rainbow Road from Mario Kart, as it is the only location in the entire game whose tracks lack any walls. All three locations also have killer theme songs to match, with Mist Flow in particular being among the top tier of F-Zero soundtracks. Speaking of soundtracks, all of the other race songs are remixes taken from either SNES F-Zero or F-Zero X, with Lightning's being the only outright new song for an old location.
Going through each of the main modes of the game. Story Mode returns in F-Zero GP Legend, with a few new tweaks from GX. Instead of one singular "story" as in GX, there are now 8 separate stories for players to complete, with each being 5 races long (with a couple having a hidden sixth race) and each focusing on one character that you play as through the entirety of it. Initially, only Rick Wheeler's story mode is available, but as you play through each of the stories, you progressively open up each of the remaining 7 stories.
As far as I know, GP Legend's story mode does not adapt any of the episodes of the anime it shares its name with, instead being extra side-content that explores the character's personalities, from Jody Summers' desire to find her missing brother, to Jack Levin's desire to surpass rival Rick Wheeler. These story mode plotlines also intertwine within each other, as opposed to being completely separate, disconnected storylines. Storyline beats you discover in one chapter get expanded upon in other stories. One such example is in Captain Falcon's story mode; in one chapter, you race against longtime rival Samurai Goroh who bizarrely accuses you of poisoning him - afterwards, you then unlock Samurai Goroh's story, which focuses entirely on Goroh's search for who poisoned him. This helps each of the stories, and the universe that it contains, feel connected within each other rather than all separate and disjointed.
Credit also goes to the mission objectives - as not every race is a standard fare. Some races will require the player to play somewhat differently - whether it be making your car worse, requiring you to take out an opponent, or removing the ability to boost, giving races a bit more variety than usual. Unique tracks that cannot be raced on in other modes are also encountered: several of these are short point-to-point tracks where you have to reach from point A to point B, though there are a couple of full tracks that cannot be raced on in other modes outside of story mode which...I'm not particularly the biggest fan of.
Playing through one or two stories is fine enough, but when going through all the stories, this game's biggest problem becomes apparent. that being just how much reused content there is for Story Mode. This isn't a problem with the racing itself, but so many chapters of Story Mode involves the same situation happening, with the same buildup, background, and race, with the only difference being that you play as a separate driver. Out of the 42 chapters in the game, about a third of these were recycled from other chapters wholesale (with two separate races somehow managing to get recycled for 3 chapters each (one race where Captain Falcon and Rick Wheeler chase Zoda through Mute City, where you play as all three characters at various points, and another race where Rick Wheeler, Zoda, and Jack Levin race at Big Blue, in which you also race as each of the three characters) - madness considering how small story mode is). I'm sure reused content might have been a necessity, but definitely not one-third's of the content worth, especially with how many characters aren't even in the story mode properly (including two of the four brand new characters in the game!).
One other thing I also dislike about Story Mode as well is the Bounty system - or what is basically your currency system. You get bounty for doing story mode stuff and...that's literally it. There are only a couple of stories in the game that will cause you to spend your bounty (which also is how you get the hidden stories in the first place): one where Rick Wheeler badly wants to enter a race with a high entry fee, and one where Captain Falcon has to fix his machine. Other than that, and how you unlock characters in Story Mode (simply redo races until you get like 2.5 million Bounty for each character) and...it's both a grind, and a real waste of potential. Giving us actual ways to spend Bounty like how it was in F-Zero GX (such as buying new cars, tracks, etc.) would have been a much better solution than what we got.
Like Story Mode, Grand Prix Mode remains the same as per usual, with a few new tweaks to spice it up. Grand Prix mode is your standard 'Do X amount of races and get enough points to win' stuff. There are four cups in the game - Bronze, Silver, Gold, and the unlockable Platinum. Each of these cups come in three different difficulties: Novice, Standard and Expert.
Bronze, Silver and Gold Cup have five races each (with Gold Cup having a fancy gimmick in that the last race is randomized between two tracks: Red Canyon: Peak Jump, and Illusion: Abyss Drop). All three of these cups are already unlocked (though they're ordered in difficulty, with Bronze Cup having the easiest tracks, Silver Cup having slightly harder tracks, and Gold Cup having the most difficult tracks). Each cup also has a set amount of "Spare Machines" - serving as retries in case you either run out of health or wish to restart to get a better position (though thankfully, they scrap the Rank Requirement from SNES F-Zero and Maximum Velocity).
One extra gimmick that GP Legend introduces is Expert-mode variants of tracks, with all 16 tracks from the Bronze, Silver and Gold cups receiving modifications to make them more difficult, with not just alternate, more difficult track layouts, but also additional obstacles (and a couple of tracks where you have to race in reverse). Expert-mode variant layouts were a neat touch, a throwback to how SNES F-Zero did their alternate layout tracks, whilst giving players extra replayability and an extra touch of difficulty. Having said that, whether or not you find the tracks to be too different or not to justify it is up to you - I myself thought those were at least more meaningful than Story Mode's reused chapters at least.
After completing all three cups (Bronze, Silver and Gold), you'll unlock the hidden fourth cup, the Platinum Cup. Similar to the GBA version of Mario Kart, the Platinum Cup all consists of remakes from the SNES version of F-Zero, with one race from each location being represented (except for Death Wind and the three new F-Zero locations). This totals in to a whopping 8 tracks in Platinum Cup, a marathon compared to the 5-track cups of the other circuits. These tracks however transitioned very well from the SNES to the GBA, and the length and difficulty of some of these tracks make it a worthy "final cup". To further add to the retro-ness, some locations also get special remixes of their SNES themes specifically for those tracks (those being Red Canyon, Silence and White Land).
Unlike the other three cups, the Platinum Cup has no Expert difficulty modifier (in part because additional tracks either only appeared in the relatively obscure BS F-Zero 2 (such as Big Blue II, Silence II or any of the Sandstorm tracks) or flat-out didn't exist (Sand Ocean and debatedly Fire Field, though they could have reused a Maximum Velocity track since that game also had Fire Field). Instead, Expert difficulty sets the amount of spare machines you have to zero, making it a true no-death run. By no means this is impossible - I was able to do it after only a couple of tries, but this does make even the tiniest of slip-ups potentially run-ending. Do it on Expert if you really want a true challenge only.
The last major mode is Zero Test, which basically apes Gran Turismo's license tests wholesale, down to the Bronze/Silver/Gold times. I...don't really have much to say about it, it's basically like every license test ever (except you all these do is unlock a couple of vehicles. I can appreciate more content but honestly, I never dabbled on it too much when I could just race instead. If you don't like those sorts of things, then at the very least you can avoid it unlike Gran Turismo, but the mode itself felt relatively uninspiring to me.
One last thing before I finish the review - whilst officially you can't play the e-Reader levels yet in the English version, there already exists a hack that lets you play the e-Reader stuff (and that's assuming Nintendo doesn't patch it in if and whenever they rerelease it for the Switch or something). In my opinion...they're not exactly good. They're worth it for a couple of test runs at least, but at the same time they're only available in Practice and Time Trial mode, and the additional tracks themselves mostly aren't that interesting in my opinion. If you're looking to get it to take a look at the e-Reader stuff, just watch a video or something on those tracks.
F-Zero GP Legend I think is a very solid racing game. If you enjoyed playing SNES F-Zero, you'll probably enjoy playing this one as well: I felt it was a worthy successor to the SNES-styled gameplay. It's relative easiness (especially compared to GX) makes this game the game I'd recommend to players looking to get into F-Zero. Even when comparing this game to the sequel, F-Zero Climax, there's still enough here that isn't in Climax (namely tracks and a story mode) that I think this game is still worth getting.
...that and the fact that Climax still can't be gotten legally in English yet.
C_F
1 year ago