Gameplay
F-Zero GX is a futuristic racing game where up to thirty characters race on massive circuits inside plasma-powered machines in an intergalactic Grand Prix. Tracks include enclosed tubes, cylinders, tricky jumps, and rollercoaster-esque paths. Some courses are littered with innate obstacles to navigate like dirt patches and mines. Before a race, the player is able to adjust a vehicle's balance between maximum acceleration and maximum top speed. Each machine has an energy meter, which serves two purposes. First, it is a measurement of the machine's health and is decreased, for example, when the machine hits another racer or the side of the track. Second, the player is usually given the ability to boost after the first lap. Boosting greatly increases the racer's speed for a few seconds, but also drains their energy. Pit areas and dash plates are located at various points around the track for vehicles to drive over. The former replenishes energy, while the latter gives a speed boost without using up any energy. Courses may also have jump plates, which launch vehicles into the air enabling them to cut corners.
F-Zero GX feature numerous gameplay modes and options. In the Grand Prix mode, the player races against twenty-nine opponents through three laps of each track in a cup. There are four cups available (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and Diamond) with five tracks in each. Unlocking the AX cup gives the player all six tracks from the arcade game, F-Zero AX. Each cup has four selectable difficulty levels: Novice, Standard, Expert, and Master. Players get a certain amount of points for finishing a track depending on where they placed, and the winner of the circuit is the character who receives the most total points. If the player has a "spare machine"—the equivalent of an extra life—then falls off a track or runs out of energy, the race can be restarted. A predetermined amount of spare machines based on the difficulty level chosen are given to players before starting a cup. Players get an additional spare machine for every five contenders he or she eliminates, and each eliminated contender recovers a portion of the player's energy meter. Competitors can be eliminated by means of a spin attack or side attack.
The Vs. Battle is the multiplayer mode where two to four players can compete simultaneously. Time attack lets the player choose any track and complete it in the shortest time possible. An Internet ranking system was established where players enter a password on the official F-Zero website and get ranked based on their position in the database. Players received a password after completing a time attack race, which records their time and machine used. Ghost data, transparent re-enactments of the player's time attack performances, can be saved on Memory Cards to later race against. Up to five ghosts can be raced against simultaneously. The Replay mode allows saved Grand Prix and Time Attack gameplay to be replayed with different camera angles and in-game music. The Pilot Profile mode has each character's biography, theme music, information on their machine, and a short full motion video (FMV) sequence.
After properly navigating into turns using the control stick and shoulder buttons, the game's physics modeling give vehicles setup with high acceleration a boost of acceleration. Players can easily exploit this on a wide straight stretch of a circuit to generate serpentinous movements. This technique called "snaking" has been known to deliver a massive increase in speed, but it is best used on the easier tracks, when racing alone in Time Trial, and with heavy vehicles with a high grip rating and given high acceleration. According to Nintendo, the snaking technique was an intentional addition to F-Zero GX's gameplay.
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