F-Zero: GP Legend

Damn fast, damn challenging, and thoroughly addictive, F-Zero: GP Legend dominates the handheld circuit.

Based on the Japanese TV series, F-Zero: GP Legend is not only a great progression from 2001?s Maximum Velocity but also an improvement?the physics are better tuned and the action moves much faster and smoother. In fact, GP Legend is probably the fastest racer on the GBA. You don?t ?participate? in events so much as rapaciously consume one feverish lap at a time inside angular circuits (many of which appeared in the first F-Zero game for the SNES) packed with hairpin twists, razor-sharp curves, explosive traps, shortcuts, and sudden leaps.

Greed for Speed

GP Legend improves on Velocity, taking cues from GX for the GameCube by incorporating a Story mode that lets you unlock and play as various racers as you progress. The serpentine, multicharacter-driven story lines keep things fresh, but you?ll find yourself button-bopping through the anime-style cut-scenes to get to the next race?this is not so much a complaint about the narrative as a ringing endorsement of the addictive thrills that races provide. After unlocking characters in Story mode, you can select them in the Grand Prix mode, which is the true gem here. It features over 30 selectable racers and lets you perform some prerace balancing between your craft?s top speed and acceleration, depending on whether the next track you race requires a reliance on drifts and quick recovery speed, or the maintaining of a steady pace.

Turbo Boost

In addition to augmented physics, the control scheme has also been tweaked since Velocity so that ships handle better than before. You boost by simultaneously pressing the shoulder buttons, and you can now generate a protective force field and knock opponents into barriers without taking any damage. Although graphical details have been sacrificed on behalf of blazing speeds with no faltering, everything moves so quickly you won?t even notice. Damn fast, damn challenging, and thoroughly addictive, F-Zero: GP Legend dominates the handheld circuit.

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