Finding old secrets in video games is what gets me up in the morning. Ok, that's a little bit of an exaggeration (it's also tea and Weetabix), but discovering things about games we thought we knew decades after they were released is a fantastic feeling. It's just like when we discovered the secret twist hidden inside the Godzilla Tamagotchi, or that time cheats for Ken Griffey Jr’s Winning Run. Ok, the Godzilla one was slightly more exciting, but you get the general idea.
F-Zero GX was one of my favourite games when I first got my GameCube. I'd always loved racing games and knew that Double Dash would be one of the games I spent the most time on, but the extreme speeds of GX were insanely good. The graphics still stand up today too; I played it recently and the attention to detail on the levels is fantastic.
Nintendo haven't made an F-Zero game since; I don't know whether they thought it couldn't be beaten, or whether there just aren't speeds fast enough anymore, but it remains the last and ultimate entry in the series. And now, a modder from Japan called BTEST4HE has discovered master unlock codes and special debug codes to unlock gold pieces for the vehicle editor mode.
And yes, the codes work on the Switch 2; I've tested them myself.
Displayed on Bluesky by NAP (WVGCW Ren'Py Guy) and shown by Nintendo Wire in a recent article, the cheats for the gold parts bring them into the store for players to purchase, but you'll still need tickets to obtain them. It means that you don't have to travel back in time to go to in-person events with F-Zero AX Arcade cabinets and take your GCN Memory Card to unlock them, which, as we all know, is impossible. And as I in the UK never got a chance to go to these events and they didn't happen anywhere else in the world than Japan, there will be thousands upon thousands of gamers who have never experienced these parts.
The tough part of the cheat entry is that you need four controllers plugged into your GameCube, and you need to input the same code on each controller at the same time. Time to call your friends.
Here are the codes for the custom machines that require all four controllers.
- Thunderstorm – X, Z, Y, Z, X, Z, Y, X
- El Dorado – X, RIGHT, X, Z, Y, LEFT, LEFT, Z
- Chrono Symphony – LEFT, RIGHT, Z, RIGHT, LEFT, X, RIGHT, Z
- Bahamut – Y, Y, Z, RIGHT, LEFT, Z, X, Y
- Gladiator – RIGHT, Z, X, LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, Z, X
Here are the codes for the AX Machines & Courses as well as Dark Schneider. You'll need just one controller for these cheats, and you enter them on the F-Zero GX Shop Screen.
- All AX Machines Unlocked: X, Y, LEFT, RIGHT, Z, Z, RIGHT, LEFT, Y, X, Z, Z, Y, Y, RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT
- Dark Schneider Unlocked: Z, Z, Z, X, X, X, X, Y, Y, LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT, Y, Y
- All AX Courses Unlocked: X, X, LEFT, RIGHT, Y, Z, Z, Y, LEFT, RIGHT, X, LEFT, RIGHT, Z, X, RIGHT, LEFT, Y, Y
What are you waiting for? Get your copy of F-Zero GX and get cracking!
