I'm stuck on story chapter 3. (maybe 2?). The one where you go chill in a bar and end up racing on the squarish track with clowns.

I'm not even close to keeping up with the pack. There are jumps on the track. Is there some huge shortcut to take? I wasn't able to do anything more than cut a corner with them.

Also, does anyone have a favorite car? I've been using the one the babe drives (White Wolf?), but haven't tried many others. I'm not going to try building one till I get a huge selection of parts.

Can't help you with the chapter 3 question as I am stuck on chapter 2. I picked the game up yesterday and have only had like 1 hour to play so far. As for my favorite car...it has always been, since the SNES F-Zero, and always will be the Fire Stingray driven by Samurai Goroh.

yeah, it is possible to beat Chapter 3 . I just did yesterday and it felt pretty good when I did.

It took me a ton of tries, I used The Blue Falcon for it. I kept coming in at 11th or so place until. Then after awhile I got the hang of the course and started getting 3rd.

The key is to use the jumps to hop over to the next section of track and skip going around it. On your second lap when you get boost power, you should use the boost RIGHT BEFORE you hit the jump. You'll get a HUGE boost which will send your car flying and you'll be able to make even bigger shortcuts across the corners. There's one near the end that lets you skip a whole zig-zag section if you hit it right. And use the boosts for the corners too. There were a couple times I used the boost so much my craft started blinking red but luckily there's restores on the track. Those are the keys to winning this one, at least for me it was. Just keep trying.

Some may not have noticed this because its sorta hidden, the game sometimes gives little hints in the scrolling text for the tough courses in the upper right part of the screen on the track selection. Thats how I figured out about the jumps.

Just beat hard mode on Chapter 2, still can't beat hard in Chapter 1 though. Any tips?

I used to use the Fire Stingray because it was my favorite from F-Zero SNES.

I use the white cat and the Queen/King racers now. I found them to be much faster.

EDIT: Just beat chapter 3. You have to boost like crazy. Hitting boost RIGHT before a jump made a big difference. I was boosting slightly earlier.

I am having the same difficulty with hard in Ch1. I must be doing something wrong because even without picking up much I can barely get around the track 3 times.

Boost, boost, boost, charge and boost. The chapter 1 can be beaten in under 60 with proper boosting. If I remember, there are 2 recharge strips per lap.

If I just try to win the race on the hard mode on Chapter 1, I can usually get to the finish with about 4 or 5 seconds left on the clock without getting any of the capsules

Haven't been able to get all the capsules. My record is 27/30. Almost there. It requires some nifty drifting with the L and R buttons to get more than one at the same time. I think it might be beatable .

I am going to have to work on my drifting skills. I need to figure out how to work the boosts without burning up my ship. Thanks for the tip. Did you beat it Pixy? If so does it pay anyhing to complete it?

if remember correctly, there is no option of novie, standard or hard mode for story or is there?. I'm on chapter 5 now but chapter 3 seemed to be the hardest 1 of all chapters so far.

I spent an hour on this game last night and didn't beat a damn thing. The wavebird got tossed. Argh.

Hard is fine, but Chapter three is akin to the MASTER levels on SNES and 64.

No there is no changing the difficulty on Story until you beat it, then it opens up a hard option. As if.

My question about story mode is do you ever get to choose a different car to race with? I ask this because I hate the Blue Falcon car. I am also stuck on chapter 3. Has anybody played the wild courses in the Sapphire(green) Cup on Grand Prix mode? Those courses are soo much fun!

After you beat a chapter in the story mode you will unlock the Hard mode of it. When they say hard they mean it too. Its not unbeatable though, but its no pushover either. I don't know if there is an expert mode also in the story mode, it sounds like suicide.

Chapter 3 is a ton of fun when you get the hang of it. You need to use the boost to pass up the other racers on the track. When your energy gets to about half way down I usually start taking out the other racers to restore the energy. Some of the cars only require 1 spin attack to be destroyed, then you boost on up. There were times I'd pick off the enemies, boost to the next , pick the next one off, theres sort of a rhythm to the level. Even with this you'll most likely catch up to Chain's vehicle as you come out of the final loop. There is enough time to destroy his ship still.

As a side note that I didn't notice before, the game keeps track of how many kills you get in race in the upper right corner marked by a skull for each racer you blow up.

I just beat the escape from the power plant chapter on hard. I got 3 parts and some money for winning.

Beating it on hard opens up an extra hard difficulty. I don't see how you could beat it. I had a near perfect run to beat hard in 43 seconds. Extra hard requires you do it in 40 flat.

I am SO loving this game.

Though, I'm having a problem (not playing story mode yet)..

I can beat all 5 tracks on Ruby 1st place, no problems.. I can do some pretty ill stuff too.. Sapphire however, I can get 1st in ALMOST all the first four tracks (seems to always end up in 8th on Big Blue) BUT I HAVE YET TO EVEN FINISH MUTE CITY!! OMG.. I'm going to be sick.. it never fails, I fall off somewhere. Even if I do a PERFECT first 2 laps, some jackass will hit me on the ice and send me flying. ARGH..

(Otherwise, awesome game!)

It took me 3 tries to finish chapter 3. I found not using the jumps on the last lap helped me for some reason, maybe because the jumps slowed me down, I dunno. So far I haven't found any chapter so difficult I wanted to chuck my controller, although I haven't played chapter 6 yet.

Wait till you get to the last chapter. The track is huge and has no walls. I hate it.

Chapter 7 is getting me. Any tips on how to beat it?

There was actually one part I forgot to mention about ch. 3. While you are in the air you can shift the weight of your ship by pushing up or down. You always want to minimize the air resistance, otherwise there will be tons of drag and even though you stay in the air longer it slows you down. There a balance. But it there are multiple strategies to that level .

Yea, I had a tendency to push up a little to far, right off the track lol.

If this is the one where you are racing everyone, you *have* to take out the Black Shadow car. He cheats big time with super speed and boost. I took him out at the beginning. It's still not easy though, even if you take him out.

I have the same problem. If you think the sapphire courses are hard wait till you get the the crazy tracks in the emerald cup. Truly mind-boggling and lots of fun...maybe a tad easier as well. I also have a new favorite car...the Red Gazelle!

I just finished the Sapphire but I'm going to sleep and going to try Emerald tomorrow.. still died 3 times on that damn Mute City track.. often times it's thing that I'm not in control of, either I'm pushed off (usually by the ice) or I jump awkward and end up all over the place.

I just lost all interest in this game. I enjoy hard games but this one is cheating now. I'm on the Master Cups now and it's just stupid. Ruby Cup first stage I can't even place in the top ten, pretty much impossible with Captain Falcon and my custom one. I'm also starting to get flashbacks to Mario Kart 64 with the rubberband A.I. I was in first place on one of the stages until the last 5 seconds of the race when a comp racer blasts past me at a impossible speed. That whole race no comps were near me till then.

The computer likes to boost like crazy to the finish. You need a car with good boost to keep up. Try using Red Gazelle or Queen Meteor.

For the first stage, I have been fastest using Death Anchor (the developer ghost is also a Death Anchor).

The only time I think the computer cheated was on the chapter 7 with Black Shadow. I'm still trying to get expert on the last cup to move up to master.