"Back when Captain Falcon was known more for his racing than his punching."

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

When the Super Nintendo released in North America, it launched with a mere five games. It may not seem like a lot, but these games were no slouches. The lineup consisted of Super Mario World, Pilotwings, Gradius III, Sim City, and F-Zero. Quite a strong launch, I’d say.

F-Zero in particular went on to have numerous sequels, as well as play a very influential role in the racing genre. But before all that, there was the original; a launch game for a system now two decades old.

In F-Zero, players pilot one of four insanely fast hovercars as they race across futuristic tracks, often situated high above cityscapes or rugged terrain. The game is light on modes. Either you play the Grand Prix, which is divided into three circuits across four difficulty settings (one of which must be unlocked), or you delve into the game’s practice mode which only contains seven of the game’s fifteen tracks.

Every race in F-Zero consists of five laps. Rather than give you points based off your placement to total up at the end of the circuit, F-Zero only cares if you’re within a “safe” rank. At first, you only have to be within the top fifteen, but with each lap the safe rank becomes smaller until finally it reaches three. If you’re placed outside the safe rank when you finish the lap, you lose a life.

Since there are only four playable cars, every other car on the track uses a single, generic design. Even if you’re in first place, you’ll lap countless generic racers, some of which will be on the verge of exploding. Hitting them can ruin an otherwise perfect lap.

For each lap you complete, you’ll gain a single boost. You can hold up to three of them at once. Unfortunately, F-Zero has some of the worst rubber banding AI I’ve ever seen. Whether or not you just managed to squeeze into first place or you’re setting the world record for the track, the computer controlled players will be right behind you. Because of this, it becomes useless to use your boost if you are already in first (unless the flashing signal indicates you’re about to be passed). That is… IF you’re playing to win against the computer.

But you shouldn’t play to beat the computer. Beating the computer is a moot point when it comes to F-Zero‘s AI. You could easily have a better finishing time in third place than you did when you finished in first. Rank is incidental. Instead, what makes the game addicting is that after you complete a circuit, all of your lap times and track times get entered into the records section. The reason you should use those boosts is not to pass your AI opponent, but to pass the opponent better known as “the current track’s best time”.

And what makes beating the best time so addictive is that, even today, F-Zero‘s driving controls are solid as a rock. You can use the L and R buttons to strafe your ship or turn extra sharp when using them in conjunction with the d-pad. The silky smooth turning allows you to drift around insane 90 degree, zigzag, and hairpin turns.

But these tracks have more than complex layouts to throw at you. Every wall is lined with a grippy surface that deals damage. There are also plenty of obstacles including mines, magnetic strips, jumps, and ice covered roads (which for some reason affect hovercars). But it’s not without respite. There are glowing strips you can drive over to regain some of your health.

"A machine actually coming over to heal your ship is a nice touch."

Why did I pick this game?

To anyone that knows me, it’s no secret that I am an F-Zero fan. While I’ve never had the chance to play the 64DD expansion of F-Zero X, I have managed to play everything else the series has to offer. That includes the Satellaview sequel, the Japan-only F-Zero Climax on GBA, and even F-Zero AX in the arcade.

F-Zero was one of the only games I owned for the SNES for quite some time. While I still consider its GameCube successor, F-Zero GX, to be the greatest racing game of all time, I wanted to revisit the original game that first made me care so much about racing.

How does it hold up with time?

The controls of F-Zero feel as tight today as they did twenty years ago. Everything about the core gameplay is still great. The Mode7 graphics, while flat, aren’t too bad to look at and the soundtrack is full of very memorable, high energy tunes (one of which can be found in one of our podcast stingers).

However, the AI of the other racers is downright horrendous. The game is also very light on features, probably because it was a launch game. There’s no multiplayer to speak of and there are only four hovercars to choose from. The only unlockable is a fourth difficulty setting.

Still, if you’re looking for a solid racer to perform time trials on, there’s a lot of fun to be had with F-Zero. If only they would patch in online leaderboards to the Virtual Console version on Wii. Then I would be set for life.

Tags: 64DD, f-zero, F-Zero AX, F-Zero Climax, f-zero gx, Friday Old Games, racing, Satellaview, SNES, virtual console, Wii

This entry was posted on Friday, May 14th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.