The Nintendo 64 was no stranger to the arcade-style racing game, and one of the biggest strengths of the console was that it had something in the genre for everyone. Mario Kart 64 had the lovable cast, Diddy Kong Racing the fantastic adventure mode, Wave Race 64 the impressive water physics. But what if you just wanted to go fast? And not, like, 150cc fast. Like, really fast. If that was what you were looking for, there was only one thing to cast your eyes towards; F-Zero. The series debuted on the SNES along with the console, and was impressive enough as a launch title in the 16-bit era, but it was clear that it, as with most racing series, would benefit from a fully 3D environment. That promise was realized in 1998, when F-Zero X released for the N64.
F-Zero X is a great racing game, and that's because it gets the fundamentals down while offering an experience no other game can quite match. This is a game that goes all in on its sense of speed and high-octane, high-adrenaline gameplay, and it delivers that feeling expertly. It's blisteringly fast, and every race is always teetering on the edge of glory and disaster. You almost feel the wind on your face as you navigate sharp turns, narrowly dodge other racers, and hit all the boost pads. And the 3D environment lets the tracks, which are admittedly still a bit generic and bland, be a bit more expressive and contain more unique elements that benefit from the added depth perception. The game never looks particularly good-these graphics were already aged by the time the game was released in 1998-but as a result, the game runs at a buttery smooth 60 fps, which is incredible for the time, but also instrumental into making this game feel great to play in the modern age, especially with all the moving parts. The roster of racers shot up dramatically from only 4 in the original to 30 in this version, and you race against all of them. That makes the beginning of races particularly chaotic, and creates more opportunities to both destroy your car, and also weave in and out of traffic seamlessly.
It's clear that the goal of the F-Zero series is to take racing and ramp it up to 11, and if the original did just that, F-Zero X pushes the dial up to 12. The soundtrack is clear evidence of this; the first thing you hear when you boot the game up is a heavy electric guitar. It won't be everyone's cup of tea for sure, but it's delightfully unapologetic and authentic. It also brings in a much needed feature which was absent from the debut title; split-screen multiplayer, and with 4 players, at that. This was a borderline necessity, and it's a bit of a shame that there isn't the extra carnage of 30 racers in multiplayer mode, but it's still a good choice for a burst of fun. That's basically F-Zero X's modus operandi, and it works for the game just about as often as it doesn't. The races are super fast, and only the homage to MK64's Rainbow Road and the final course Big Hand regularly clock in at over a minute and a half. This is good; it showcases the speed well and limits frustration in the event of a crash or game over. It's also a pretty quick game in general, and the lack of variety in courses makes the lack of variety in gameplay all the more apparent. It's very much an arcade game in a console game's shell, and that's absolutely not a bad thing, but the content doesn't diversify itself too much.
Of course, games were shorter around this time, and the game has more relevant flaws. F-Zero X actually has a decent learning curve, and its multifaceted way of increasing difficulty is interesting, but it might be a bit too steep at the higher levels. For each difficulty, you can expect to have one less car and harder opponents, and for the first 3 difficulties, this is a good sense of progression. The unlockable Master difficulty, though, takes things a bit too far with incredibly rapid rival opponents (which, barring their destruction, are basically guaranteed to get top spots) and very limited cars. It seems like, in some races, most of the racers are working not to win the race, but stop you from progressing, and this comes in the form of nearly unavoidable collisions. Sometimes cars will slow to a crawl when they're directly in front of you, and too often, you'll receive a light tap on the back of your car, sending you flying into the barricade. It's understandable that this would be a feature in a high-flying racing game, but it's a bit frustrating when it only seems to affect your car.
F-Zero X doesn't have the stylized pixel graphics of the SNES, nor does it have the enhanced, smoother polygons of the Gamecube, but looks do not belay gameplay, and if there's one this thing game has, it's entertaining gameplay. It's a little rough around the edges, as basically all N64 games were, but it remains a short burst of high-voltage experience that is bound to have players bobbing their head left and right as they fight for first place-or explode trying.
F-Zero X is a great racing game, and that's because it gets the fundamentals down while offering an experience no other game can quite match. This is a game that goes all in on its sense of speed and high-octane, high-adrenaline gameplay, and it delivers that feeling expertly. It's blisteringly fast, and every race is always teetering on the edge of glory and disaster. You almost feel the wind on your face as you navigate sharp turns, narrowly dodge other racers, and hit all the boost pads. And the 3D environment lets the tracks, which are admittedly still a bit generic and bland, be a bit more expressive and contain more unique elements that benefit from the added depth perception. The game never looks particularly good-these graphics were already aged by the time the game was released in 1998-but as a result, the game runs at a buttery smooth 60 fps, which is incredible for the time, but also instrumental into making this game feel great to play in the modern age, especially with all the moving parts. The roster of racers shot up dramatically from only 4 in the original to 30 in this version, and you race against all of them. That makes the beginning of races particularly chaotic, and creates more opportunities to both destroy your car, and also weave in and out of traffic seamlessly.
It's clear that the goal of the F-Zero series is to take racing and ramp it up to 11, and if the original did just that, F-Zero X pushes the dial up to 12. The soundtrack is clear evidence of this; the first thing you hear when you boot the game up is a heavy electric guitar. It won't be everyone's cup of tea for sure, but it's delightfully unapologetic and authentic. It also brings in a much needed feature which was absent from the debut title; split-screen multiplayer, and with 4 players, at that. This was a borderline necessity, and it's a bit of a shame that there isn't the extra carnage of 30 racers in multiplayer mode, but it's still a good choice for a burst of fun. That's basically F-Zero X's modus operandi, and it works for the game just about as often as it doesn't. The races are super fast, and only the homage to MK64's Rainbow Road and the final course Big Hand regularly clock in at over a minute and a half. This is good; it showcases the speed well and limits frustration in the event of a crash or game over. It's also a pretty quick game in general, and the lack of variety in courses makes the lack of variety in gameplay all the more apparent. It's very much an arcade game in a console game's shell, and that's absolutely not a bad thing, but the content doesn't diversify itself too much.
Of course, games were shorter around this time, and the game has more relevant flaws. F-Zero X actually has a decent learning curve, and its multifaceted way of increasing difficulty is interesting, but it might be a bit too steep at the higher levels. For each difficulty, you can expect to have one less car and harder opponents, and for the first 3 difficulties, this is a good sense of progression. The unlockable Master difficulty, though, takes things a bit too far with incredibly rapid rival opponents (which, barring their destruction, are basically guaranteed to get top spots) and very limited cars. It seems like, in some races, most of the racers are working not to win the race, but stop you from progressing, and this comes in the form of nearly unavoidable collisions. Sometimes cars will slow to a crawl when they're directly in front of you, and too often, you'll receive a light tap on the back of your car, sending you flying into the barricade. It's understandable that this would be a feature in a high-flying racing game, but it's a bit frustrating when it only seems to affect your car.
F-Zero X doesn't have the stylized pixel graphics of the SNES, nor does it have the enhanced, smoother polygons of the Gamecube, but looks do not belay gameplay, and if there's one this thing game has, it's entertaining gameplay. It's a little rough around the edges, as basically all N64 games were, but it remains a short burst of high-voltage experience that is bound to have players bobbing their head left and right as they fight for first place-or explode trying.