Going back to F-Zero in 2021 ticks different boxes to what it would've ticked upon its original release. It's no longer a top-of-the-pile graphical tour de force and as a racing game it has been bettered by not only its direct sequels but a lot of other games on the SNES.

It's a weird one. It isn't really a racing game, the four enemy cars that make up the chasing pack aren't really difficult to beat and the countless non-ranked additional vehicles are simply obstacles to avoid. Finishing in the qualification spaces is almost a formality, but that's not really what the game is about. F-Zero is a game about track mastery at high speeds and still satisfies in that regard. Being able to utilise the shoulder buttons to turn sharper and the way that dropping and firing up the engines instantly changes movement direction makes cornering feel fantastic and there's so much in the way of subtle changes you can make to improve your racing line.

This is all stuff that was refined and improved upon in F-Zero X but it is nice to see that, even when stripped back to its most basic form, the things that make F-Zero so good to play hold up and its no surprise the series has the reputation it has, given that the base it has been built upon remains solid.