I loved F-Zero GX on GameCube, but I’ve never played the N64 version before. It turns out I love this version, too, even though it feels a lot more brutal than I remember GX being. This is Nintendo’s take on the sci-fi racer genre, and it does a great job at it.
F-Zero X features a whopping 30 racers at once (each with a unique ship) and – even with some obvious rubber banding – they all move like actual opponents, making mistakes and reacting to your presence. The game goes a great job at remaining smooth by adjusting the level of detail as the framerate is perfect throughout. The tracks twist and turn and it’s all incredibly fast.
One key part of the game is the energy bar. On top of representing your health, it’s also your boost. There are places to recharge on the track (usually near the end of a lap) so a key part of the game is deciding how much you’re willing to risk in order to go faster. Blow up and you lose a life and have to start the race again.
The tracks in F-Zero X start out quite gentle, but things take a sudden turn in the last track of the second cup (there are four cups in total, with 6 tracks each) and you’ll start getting thin portions of the track with no edges – fall off and you’re not placed back like other games, you lose a life and start again. Just surviving the tracks becomes the main challenge until you start learning them.
Not every choice is made against the player, though. You have barge attacks and a spin attack at your disposal. Take someone else and they won’t score any points for that round. To make good use of this, the game even highlights you rival (the opponent with the highest score) so you can try to target specific opponents and pick them out of the crowd.
On top of the leagues (which have four difficulties) and multiplayer, there’s a few extra modes. There’s an unlockable X cup that serves you up procedurally generated tracks and a “death race” mode where you race around a short track trying to take out every other racer (I personally would prefer if you could do this on other tracks as well).
F-Zero X is a great game that is quite full of stuff to do. It’s still a ton of fun today.
F-Zero X features a whopping 30 racers at once (each with a unique ship) and – even with some obvious rubber banding – they all move like actual opponents, making mistakes and reacting to your presence. The game goes a great job at remaining smooth by adjusting the level of detail as the framerate is perfect throughout. The tracks twist and turn and it’s all incredibly fast.
One key part of the game is the energy bar. On top of representing your health, it’s also your boost. There are places to recharge on the track (usually near the end of a lap) so a key part of the game is deciding how much you’re willing to risk in order to go faster. Blow up and you lose a life and have to start the race again.
The tracks in F-Zero X start out quite gentle, but things take a sudden turn in the last track of the second cup (there are four cups in total, with 6 tracks each) and you’ll start getting thin portions of the track with no edges – fall off and you’re not placed back like other games, you lose a life and start again. Just surviving the tracks becomes the main challenge until you start learning them.
Not every choice is made against the player, though. You have barge attacks and a spin attack at your disposal. Take someone else and they won’t score any points for that round. To make good use of this, the game even highlights you rival (the opponent with the highest score) so you can try to target specific opponents and pick them out of the crowd.
On top of the leagues (which have four difficulties) and multiplayer, there’s a few extra modes. There’s an unlockable X cup that serves you up procedurally generated tracks and a “death race” mode where you race around a short track trying to take out every other racer (I personally would prefer if you could do this on other tracks as well).
F-Zero X is a great game that is quite full of stuff to do. It’s still a ton of fun today.
Considering I loved F-Zero GX when I was younger, I jumped into its N64 predecessor expecting a "weaker version" of the gamecube title.... but I got surprised to see it wasn't the case.
It's kinda true that it lacks a lot of stuff compared to GX (less pilots, weaker presentaion, lack of goofy story mode, but the this series have been able to stand out extremely well, thanks to a bombastic gameplay and a risk reward system that makes every race harsh and enthrilling.
The track designs is solid and always caomes out with new gimmicks that makes you sweat at the first try... but makes you want to push forward on multiple races. And thanks to quick old school cheats you are able to enjoy the game to its fullest even without the necessity to farm and win every cup: just a quick set of button mashing and you are able to enjoy the incredibly varied roster and track selection from the get go (THIS GAME EVEN HAS A LITERAL RAINBOW ROAD).
As said before for GX, F-zero is more than a racing game: it's an experience. It's like the most adrenaline inducing and blood pumping ride in the history of racing games, so bombastic in everything it does that it will make you come back over and over again.
THe fact that Mario Kart 64 is a more beloved title than this is honestly blasphemous.
It's kinda true that it lacks a lot of stuff compared to GX (less pilots, weaker presentaion, lack of goofy story mode, but the this series have been able to stand out extremely well, thanks to a bombastic gameplay and a risk reward system that makes every race harsh and enthrilling.
The track designs is solid and always caomes out with new gimmicks that makes you sweat at the first try... but makes you want to push forward on multiple races. And thanks to quick old school cheats you are able to enjoy the game to its fullest even without the necessity to farm and win every cup: just a quick set of button mashing and you are able to enjoy the incredibly varied roster and track selection from the get go (THIS GAME EVEN HAS A LITERAL RAINBOW ROAD).
As said before for GX, F-zero is more than a racing game: it's an experience. It's like the most adrenaline inducing and blood pumping ride in the history of racing games, so bombastic in everything it does that it will make you come back over and over again.
THe fact that Mario Kart 64 is a more beloved title than this is honestly blasphemous.
NOW THAT'S SOME RACING