guess im on a retro binge, huh?
f-zero is a game that is full of clear cut bullshit, way more clear than dkc2. from the shitty physics engine, to the game turning into Bullshit Bumper Cars on Death Wind II(FUCK DEATH WIND II), to the random ass cars on the track that have no influence on your rank(why are they here????). there is so much bullshit here, the game so clearly favors your opponents, id be hard pressed not to call half the tracks rigged. which let's not kid ourselves, half the systems here are half baked, from the health system(which is genius but lacks good execution), which adds to the rigged nature of this game.
take the power/health system. giving you health adds a great risk reward, either you can go off course to heal if you need to, or you can risk it if youre low health, and play the best gamings of your life so that you can keep your place. but here's the problem with this system, the collision system is so ass that if you merely tap another car on the road, you usually end up getting stuck in a tight corner, getting passed between the damaging borders, and keep getting stuck there, not being able to get out because one after the other cars keep fucking hitting you. if you survive this unfair onslaught then youre usually fucked anyway, your health is way too low at this point to survive much else, so either you need to heal and lower your spot in the race even further, diminishing any chance of winning at all. or you just end up dying if you forgo the healing(which ill say, i do not appreciate the game peaking my headphones every time i crash. terrible sound design). anyway, you can see how the health system for these cars is a great idea, but meshed with the shitty physics engine, it works poorly
and that's another thing, the collision is totally rigged. hit a car from behind, you go spiraling and get your health crushed to oblivion, while the ai goes on it's merry way. you get hit from behind, you turn into a ballistic missile, slam into a wall, your speed halts to a crawl and you need to slowly turn whilst taking damage on the border to get back in the race. if a car hits you in the air, you get knocked out of bounds and die. to my knowledge, you cannot do this to the ai. if you hit them in the air, you also get fucked and knocked out of bounds. lets not forget to mention, all the unranked cars... what is their purpose???? why are they unranked? i think the intent was to not make things smooth sailing if you hit first, but the intent lacks execution. on wide tracks like mute city or red canyon, you can just fly right past them without much thought. on narrow tracks, if you so as much as tap them they can trigger a chain reaction where you get bumped 3 or 4 places behind. this is especially apparent on tracks like Death Wind II and Port Town II. honestly, these two tracks are way harder than mute city III and red canyon II, and even fire field. i beat them both once and then save stated past them because beating both DW2 and PT2 is almost completely up to rng, even if youre breaking and such. the track selection in king league is so weird, half of them are easy and the other half is total bull. anyway, the point is, these unranked cars are only a frustration. iirc(idk its been a year+) ridge racer type 4 had a much better solution to this. you start last every race and the goal was to get in the top 3, then 2, and 1. if you were skilled enough to reach 1st in that game early, the only opponent you had left was your own nerves, and that to me is a much better opponent than bullshit unranked cars that keep spawning.
despite all this bullshit, despite the rigged nature of f-zero, this game is fantastic. it feels wonderful when you beat something so clearly against you with your own willpower. when the puzzle pieces line up perfectly, the game's a masterpiece. probably my favorite retro ost. every track is banging, it's so good. there's no other place this is evident better than the final track of the game, fire field. it's an endurance track, full of tight turns, land mines, and ofc everyone's favorite, unranked cars that fuck you over... but the more you play, the more you discover ways to flip things in your favor, from purposely ramming into cars to make them blow up on mines for you, then using that momentum to carry you into the tight turn... or going on the healing runway while braking, then getting on the boost pad, regaining all your speed and then some. when you engage with the bullshit, there's such a tightly controlled racer that's on display. unfortunately, this philosophy isn't present in every track, and there could be some areas of improvement. like being able to fuck other racers more, like permanently outing them by bumping into them on a ramp. or more opportunities to use the unranked cars as fodder, instead of as an annoying, unfair headache.
regardless this was a great experience with a wonderful ost. im sold on the series, dunno when id play the next one though. hopefully i can get through mg1 and 2 and metroid before monday when p3r is slated to arrive. i might just do metroid before p3r anyway, idk.
f-zero is a game that is full of clear cut bullshit, way more clear than dkc2. from the shitty physics engine, to the game turning into Bullshit Bumper Cars on Death Wind II(FUCK DEATH WIND II), to the random ass cars on the track that have no influence on your rank(why are they here????). there is so much bullshit here, the game so clearly favors your opponents, id be hard pressed not to call half the tracks rigged. which let's not kid ourselves, half the systems here are half baked, from the health system(which is genius but lacks good execution), which adds to the rigged nature of this game.
take the power/health system. giving you health adds a great risk reward, either you can go off course to heal if you need to, or you can risk it if youre low health, and play the best gamings of your life so that you can keep your place. but here's the problem with this system, the collision system is so ass that if you merely tap another car on the road, you usually end up getting stuck in a tight corner, getting passed between the damaging borders, and keep getting stuck there, not being able to get out because one after the other cars keep fucking hitting you. if you survive this unfair onslaught then youre usually fucked anyway, your health is way too low at this point to survive much else, so either you need to heal and lower your spot in the race even further, diminishing any chance of winning at all. or you just end up dying if you forgo the healing(which ill say, i do not appreciate the game peaking my headphones every time i crash. terrible sound design). anyway, you can see how the health system for these cars is a great idea, but meshed with the shitty physics engine, it works poorly
and that's another thing, the collision is totally rigged. hit a car from behind, you go spiraling and get your health crushed to oblivion, while the ai goes on it's merry way. you get hit from behind, you turn into a ballistic missile, slam into a wall, your speed halts to a crawl and you need to slowly turn whilst taking damage on the border to get back in the race. if a car hits you in the air, you get knocked out of bounds and die. to my knowledge, you cannot do this to the ai. if you hit them in the air, you also get fucked and knocked out of bounds. lets not forget to mention, all the unranked cars... what is their purpose???? why are they unranked? i think the intent was to not make things smooth sailing if you hit first, but the intent lacks execution. on wide tracks like mute city or red canyon, you can just fly right past them without much thought. on narrow tracks, if you so as much as tap them they can trigger a chain reaction where you get bumped 3 or 4 places behind. this is especially apparent on tracks like Death Wind II and Port Town II. honestly, these two tracks are way harder than mute city III and red canyon II, and even fire field. i beat them both once and then save stated past them because beating both DW2 and PT2 is almost completely up to rng, even if youre breaking and such. the track selection in king league is so weird, half of them are easy and the other half is total bull. anyway, the point is, these unranked cars are only a frustration. iirc(idk its been a year+) ridge racer type 4 had a much better solution to this. you start last every race and the goal was to get in the top 3, then 2, and 1. if you were skilled enough to reach 1st in that game early, the only opponent you had left was your own nerves, and that to me is a much better opponent than bullshit unranked cars that keep spawning.
despite all this bullshit, despite the rigged nature of f-zero, this game is fantastic. it feels wonderful when you beat something so clearly against you with your own willpower. when the puzzle pieces line up perfectly, the game's a masterpiece. probably my favorite retro ost. every track is banging, it's so good. there's no other place this is evident better than the final track of the game, fire field. it's an endurance track, full of tight turns, land mines, and ofc everyone's favorite, unranked cars that fuck you over... but the more you play, the more you discover ways to flip things in your favor, from purposely ramming into cars to make them blow up on mines for you, then using that momentum to carry you into the tight turn... or going on the healing runway while braking, then getting on the boost pad, regaining all your speed and then some. when you engage with the bullshit, there's such a tightly controlled racer that's on display. unfortunately, this philosophy isn't present in every track, and there could be some areas of improvement. like being able to fuck other racers more, like permanently outing them by bumping into them on a ramp. or more opportunities to use the unranked cars as fodder, instead of as an annoying, unfair headache.
regardless this was a great experience with a wonderful ost. im sold on the series, dunno when id play the next one though. hopefully i can get through mg1 and 2 and metroid before monday when p3r is slated to arrive. i might just do metroid before p3r anyway, idk.