F-Zero X Review (Nintendo 64, 1998)

A large part of the joy we all had during the 32/64-bit era was waiting to see how are favorite franchises would be updated in 3D. The various Nintendo series were in particular a real treat. The company was regularly re-defining genres in this generation, and they always set the bar incredibly high. F-Zero X doesn’t seem to get as many accolades as the rest of their line-up. This was the first sequel to their SNES launch racing game of the same name (minus the X, of course). I remember this one being advertised for the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive add-on, but it came out in the West in just plain old cartridge format. I didn’t really give it the time of day back in the 90s, but recently decided to fire it up. You know what I found? F-Zero X is incredible.

There’s not a whole lot of narrative here. This game is a fully 3D racing title that uses a behind the craft perspective. F-Zero X basically takes place in the future using high speed hovercrafts on tracks above various cities and natural landscapes. These can travel at such velocity that they can drive on all sides of tube based tracks, cling to ceilings, and also fly for a short duration over ramps. They aren’t completely invulnerable however as these vehicles are destroyed if they fly off a track into the city below, and also blow up when they sustain enough damage. Each race involves thirty different crafts all competing for the top spot. This was really impressive for its time.

Normally I don’t like to start a review by going over all the technical mumbo jumbo, but in this case it’s warranted. Even with that many different opponents participating at once, and potentially all on-screen, the game runs at a constant and smooth sixty frames per second. That’s crazy. Even for the Nintendo 64. It also helps that the game is fast. Let me rephrase that. Other futuristic racers like Wipeout are fast. F-Zero X in comparison is blistering. The sense of speed here is unrivaled in any other racing game from this era. I was extremely surprised that even with such old tech Nintendo was able to push such a technically impressive racing engine. It must have been absolutely mind blowing at the time of release.

Gameplay is just as fun as it is fast. The basic style of course is the same here as it was in the original F-Zero consisting of platforms suspended in the air, but has been tastefully updated to take advantage of its 3D trappings. Generally the racing corridors are a bit narrow. You have only a few basic actions you can perform while driving. The A button is gas, B brake, the C buttons change the camera angles, and the Z/R keys use the drift function. Not only does the latter help you make the trickier turns without having to slam the brakes but it also allows you to damage enemies if you use it while close enough on the corresponding side. This is  neat feature but not one I always used. In some of the more difficult races I found it came in handy for eliminating foes.

What’s also impressive is the sheer number of options you have as far as racers go. You can select from thirty racers, but only a fraction of these are available in the beginning. You have to unlock the rest by winning in the grand prix. Each racer is rated from A to E on three factors. Body is the first of these. This determines the armor level of your craft and therefore how much damage you take. The next is boost. It’s pretty self explanatory; this rating has to do with how effective your boosts are. Finally we have grip. Think of this like traction. It’s the category that determines how well your craft can make turns. There’s one area of customization no matter the racer. Before each match you can appropriate points on a scale toward either acceleration or top speed.

The track designs are absolutely crazy. The jump to 3D graphics affect the gameplay in some pretty significant ways. For one thing we now have hills. The sense of speed is enhanced a lot by the fact that you can climb in elevation, and it sure beats the old mode-7 engine the original F-Zero used. Several stages also now have tunnels. As I mentioned earlier these crafts are not held back by gravity, and you can fly on all sides of these. Other sections feature tubes you fly on the outside of which makes for a really neat effect. What I found really neat is the fact that sound courses go completely upside down and you can barely tell except for the sky being below you. Some of the tricks the developers pulled off in this game are really amazing.

One of the more interesting twists is the X-cup. This is one of the series of races you can participate in, but it has its own fair share of twists. The major difference here is that the track layouts are randomly generated. This means that you can’t rely on track memorization to succeed here because things will be fairly different each time around. At first I was expecting these alterations to be minor. That’s not the case. It’s so significant that the dynamics of each race are almost completely altered. While I’m not usually a fan of randomly generated content in this case it was really cool. That’s because the entire game isn’t centered around the idea. Having just one series of races randomly generated offers the best of both worlds to gamers that both want to memorize tracks as well as get something new each time.

The game has several different modes of play. Grand Prix is the main one with you competing against up to thirty other racers through a series of different courses. You gain points based on your placement and the overall winner is given the trophy at the end. You also have a time trial mode. This simply allows you to race solo, or against a ghost player (based on your previous runs or those of the developers). The high point however is versus mode. Here you can compete with up to four total human players via split screen. The game handles this exceptionally well with only minor frame rate issues.

Unfortunately F-Zero X isn’t perfect. One of the major issues here is the difficulty. Even on the lowest setting it’s still a really tough game. The courses require fine precision with breakneck speeds, narrow tracks, and sharp turns. The jumps can be particularly brutal. Sometimes you will need to re-adjust your aim mid-air in order to land back on the track. This wouldn’t be an issue except for the fact that if you fall off into the city below it’s an instant loss. F-Zero X isn’t Mario Kart, after all. Simply keeping your craft from blowing up and on the track is difficult enough, but you also have to contend with the other racers and coming in first. You’re also given just a few lives, and once these are spent it’s game over. F-Zero X may seem like it’s for kids with the goofy art style but it’s not.

Another major issue is the fact that the physics are a bit wonky. No matter which vehicle you choose you’ll bounce off the walls like you’re made of rubber. This causes numerous issues. Some tracks have very narrow corridors. In these situations knocking into the side can cause a pinball effect as you bounce back and forth. The worst thing is that every time you bump into something your health is drained. I’ve had situations where I had over half my shields and wound up going into a death spin back and forth into the walls. I can’t help but feel like this issue was unintentional and overlooked during development. The game is already difficult without this problem, but when you’re navigating narrow areas with several other racers it can result in an instant kiss of death.

F-Zero is a pretty good looking game truth be told. I touched on some of the technical stuff earlier. It’s worth mentioning again that F-Zero X runs at a super steady sixty frames per second. With the speed at which it moves it almost looks like something that could have come out on the Nintendo 64. In motion it might just be one of the best looking titles on the platform. Unfortunately the scenery is pretty sparse. The cityscape below looks pretty nice, but it’s a bit flat when you get closer views. The only real drawback however is the weird art style. It screams 90s, but in the worst way possible. The character portraits are really off-putting. The soundtrack is really well done. Despite being streamed off a cartridge it is all surprisingly high quality. The best parts of it are remixed songs from the first game.