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System:
SNES
Genre:
Racing
Publisher:
Nintendo
Developer:
Nintendo
Players:
1
Release date/year:
1990
Other systems:
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- F-Zero
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1990 Nintendo - Nintendo - SNES
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F Zero is the first attempt at a futuristic racing game by Nintendo. In my opinion a good attempt. I first heard of this game way back in the ''golden age'' of video gaming when the SNES was making the whole industry boom. I first heard of this game in an issue of Nintendo Power. I showed it to him, and something amazing happened, he liked it! This is a rare thing because he things video games are poisoning our nation. Anyway, very soon after it came out my dad got it for me. He said he would play it too because he is a driver and he would like to try out a driving video game. He and I played it very often, he quite enjoyed it. Because of this game, he got a fairly new attitude towards games, at least racing games anyway. This was a great game that got a lot of publicity and sold very well. Here are my little opinions.
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{~~Main Scores~~}
BREAKDOWN
Gameplay: 9.5
Graphics: 7
Sound: 5.7
Enjoyability: 8
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Gameplay
The gameplay is average racing, and more. You have only one player though. That was very disappointing because this game could have been so much better if it had a two player mode. The races are divided by sections, there are quite a few sections. They start off with easy races, and they slowly progress to very hard races. You only have one button to learn really, the B button to accelerate. Your races are situated in the sky. You can see the cities below your track, and the edges are electric, making you want to stay straight.
In this game you have energy, a first in racing. Your energy depletes when you hit another racer, or the side of the track, or finally, an obstacle. To regenerate your energy you must drive over the refilling strips at the start of a lap. This was a refreshing and fun feature that strongly adds to the races. But, aside from being an asset, the addition of an energy meter was a bad thing as well. It added to the challenge. I have enough trouble trying to keep myself in the middle of the track when I am racing, and not flying off the track after a jump. I really didn’t need the addition of energy to stress me out further. For the first time, my poor racing skills that made me hit the edges were actually killing me. Not good for me, and any other poor racer.
There are two different one player modes. First, the tournament mode. In this you start at the beginning of the races, and progress through them to the end. You can only progress if you get into the top three of a race though, a standard that is present in most games, but still made the game harder for me. Secondly, there is the time trial mode. This is a standard feature of most tournament racing games. You pick a race, and a car, and you race against yourself. What I mean is that there is a clock, timing your race. Each race has a best time from the previous time trials. Your goal is to get that best time. A standard feature that makes it easy to learn a track, or simply brush up after a drought in your playing.
In this game there are four cars you can choose from. First we have the blue car. The driver of this car is considered to be the hero. This car is a very well balanced car in both speed and acceleration. Second, the Yellow car. This car has the best acceleration, but the worst speed. Third, the green car. This car is much like the blue one, but goes a little faster, and has a little less control because of it. Lastly, there is the red car. This car is the fastest in maximum speeds and the slowest accelerator. Each is balanced out between them, and gives a good choice. This because some like acceleration, some like speed, and some are neutral. Also, in case you are wondering, the cars don’t all look the same, they are very well, and differently designed. I simply called them by color because it is easier to do in words.
Overall, a very good gameplay section. It gave me much fun, and the power bar is a refreshing change that I enjoyed. The varied cars were nice as well. Well done Nintendo.
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Graphics
The graphics in this game are very original, and in my mind well done. I have heard people who said that this wasn’t done well, but I disagree strongly. I enjoyed them very much frankly. Perhaps the people who said the graphics were bad have been playing too much PSX or N64, because for it’s time, the graphics in this game are very good.
Character designs are pretty much the cars. The cars had a large amount of detail placed into them. Each car had it’s little intricacies. For some it is the little indents in the spoilers, and for some it is the designs on the car itself. Each car was different in it’s own little way, and each helped to make the designs very good in this game.
Backgrounds were fairly basic. Your main one is the track. Each track is designed differently, and are made with different colors. Your tracks are suppose to look like they are on floating tracks. In some levels you have a city in the background, only the cities are so advanced that at that altitude they look like a computer chip. Overall, so-so backgrounds, nothing special.
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Sound
The sound is suppose to sound futuristic and advanced. In this game, they failed in a way. What is mean by that is that it sounded futuristic, but didn’t sound very advanced. The way it was made sounded futuristic, but the way it was made didn’t sound very advanced. It was very beepy and blurry. It was muffled, and no very orchestral. Perhaps the synthesizer sounds are intentional to make it futuristic, perhaps they were a mistake. Either way I definitely did not like them. Perhaps the only good part was the engine sounds. Because you were driving a hovercraft, the engine is not hard to make. It sounds very soft and very enjoyable.
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Enjoyability
Despite the fact that the sound wasn’t good, and the graphics were mediocre, the game is still very enjoyable. This because of the gameplay. This is a racing game, and one of the main areas of a racing game is the gameplay. The racing was very fun, and the tracks you raced on were very well designed. The control in the game was sharp and precise. It was also very responsive, something you will need when touching the walls depletes your energy. Overall this game was very enjoyable and I played it a lot.
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{~~Other Important Scores~~}
Replay Value: Average
The replay value is average for sure. You will want to play it again, like you would with most racing game. You see, in racing games, there is virtually no ending to your playing, and doing the races again isn’t a big thing because it helps to build your skills. For a person like me who doesn’t know what the hell he is doing on a video game racing track, I played the races many times, I need the skill building. The graphics, sound, and gameplay aren’t huge contributors to the replay value being at an average, because they aren’t a huge concern when someone is playing a game for the second, third, or any number of times. The concern at hand for them, is the enjoyability. If a game isn’t enjoyable to play, then there really isn’t a point to doing it again is there? Thankfully, this game was enjoyable.
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Challenge: High
The challenge in this game is high. Upon first play you may disagree with me. But as you progress you will definitely agree. The beginning levels are designed to get you into it. In those levels, the race tracks are fairly straight and don’t involve a whole lot of special turns or anything of the like. That is what makes those easy. Then, as you progress, the races become a lot harder. The turns become sharper, the healing bars become shorter, and the races get very annoying for a poor racer like me. By the end you will have huge problems. I only beat this game once, because of how hard it is.
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Learning Curve: Not too long
This game has very little to learn. As is with most racing games, you really only have the basic controls. Accelerate, brake, and the steering. Very easy to learn, not much to remember, low learning curve.
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Buy or Rent: Buy
I say you should buy this game. I say this because of its length. You will take a very long time to beat it. Then afterwards you will want to play it more every once in a while. Not to mention how enjoyable it is to play. Definitely a buy.
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THE GOOD
-Gameplay
-Graphics
-Buyability
-Replay Value
- THE BAD
-Sound
-Challenge
Overall this is a very well designed game. There were flaws in the sound and graphics department. But even with those it is well done. I got this, and I played it often. I slowly slowed playing, and truthfully, I occasionally play it today. Two thumbs up, very well done.
This game gets a Seifer Guarantee!
8/10
//Seifer psx
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