F-ZERO - 28/06/25
In the 26th century, racing has changed. Machines kept getting faster, man became ever more foolhardy, and the people's need for adrenaline remained constant. Gone are the days of safety regulations, of fair play rules, of max speeds. In the F-ZERO Grand Prix... anything goes. For five laps racers whizz around danger-filled circuits at speeds approaching 500kp/h, taking whatever steps are necessary to put them in first place - and if that means leaving their opponents trapped in the burning wreckage of their own vehicle, then so be it.
When you're in the zone, it's easy to forget you're not really behind the wheels of the Blue Falcon.
The SNES's game library is full of many different types of game. There's puzzling games, there's challenging games, there's mechanically engaging games, there's narratively engrossing games - you name a type of game, there's probably one on the SNES. One type of game it lacks, however, is the exhilarating game. Maybe it was the hardware, maybe it was just development sensibilities at the time, most likely it was a mix of both, but not a lot of games on the SNES could be said to be in any way "pulse-pounding".
F-Zero is uncompromisingly *exciting*.
First of all, the controls are sublime. Forget the standards of the era, these are a cut above 90% of racing games released today! Every input does, well, exactly what you'd want it to. The turning feels razor-sharp, the drifts are just the right amount of hard to control, and each vehicle has a palpable sense of weight about it. I crashed a great many times in my career as an F-Zero driver, and it says a lot that I don't blame a single one of them on anything but my own lack of skill.
(Sidenote: perhaps this is me revealing my status as a Plebian with Bad Taste, but I'd love to see a re-release with gyro steering/drifting. The controls work so well that I'm often fully immersed in having the yoke of a racing vehicle in my hand, and some good tilt controls could take that to the next level.)
The graphics, too, still hold up to this day. They're unmistakably Of The Super Nintendo (their clear deficit of verticality being the most obvious example) and can't throw hands with the best of the best anymore, but they're still firmly lodged into the upper echelons of SNES art. There's a lot of prestigious SNES games from the later years of the console that can't even hold a candle to the simple yet effective style pumping through F-Zero's veins (Super Mario Kart, anyone?), which is all the more impressive when you remember the game was a launch title!
If you don't play your cards right, you're more likely to be leaving in a bodybag than with a medal.
Unfortunately, it's not all slam-dunks. The game is lacking in a few ways, and one of them is auditory. The OST is in no way bad, it's a perfectly servicable set of ditties to get you in the mood for some turbo-powered racing, but compared to the rest of the game... it's an unmistakble low-water mark. Which is a great shame, but not the end of the world - in all likelihood, you'll be too busy racing to really pay very much attention to the music anyway.
Speaking of the racing, the track design is... well, it's a Super Nintendo racing game. It's fine. It serves its purpose. There's a few standout moments (Fire Field, Red Canyon II, Port Town II) and a few insanity-inducing gauntlets (Death Wind II, Silence) but by-and-large it's a grouping of entirely servicable backdrops for racing. I just wish they'd made greater use of ramps & boost pads.
Make sure to hold Down on the D-Pad while taking ramps for an extra boost of speed.
In conclusion, F-Zero is a great game, not just for the Super Nintendo but in general. It's surprisingly modern in all the ways that matter, and charmingly vintage in all the ways that don't. If you're a virtual adrenaline junkie, a racing game enthusiast looking for something new, or just someone looking for a decent game for the SNES - I thoroughly recommend this to you. If you like more realistic racers, games with more than eight tracks, or just have a crippling fear of pinball tables - stay far away.