F-Zero: Welcome to the Future!

[Leon Retro]

Seeing F-Zero plus SMW and Pilotwings just blew me away back in 1990!

F-Zero is pretty much the only racing game I ever put serious time into - constantly shaving fractions of seconds off of a race record, only pausing to run downstairs and phone my SFC F-Zero-owning mate and brag!

Then he'd do the same to me a few minutes later.

Oooh, time to dig the cart out again.

Wil - feeling the SFC love!

You summed-up why I love F-Zero It's a unique gripping brilliant experience that transcends far beyond the tag line ' Racing game ' .

I might try and dig-out my SFC cart and look at my old times; I was a God at this game back in the day

[Leon Retro]

I think alot of F-Zero's impact was down to the fact that it was one of the first Super Famicom titles. After spending a year with the Megadrive, seeing the rich colours, smoothly rotating tracks and hearing the crystal-clear music of F-Zero just blew me away. More so than any other launch title, before or since. I think if F-Zero had been released later in the life of the machine it would be even less well-respected.

Having said that, few SNES titles come close to the polish of this game.

The thing with F-Zero is it's all ready perfection in every way. It didn't need a SuperFX chip with polygon crafts and gourad shaded stuff. The game is totally abstract- imo it will never age, just like work of art. The gameplay is just so inviting and giving, it is the definition of pure playability!

Most of the SFC's best games were released early on and for whatever reason it was a magical time. The only later released title that really captured the early magic was Yoshis Island- but even that mighty game pales next to MarioWorld imo.

[Atticus]

Top thread. Nothing less than a game like F-Zero deserves.

I remember when I first saw it running and I can only describe it as love at first sight. I tried expaining to my friends how it looked in motion - 'it kind of pulls you into the screen and you can see all the tiny twinkling detail in the city below, and the textures and colours are like nothing you've ever seen, and, and ...'.

That's at first sight. Getting it home and experiencing it first hand offers up more surprises. The soundtrack, so expertly composed going hand in hand with the visuals and themes perfectly. It just makes the overall experience even more immersive.

Then it gets better still when you play it. The tight controls that feel just right for the crafts you're piloting which soon become second nature. The racing strategies and gameplay intricacies unfold - save three boosts for a new 'fastest lap' attempt, keep holding 'down' after a jump for a smooth landing, etc, etc.

Most people were expecting little more than a flashy mode7 demo when it first came out but it's so much more than that.

Sheme the sequels concentrated mainly on speed and number crafts on track because that's not necessarily what made the first so great. And in doing so they lost a lot of character and atmosphere. Of all the sequels I think only the Aeropolis circuit in F-Zero GX captures the spirit of the original.

[dataDave]

Yeah, SNES F-Zero was instant class back in the day. I remember standing around in Boots on the pod playing for hours whilst my mum and nan went shopping for smelly stuffs and all that crap.

I must admit, being a big fan of the original I don't think F-Zero X came close in terms of matching the F-Zero magic. Don't get me wrong however, X is in a totally different class of it's own.

It wasn't until F-Zero for GBA came out that I was given the true sequel I'd waited 11 years for. GBA F-Zero is certainly in my top 10 games of all time - the music, cars and tracks were certainly a lot more than what I was expecting from a handheld. I was so glad when I picked it up on the japanese GBA launch, I didn't put it down all spring/summer until unlocking all ten cars then I couldn't stop with the time trials!! It finally took Advance Wars to shift me onto another game.

I'll never get rid of my original GBA - the sheer amount of hours spent on it reserves it a place in my grave by my side.

[brokeback]

f zero GX is better than f zero.

[Mad Gear]

^ no way dude

[Miguel007]

F-Zero-GX is way better graphically, but the music isn't the same. I actually prefer the first F-Zero, I find GX to be bland and soul-less.

I have played F-Zero (SNES) for over 10 years, I can't see me doing the same with GX.

[MikeRox]

f zero GX is better than f zero.

F-Zero GX is imo the worst (though it's still good) of the home console F-Zero games. Sure it's got the graphics, but it lost everything else that was F-Zero and don't get me started on that awful attempt at "music".

[brokeback]

get over it guys. every man, woman, child and beast knows that f zero gx is the finest f zero on earth.

[Binary Defence Crimson]

Maybe it's nostalgia, but none of the sequels (GBA, N64 or GC) ever felt to ma as satisfying as the original.

[Leon Retro]

The follow-up F-Zero titles are bigger but not beter imo. In their own right the N64 and GC versions are good games; F-ZeroX being my favourite.

In a way the follow-ups are like 3D versions of Tetris or Lemmings; by adding more whizz-bang to the design it actually dilutes the experience rather than enhances it. F-Zero is a game of tight skill with every component of the gameplay requiring honed instinctive reflex response.

The 3D versions broaden the tracks, add lots of crafts and fill the screen with eye-candy but at the expense of the purity of the gameplay.

I compare F-Zero to the experiences had with Psyvariar, Rez and the like; games that are abstract beautiful and hypnotic. These types of games are rare but loved by so many- they are gameplay at its most gripping and pure.

You could take Psyvariar and Rez in to the realm of texture-mapped reality but it would weaken the grip that these titles have on the mind. With a lot of thought and care the original design of F-Zero could be subtlely enhanced and garnished with modern retro chic.

It was too easy and short-sighted to look at the original and then make superfluous 3D iterations that lose the subtle gameplay nuisanses that fans of the original love so much. FZX was less guilty of this crime, but GX bares little relation to the orignal experience and you really can't blame Sega for basically making F-Zero USA- Nintendo once again should of made it themselves.

So to conclude- I would say Nintendo need to look back to go forward and this goes further than just F-Zero- we all know that for sheer gameplay the past can teach developers a lot.. especially Nintendo!

[phillai]

I also have to agree that the SNES F-Zero is the best F-Zero on any format.
The graphics were awesome for it's time and the music was facking awesome.
The music on the other F-Zero games just didn't sound right at all.
Also the controls felt perfect with a SNES pad.

[the_dude]

F-Zero, what a game. This was the title that made me purchase a SFC. I wish i still had it. Oh well, there's always emulation, but it's not the same!

[the_dude]

get over it guys. every man, woman, child and beast knows that f zero gx is the finest f zero on earth.

I agree, i hadn't played the Cube version for a while, then decided to power it up a couple of day's ago with the sound system pumped up. It still rocks. And yes, i will be playing this 10 years from now.

[Leon Retro]

I agree, i hadn't played the Cube version for a while, then decided to power it up a couple of day's ago with the sound system pumped up. It still rocks. And yes, i will be playing this 10 years from now.

All the F-Zero titles are great experiences, but as a fan of the original I can never really embrace the sequels as true follow-ups to my cherished SFC version.

A lot has been said about the sequels losing a lot of the atmosphere and gameplay that fans of the original like so much.

F-ZeroX is one of my favourite games, but the music and wide tracks were a bit of a let-down- and the 30 crafts may have seemed amazing at first, but then I felt a much smaller number and tighter tracks would of made things more exciting- more F-Zero.

F-ZeroGX is also a brilliant game, but once again this is a title far removed from the original. Imo the game feels and plays a lot like Daytona- and whilst this can be fun, overall I would of prefered a game more inline with Nintendo's original vision. It's easy to look at the amazing graphics and speed, professing the game to be superior to all other F-Zero's- but there are lots of F-Zero fans that look beyond the asthetics and begin to feel the game has lost a lot of the Nintendo charm.

At the end of the day though, all the titles are must haves. Let's celebrate them all, and play them till Mute City becomes a real world reality!