After a three-month, release policy motivated delay, Nintendo's sequel to the Super NES racer F-Zero finally arrives on Western N64s. In case you already own the Japanese import, you may want to stop reading now, since nothing has changed -- well, apart from the translated menus, of course. But if you only know F-Zero X from previews and hear-say, boy, are you in for a ride.

Put together by an in-house team made up of several Wave Race 64 key programmers (including the lead programmer), F-Zero X is more than just a virtual xerox copy of the ground-breaking Super NES racer. Like the current reigning racing champ, Wave Race 64, Nintendo's latest addition to the N64 racing lineup stands out with perfectly tuned controls and a number of unique, trend-setting innovations.

Gameplay
The original F-Zero, which first appeared on the Super NES in 1991 (in the U.S.), blew gamers away with its Mode 7 technology and amazing graphics. It was the first of its kind; the only really successful inheritors to date are the Wipeout and Extreme-G franchises. With F-Zero X, Nintendo seems to take gamers on a little trip back in time, offering a taste of why F-Zero served as an inspiration for a whole genre. Unlike the original, F-Zero X is not about showing off graphics or sound capabilities -- it's all about gameplay.

Even a quick look at X's course and vehicle lineup confirms that you're dealing with a Nintendo-developed title. Many third-party racers struggle to come up with five distinct tracks, F-Zero X packs more than 24 tracks and 30 cars, most of which are hidden and have to be earned first. When you start off and race the first two courses, the overall feel and experience is eerily similar to the original F-Zero. You compete with hovering cars, seemingly inspired by '60s art-deco appliances (Pico, you're driving a lamp!), on floating tracks high up in the sky. Before each race, you can customize your vehicle's speed and handling and pick from a number of colors. The gameplay is as simple as can be: Accelerate, brake, boost, and avoid the lethal track boundaries that deplete your ship's energy.

You can pick from the following game modes:

GP Race -- The main Grand Prix mode, consisting of Jack, Queen and King cup races, (novice, standard and expert difficulty levels respectively) each with six courses to complete. There are two hidden cups.
Time Attack -- Standard time attack fare. You can also race against a ghost. For that extra challenge, the game's developers also saved a Staff Ghost to the cart.
VS Battle -- Splits the screen into two, three or four sections and yell at your mates as you try to outwit them and accumulate the best points tally. An amusing extra feature of this mode is the slot machine, where you can deplete your opponents of their energy if you're lucky.
Death Race -- the only mode to have a track designed exclusively for it, is a grudge match between you and 29 rivals, where spin and side attacks are supremely important. You must force the retirement of all as quickly as possible, so the heavier vehicles come highly recommended for the task.
Practice -- Speaks for itself. Valuable for testing out your revised machine settings.
Although similar in presentation to the Mode-7 F-Zero, the polygonal tracks in the new 64-bit version curve, twist and curl in the third dimension and rush by at such intense speeds, it's easy to forgive the lacking scenery and foggy horizons. There is of course a reason for the bland look and simple road graphics: there are up to 30 cars on screen at the same time, racing along at a steady 60 frames per second. Yep, that's 30 cars, all behaving differently, skidding into turns, bumping into each other and boosting out of harm's way. The feel of hitting a "zipper" and jetting right through the middle of a pack of 15 cars is awesome . You really have to admire Nintendo's strict design policy and restraint to produce a title that will look visually dated in stills and only shows its qualities when in motion. It's almost as if Nintendo decided to extract the essence of racing, maximum speed and perfect control, and throw out anything that could stand in its way.

If you've played any of the recent cyber racers, you've probably noticed some of the problems that come with high speeds, such as the inability to see obstacles coming from far away or to the frequent banging into walls. Luckily, F-Zero X avoids the pitfalls of Extreme-G with dead-on control and collision physics. The tracks are so well designed, if you're good enough, you will be able to avoid every obstacle and never bump into a wall or fall off the track -- something that was near impossible in Extreme-G. As with most Nintendo titles, the control scheme accurately reflects the company's mantra of delivering a game that beginners can enjoy, but only experts can master. For example, many players will be content steering their craft left and right with the analog stick and braking for the tougher turns. But this won't get you far on the higher difficulty modes. Using L and R in unison with the analog stick will enable sharper turning, whereas reversing the buttons will produce drift turns that allow you to get around corners without losing any momentum at all.

Like its predecessor, F-Zero X also features energy zones that replenish a player's shield energy on the fly (a feature Wipeout borrowed from the series). In an interesting twist on the tire and fuel management of many sim racers, F-Zero X offers the choice of either preserving energy for your defensive shield, or using it to boost ahead of the competition by the press of a button. You need to juggle energy management wisely. A collision with zero shield energy ends the race in a boom.

Despite the dead-on controls, F-Zero X's learning curve is steep, and even seasoned players will spend quite a while before perfecting their drift techniques and reaching the hidden X-Cup (which follows right after the hidden Joker Cup). Get this, the X-Cup is actually a track generator that "creates" a different set of tracks every time you play. Unfortunately, the generated tracks lack loops and some are pretty lame, but once in a while you will encounter a wickedly complicated track that could have easily been one of the regular courses. To leave the field open for future, Nintendo also added "64DD hooks" that allow for add-on disks such as track editors or course updates. It remains to be seen if US gamers will ever get their hands on this add-on, since things don't look too good for the 64DD in the US -- a lock-on cartridge would do the trick, though.

As good as the gameplay in F-Zero X is, the game won't appeal to everyone. Unlike Wipeout or Extreme-G 2, F-Zero X relies on pure racing. There are no lock-on missiles or fancy gadgets to put yourself ahead of the competition. If it's explosive action you're looking for, this is not your game. The only aggressive feature the N64 version adds to the franchise is the ability to knock other racers off the track by smashing into them or draining their energy by pulling off a new spin move. To fully exploit this, Nintendo added the Death Race Mode -- an elimination race where players have to knock out all other racers as quickly as possible. The spin attack also serves as a good strategy for the regular races. Knock out some of the tougher drivers early on to screw up their overall rating.

Multiplayer
On the multiplayer front, F-Zero X offers up to four player head-to-head races at 60fps with an innovative "slot machine" feature. If the feature is switched on in the options menu, players knocked out of the race early on can screw up the other drivers' energy by playing slots. While nothing major, it's a neat idea to give players something to do while waiting for the others to finish. If you prefer to play fair, switch the feature off. The multiplayer battles are excellent, but it's a real shame that Nintendo didn't add at least a two-player GP Mode (with more than just a single track competition). Other than that, the vs. mode is well-conceived, with two additional (optional) AI drivers in the two-player mode and the smoothest framerate yet seen in a split-screen game.

Graphics
Look at the screen-shots. Looks pretty bland, huh? There is no denying that the game's graphics are simple. The effects are subtle and uneventful (nice glow effects and some specular highlighting on the cars), the car models are low in polygon count, there is quite a lot of fogging at the horizon and the occasional draw-in plagues the more complex track layouts. In order to keep the framerate at a blazing 60fps, Nintendo sacrificed roadside detail completely. A few pillars rush by once in a while and the background bitmap changes from track to track -- but that's pretty much it for variety. There are a few courses that stand out visually, such as the half-pipe and the tubes, which are usually enough to make you break out in cold sweat, but there is no doubt that F-Zero X would feel even faster if there was more going on with the regular tracks. Still, the amount of cars moving on screen at the same time and the unbelievable smoothness have a charm of their own. Too bad there isn't a cockpit view, though.

Sound
F-Zero X's music is directly inspired by its predecessor's tunes. Instead of going with techno like every cyber racer and their sister, F-Zero X's sound is perfectly retro, with streaming audio made up of rocking guitar tunes. If you played the Super NES racer, you will instantly recognize such classics as the Mute City melody, but F-Zero X doesn't exactly push the boundaries of stereophonic sound. Because of compression, the tunes are pretty much mono, with the ambient effects generating the stereo sound effects. It all sounds pretty good, though.

THE VERDICT
F-Zero X is another proof that nobody does sequels like Nintendo. The developers kicked out everything that stood in the way of perfectly-tuned gameplay. Unfortunately, graphics and sound were also on that list, which may sadly keep F-Zero X from achieving mainstream success. In the grand scheme of things, F-Zero X will probably appeal to older gamers more, who want pure racing over arcade frills and still have a soft spot fot the original F-Zero. An excellent update to the grand daddy of cyber racers that only suffers under its generic look. If you can look beyond presentation, you will easily fall in love with the smooth gameplay, insane speed and great four-player mode.

lil new. not sure how this works to earn viz

jfenner88 :

im not following it? alot of these lack reviews and are empty. its much needed

Allow me to explain. You got this post here: http://www.ign.com/articles/1998/10/28/f-zero-x right?

That would be considered plagiarism, which is frowned upon here (and really, anywhere).

Reviews written on this site should be of your own thoughts/opinions/words... not just copied off of some site of some else's work.

if im doing something wrong please correct me. honestly this is my 5 year olds thing and he wanted a arcade game bad. i looked through announcements and seen that games needed reviews on them. just trying to let my boy play "my barts" (simpsons). not really trying to harm or make anyone angry. was not my intentions.

thanks bro. sorry bout the misunderstanding. Prob could give a less in depth bout them. god knows ive played many many old games. new not so much. again. sorry to all I mad angry. wasnt my intentions at all

This is plagarism.  I'm closing this.  Feel free to go to the article crazy li mentioned.
Feel free to Pm me with any questions.
[Closed]