Before games like Need for Speed and Burnout and a few select others, I was never really a big racing game fan. At least not in the old school sense. There were, however, three exceptions to this. The first was Excitebike, for the Original Nintendo Entertainment System. The second was Top Gear 2 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The third is the one I’m writing about today and is my favorite of all three. F-Zero. I bought F-Zero the very day it came out.
I wasn’t expecting much from it, but the commercial convinced me to give it a try and ‘til this very day, I’m glad I listened.
From what I can remember, F-Zero took place in the distant future. Racers from all over the galaxy came together to race in a competition filled with suicidal opponents, dangerous tracks and insane speeds that would make your toes curl…if you were actually driving the cars, of course. In the first installment of the series, you could only pick from 4 drivers, each with their own unique vehicle with its own unique attributes. There was Captain Falcon and his Blue Falcon, Dr. Stuart and his Golden Fox, some alien looking guy with his Green Goose and a sumo wrestler who had a purple car. From
these descriptions, I’m sure it’s obvious who I played with the most.
Every stage was unique for different reason. Some stages, you had to worry about a series of sharp turns. Some stages you would have to face earthquakes and high speed winds that would push your car off track. But the best obstacle in the game, in my opinion, was those huge jumps that seemed almost impossible to make. Add to that the barriers that literally destroyed you car’s shields every time you even bumped into it and you have quite a bit to focus on. Then you have to worry about other cars trying to fight you for space on the track and the fact that most of them were dirty as heck. At the time, F-Zero had the most aggressive computer A.I. I’d ever seen. Also, there were three levels of difficulty (Knight League, Queen League and King League.) in which the tracks and opponent A. I. Adjusted accordingly.
I could sit for hours and play as The Golden Fox and run through stage after stage, hoping that things only got harder, because I like a challenge. I didn’t expect the game to last long, but I was SO wrong. I still play it even to this very day on my modded console. F-Zero is one of very few games that have withstood the test of time, so if you’re feeling a bit nostalgic or need to brush up on your gaming history, definitely check it out.
