Super Famicomplete #1: F-Zero (Redux)

     

Title: F-Zero

Release Date: November 21st: 1990 (JP), August 23rd 1991 (North America)

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo EAD

You know, when I originally started this blog, I never expected the game that I would return to the most would be F-Zero. I have very little fond memories of this game as a kid (more on them later), but ever since blogging about it, I tend to pick up and play it whenever it is rereleased on the SNES Online or SNES Classic. I think it is because of the function of the game: it was the tech demo for the SNES, and to test the fidelity of these ports, there really is no better game to check than with the original.  Also, the music and the gameplay helps a good bit too.

My experience with this game
Like I said, I did not have much experience with this game initially. I certainly knew of it, but racing games were never really my favorite genre as a kid. I played this mainly over at my buddy Evan's house. He had the typical "basement lounge" that was really an unfinished basement filled with storage, but also happened to have a couch and a tv. After those experiences, the only connection I really had to this series is that my other buddy, Joe, would always main Captain Falcon in the original Smash Bros. 

What is this game?

F-Zero is a plain and simple futuristic racing game, and really, this is one of the first arcade style racing games for a home console. You see, before this, most console racing games had either a side view or aerial view to their cameras (think Ridge Racer or Excitebike) yet the Super Famicom was the first to give you a proper, behind the driver, third person point of view. The aforementioned Mode 7 helped bring this to fruition. What is happening in F-Zero is the player is moving the background with the controls, not the racecar (though they animate the racecar so that it looks like it is moving). The sprite for the hovercar is actually stationary, but the player can accelerate and turn the background plane right and left, giving the appearance that you are speeding across the ground. Here is what it looks like in F-Zero: take notice of how the background moves with tight turns.

Well what about arcade racers at the time? Well arcade racers like Outrun generally didn't allow the player to control the screen; instead you are moving your car sprite left and right as obstacles come towards you. You are keeping your character on the road, rather than, as in F-Zero, maneuvering the road itself. 

Background
The game was developed by Nintendo EAD (meaning Entertainment Analysis and Development), directed by Kazonobu Shimazu, and produced by the main man himself, Shigeru Miyamoto. At the time of development, Nintendo EAD was split into three teams for the Super Famicom: the F-Zero team, the Super Mario World team, and the Pilotwings team, with Miyamoto overlooking all three of them as the producer. As far as F-Zero was concerned, Miyamoto pretty much gave Shimazu a free reign to design as he pleased graphically and aesthetically, as long as the gameplay itself was functional, tight, and fun. Thus you can see the hints of truly inspired design, as the backgrounds/environments, cars, and characters have a very manga and almost Akira inspired look.

Gameplay Pt.1

The game is bare bones in its presentation. I mean, look at this, no intro video or nothing, just a title screen and a road. This is what greets you when you turn the game on.

As well you only have three choices on the start screen, and only two "gameplay" choices: Grand Prix, Practice, and Records. After you choose the main gameplay option, you have a choice of only four racers...well not the racers themselves, but their cars. When you pick a car, its "statistics" are displayed along with their overall pickup/rate of acceleration. So you pick your racer car, the circuit you want to race in (again, only three are available...noticing a pattern here) and the difficulty setting, and you are off! 

Story
The official story of this game is that in the future, now that humans and aliens coexist on earth and most of Earth's ills have been cured, bored Billionaires have begun to fund a new racing circuit, with plasma fueled hover cars, to race around the galaxy. The game follows the four main racers, Captain Falcon, the “star” of the game, an ex-intergalactic policeman but now intergalactic bounty hunter...

 Samurai Goroh, a self proclaimed samurai, ex-comrade but now rival to Captain Falcon...

Dr. Stewart, the son of a wealthy businessman but now philanthropist and billionaire playboy...

 and  Pico, the only non-human racer and one of the galaxy's deadliest assassins...

 Wow these all sound like great and interesting characters whose stories would be amazing to see unfold in a racing game. Nintendo really wanted to sell this story and grab the players’ attention, and they released an 8 pg. comic about Captain Falcon with the manual. It’s pretty darn neat. 

The only problem is that NONE OF THIS IS IN THE GAME. You don’t even get sprites of these racers getting into cars, pictures of the racers during the races (a la Star Fox), or anything at all...just cars. They don’t even say the names of the racers, just the names of the cars when you choose them. I mean, I know this is back in the day where a lot of the story is listed in the game’s manual, but this game just drops you in with nothing else.

Gameplay Pt. 2

The various “cars” you play have very little difference between them. The Blue Falcon, Captain Falcon’s car, has better handling and a quick pick up, but its top speed is the slowest out of any of the cars, while Pico’s car is the fastest but has the lowest pickup and the worst handling. But really, these differences are negligible as, for the most part, they play pretty much the same.  The game seems to give you very limited choices, and then make even those choices relatively meaningless.

All of this aside, the game itself is pretty damn fun, if a little short. You have high speed races down twisted paths against other fairly aggressive racers. The goal is, in a usual Grand Prix style, to place high enough in each race to win the overall circuit. The races have twelve to fifteen racers, and each race has five laps. After each lap, the “limit” of what place you must maintain is decreased, so you pretty much have to stay at the head of the pack. One thing I like about this game is that it is pretty damn tough! What makes F-Zero different from other racing games is that you can die. Yup, it is pretty darn easy to crash out in this game, as there are tons of things that can kill you. If you hit a wall, it hurts you. If it hit a mine, it hurts you. If you hit a magnet, you get sucked into a wall, and that hurts you. If you get hurt enough, you die! If you place under the limit on a race, you die! And if you fall out of the course, you DIE! Die enough, and you get a legit game over. Races become more of an endurance race than anything else, as the courses get very complex, with sharp right angles and tough jumps. The biggest hazards, actually, are the other racers! They tend to get in your way, sneak up behind you, and slam you into the edges of the racetracks. As the races progress, the guys end up getting up injured themselves, so they will explode and do extra damage if you collide with them. These guys will throw off your races more times than any. Failure can come immediately and out of the blue.

 

 

The game also shows some of that classic Nintendo level design, as once the formula is taught to the player, they start playing with the player expectations. They will start to put speed boosts right before sharp corners or jumps that will carry the player out of the track. That jump that took me out of the race in the previous clip was so intricately placed that it was very hard to miss. Some of the levels also carry their own specific hazards, such as Death Wind, where there is a constant wind that pushes the characters towards the edge of the track.

The music, as well, is excellent, and pairs goes together with the action packed gameplay wonderfully. I have placed several samples below. 

The music pairs wonderfully with the aesthetics, which definitely have that aforementioned manga feel to them. What I really like about the settings of each race is that they tell an unspoken story. My curiosity is always piqued when I see Mute City in the background, or the emptiness of Death Wind (not to mention the mushroom clouds and giant skulls), and it makes me what life is like in each of these places. Also, what is that giant ship that comes and refills your life? Weird right? They never name that thing. 

The game, though, is rather on the short side. There are only three circuits with five tracks apiece. Once you beat this, there are only the three difficulties to play through on the same tracks, and a fourth “Master” difficulty to play once you beat each circuit on Expert. If you manage to beat this difficulty mode...that’s it. There are some stand out levels and races, though, such as White Land II, which has one of the most difficult jumps in the game, as it comes at the end of a section that forces you to tread slowly (pictured below).

Honestly one of the courses to learn, but super satisfying when you get it.

The final level of the game, Fire Field, is a crazy hard but very satisfying final race. The ending, though, is a little skimpy, as all the game does is congratulate you on behalf of your racer...kind of lame.

Wait more of those sweet tasty jams?

Ads and Marketing

  

Here is the US TV spot for F-Zero. I must say that it is pretty darn priceless.

Final Thoughts

 In my opinion, this game really is more of a tech demo than a complete game. The game is sparse on really everything else but pure gameplay. Beginning to end, the game takes about only 45-60 minutes based on how skilled a player you are. But the historical value of the game and its significance as to what it represented for Nintendo can not be ignored. It is crazy fun gameplay, but that is it. So while I would say that F-Zero is a game that everyone should own for their SNES collection due to its importance, I wouldn’t say it is a top tier game. It’s definitely a fun way to pass thirty minutes if you are bored one afternoon.

As far as hunting for this game, in terms of difficulty and price, this game is relatively easy to find. Nintendo released a ton of copies of this game, and I picked mine up at a vintage game store for about 5 bucks. Definitely not one of the harder games to find.