Top 52: F-Zero (#28)

Racing games aren't my thing. This game is. Read on to find out why.


Title: F-Zero
Console: Super Nintendo
Release Date: 08/13/91
Genre: Racing
My Ranking: #28
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F-Zero is a hyper-intense futuristic racing game. You control one of four really fast hover cars and you race on tracks with crazy turns, jumps and in some cases, lava. I love the story wikipedia gives for F-Zero, as if a racing game actually needs a story:

"F-Zero is set in the year 2560, when humanity's multiple encounters with alien life forms had resulted in the expansion of Earth's social framework. This led to commercial, technological and cultural interchanges between planets. The multi-billionaires who earned their wealth through intergalactic trade were mainly satisfied with their lifestyles, although most coveted more entertainment in their lives. This resulted in a new entertainment based on the Formula-1 races to be founded with vehicles that could hover one foot above the track. These Grand Prix races were soon named "F-Zero" after a rise in popularity of the races."

LOL.



The reason F-Zero is on my list is because of the awesome track design. F-Zero moves fast, REALLY fast. Yet, despite the speed, almost all of the stages feature 90 degree to 180 degree turns and in order to cut corners well, you need to have a solid feel for the controls. The best example of this is probably on the White Land maps which have 180 degree turns with ice to screw up your traction.

Not only do you need to be perfect in order just to make the turns, but the opposing cars on master difficulty will always be right behind you, making the game only barely beatable on the hardest difficulty. It took me weeks of grinding to be able to stand a chance on King league on master, and even now I can't get first place on all five stages in that league.



I can't talk about F-Zero without talking about the music. Every song in F-Zero is amazing, and all of them NEED to be replayed with live guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. I think my favorite song is the ending song, when you see your place and time for each stage. Then again, Silence has awesome music too. They're all good. Except for Death Wind. Screw Death Wind.

F-Zero did have some glaring flaws that prevented it from being the best racing game ever. For one, there's only 15 stages in the entire game, and while the difficulty and high-speed excitement keeps you coming back, the game feels a little too short. Just one more league would have solve this problem, I think. The other extreme flaw is that there is NO MULTIPLAYER. Seriously, who makes a racing game without multiplayer?

Yet, even with these problems, F-Zero is still fun to play, even today. I think that since you can enjoy this game without a multitude of tracks or cars and with no multiplayer shows how strong quality the tracks in this game are. F-Zero would be higher on my list with these minor additions, but even so, it's still one of the enjoyable racing games I've ever played.

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My Top 52:
#52 --- Star Fox 64 (N64)
#51 --- Kirby's Adventure (NES)
#50 --- Roller Coaster Tycoon (PC)
#49 --- Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)
#48 --- Metroid Prime (GC)
#47 --- Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
#46 --- Bomberman 64 (N64)
#45 --- Guitar Hero II (PS2)
#44 --- Super Street Fighter II (GEN)
#43 --- Pokemon Puzzle League (N64)
#42 --- Soul Calibur II (GC)
#41 --- Gears of War (Xbox 360)*
#40 --- Elite Beat Agents (DS)
#39 --- Call of Duty 4 (PS3)
#38 --- Super Metroid (SNES)
#37 --- The Orange Box (PS3)*
#36 --- Metal Gear Solid (PS)
#35 --- Doom (PC)
#34 --- Super Mario Kart (SNES)
#33 --- Mischief Makers (N64)
#32 --- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
#31 --- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)
#30 --- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (DS)
#29 --- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GC)
#28 --- F-Zero (SNES)