F-Zero is a futuristic single player racing game and one of five launch titles for the Super Nintendo. Set in the year 2560, a group of bored, intergalactic multibillionaires dream up a new and brutal grand prix style racing competition based on the old F-1 races held on earth. As the player you’ll choose from one of four racers before piloting your hovering speed machine on a variety of dangerous tracks across a series of Leagues in hopes of winning the F-Zero, the highest honor in the universe. Known for its raw sense of speed, tight controls, and memorable soundtrack, F-Zero didn’t just spawn the well respected series that would span generations of Nintendo console, it represented a genre defining moment in racing games and showcased that the jump from the NES to SNES could not be overstated.

Audio (19/20)

Of the 5 Super Nintendo launch titles, we found F-Zero to be hands down the best showcase of the SNES’s impressive SPC700 sound chip. Equal parts capable on both the music and sound effects front, the game is a textbook example of how audio design doesn’t need to play second fiddle to visual design.

Composed by Yumiko Kanki and Naoto Ishida, F-Zero is stuffed full of memorable tunes which fit perfectly as the soundtrack to our explosive deaths and hard won victory laps. Whether we were just kicking off a new Grand Prix run and letting the Mute City anthem ease us into the action, racing off the line to the unbelievably catchy start of Big Blue, or just nodding along to the Port Town theme as we methodically set up our entrance to the mid-course hairpin, the music of F-Zero is truly fantastic. And while any notable SNES game has at least a few worthwhile tracks, for us it was F-Zero’s consistency that really sets it apart. Hell, even the menu music in the game like the Select Time Theme caught our attention with it’s ancestral Mii theme song vibes.

Maybe unsurprisingly then, the sound effects of F-Zero are almost as compelling as the soundtrack. From the whine of the acceleration curves clearly heard at the car select screen to the loud explosion when our taste for speed outpaced our cornering ability, the action of the game is backed by some awesome audio design. And these audio effects play an immersive role in generating that all important sense of speed F-Zero is known for, subtly communicating it with the notable thud whenever you ease off the accelerator or via the squeal of the brakes when you cross the finish line.

Overall we found the audio design in F-Zero to be a real bright spot in the game and suspect that it’s a big part of what’s made the title a lasting fan favorite. The soundtrack’s catchy and consistent nature combined with punchy effects results in plenty for even a modern ear to appreciate.

Visuals (16/20)

F-Zero’s visuals while thematic are undoubtedly its weakest aspect. While the creative direction is clear and key elements stand out, the textures, backgrounds, and colours ultimately fall short in their simplicity despite successfully capturing the futuristic feel. There’s something about the racing genre that needs the visuals to be more polished and we found F-Zero hasn’t aged particularly well in this regard leaving us feeling like it could use a fresh coat of paint.

Thankfully, for performance and gameplay’s sake F-Zero errs on the side of minimalism leaning heavily on the sprites of the four iconic cars, and generally speaking it works. The cars feel appropriately sized on the track, the camera is set back from the machine’s sprite the perfect distance, and even the jump height when you casually launch your racer into the air feels just right.

Mirroring the quality of the car’s spritework, the cars are satisfyingly animated with snappy but fluid movement of the bodies and wings as the machines corner and lean. And similarly we found hazards and damage to also be well represented with map edges and ‘pull magnets’ causing satisfying albeit alarming jolts of electricity to surge from beneath our car.

Unfortunately, in contrast to the animations, the backgrounds and environments don’t feel alive or interesting enough to ever be noticed and the feeling of the tracks being “located as high up as 300 feet above ground” as referenced in the manual isn’t conveyed at all. Playing through it we found these aspects combined with some questionable colour palette choices and rougher texture work left us feeling that F-Zero does show it’s overall age and launch title status on the console a bit more than we’d like.

In the end we were glad that F-Zero keeps it simple and puts the effort in on what’s actually important. And while we definitely wouldn’t ask for visual improvements at the expense of any other aspect of the game, there were areas of the visuals which left us with a feeling of utilitarianism or necessity more than inspiration.

If you’re like us you might not love all of F-Zero’s aesthetics, but assuming you can get past the rougher edges there are still some nice nuances to the visuals and the underwhelming aspects never distract from the racing experience for very long.

Gameplay and Controls (19/20)

It’s refreshing to play F-Zero because unlike many racing games it understands what KIND of racing game it is. Sure there’s some arcade elements layered on like shortcuts, landmines, and turbos, but from the first ten seconds of gameplay we immediately understood that this is the fast and technical racing of F1.

As the antithesis to the kart racers of the time, we were pleased to find the controls perfectly responsive with the car never feeling out of our control. This meant when we inevitably missed the apex of a corner, messed up a pass, slammed into a wall… or did all of the above in quick succession - despite any shallow excuse we might have wanted to make, we knew we only had ourselves to blame. And in a nutshell that’s what makes F-Zero timeless. When we played it we weren’t frustrated by our losses, we were motivated to improve. We knew that next time if we set up our entrance to that series of corners better, or didn’t try to pass in the narrow section that we would succeed, and ultimately that’s what makes the gameplay addictive and satisfying.

We were also surprised by the accessibility of the game’s difficulty despite it’s unforgiving nature. Initially we breezed through the first few races feeling confident about our skill only to be humbled later when we tried the harder difficulties and hit a wall (both figuratively and literally). We enjoyed that it spent some time letting us engage with it before demanding more, and it was at this point that we began to appreciate that the consistency in the gameplay and controls demanded consistency in our racing.

Controls and mechanics wise all the racing genre staples are executed perfectly but with some minor nuances that really set the game apart. In particular we enjoyed being able to shift the weight of the car left or right by tapping the shoulder buttons, something which initially felt like a minor detail but quickly turned into a necessity and eventually became our favorite aspect gameplay. From both a practical and thematic standpoint precisely sliding the car to the left or right without turning and the ability to make these small adjustments really drove home the precision aspect of the driving.

On the mechanics front we also enjoyed the “CHECK” and collision battles that would perpetually play out in our closer races. The minor boost of speed from successfully blocking a pass, and the corresponding decrease when we hit someone else from behind not only created tension when defending our position but appropriately motivated us to make squeaky clean passes.

With all of this in mind, there is one glaring shortcoming of the title’s gameplay which is the painfully apparent lack of a two player mode. An obvious byproduct of the hardware’s limitations, and we’re certain the inability to play with a friend is just as disappointing today as it was on release. We wish would could say that the offered Practice mode somewhat makes up for it, but even when we did trade Grand Prix’s intensity and action for some truly zen lap setting, the missed opportunity of being able to go head-to-head even outside a Grand Prix loomed.

Overall though F-Zero’s gameplay is the real reason you would play it today. And if you do, we’re happy to report you’re going to find a satisfying challenge backed by both solid technical mechanics and razor tight controls.

Story and Presentation (15/20)

If you’re playing a racing game for the story you’re probably doing it wrong. With that in mind we found F-Zero to be out in front of the pack when it comes to story and lore thanks to the game’s manual which includes a fully colored eight page comic starring Captain Falcon.

While not covered in the game at all, the manual and the comic it contains adds a lot of flavor to the gameplay transforming your AI opponents from simple cars to ridiculous characters. And while we were disappointed the plot and characters don’t actually ever make an appearance in the game, in a time where game manuals have disappeared almost entirely, we found it a pretty novel experience.

Story aside, the presentation of F-Zero is solid despite its minimalism. The menus are awesome in that they’re simple, intuitive, and pleasant to look at. Watching your car do a victory lap after you win a League is satisfying. The ‘pit row’ using a repair spaceship is just good plain fun. The “Ready”, “Go” starting sequence is satisfying. And the list just goes on.

We’ll be the first to admit it’s not perfect though. In particular we noticed little annoyances such as our lap times after winning a race often being difficult to read due to poor font and color choices against certain course backgrounds, and we were also disappointed by the short and underwhelming course intro scenes. The oversight and missed opportunity of these small touches, which modern games tend to be chalk full of, left us feeling that there were some definitive missed opportunities. A feeling only further driven home by what we could only describe as an ‘extremely disappointing cutscene’ upon our completion of the Master difficulty.

Thankfully, the HUD doesn’t share these shortcomings with all of its components well positioned at the periphery of the action and clearly legible. Our only minor quibble with it might be the “Score” located in the top left whose only measurable effect seemed to be the granting us an extra car every 10,000 points. Yes we’re getting nit picky but we felt if they insisted on shoehorning in a score component, the least they could have done is moved it to the bottom right above the ‘lives’ in order to build some association between the two elements.

Overall while we didn’t have high expectations that the story or presentation in F-Zero would be a driving force, it was nice to see that they added depth where they could. And while it definitely is a bit thin even for its genre, there are some genuinely unique parts and we appreciated how careful it is in avoiding anything getting in the way of the action.

Systems and Design (19/20)

If we’re going to talk about F-Zero’s design we have to start with the tracks. With 9 unique base tracks and 6 alternate layouts there’s a total of 15 unique race courses in the game. Ranging from wide and open to tight and technical, the variety across these courses are the backbone of F-Zero’s fun, and the grouping of them within the League structure presents a subtle layer of strategy to car selection.

We quickly realized however that memorizing the unique layout of each course was just the start, and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that within each race are a series of smaller obstacles to overcome including mines, magnets, ice, and even environmental factors such as Death Wind’s…well wind. Piling on some risk/reward decisions around jumps, boosts, and even the occasional branching path or shortcut, and very early on it had become clear to us that mastery of a course was going to take more than us just memorizing the turns.

And these decisions were just the beginning because once the race starts we also had the capable and aggressive enemy AI to contend with. Which brings us to another truly bright spot in F-Zero, the AI opponents. Being single player only the game lives and dies on the enemy AI’s ability to give the player real competition, and it doesn’t disappoint. We found ourselves repeatedly forced to respect the AI’s ability to block passes and generally mess up our day (in the best way possible).

Once we understood the courses we also began to appreciate the unique feel each car and the trade-offs they presented. Since all operate within a fairly tight tolerance of each other, every car is viable with the appropriate adjustments by the player in racing style, but for us selecting the right car for the combination of league and difficulty made a big difference. Were we going to take the Wild Goose and try to bully our way to the front on the long straight section with our superior top speed and beefier power? Or should we choose the Golden Fox for its blistering acceleration and nimble handling to ensure we could easily recover when we missed that icy corner or pass?

Despite all the challenges, we don’t want to downplay the accessible spirit of F-Zero’s systems. From start to finish there are plenty of examples that this game was built for fun: We found ourselves given an adequately generous number of lives (machines) for those unfortunate cases where we crashed out or fail to place high enough; The minimum “SAFE” rank we were required to maintain always felt achievable even when first place is long out of reach; And returning our car’s power to full via the Pit Row repair strip every lap rarely required slowing down unless we had done some serious damage.

Overall, F-Zero’s course design and systems elevate the game beyond its already great gameplay. By providing a series of small but meaningful challenges and choices the strategy elements add just the right amount of decision making outside the moment to moment gameplay without ever overshadowing the fast-paced action, and that’s something a player of any generation can appreciate.

Summary (88/100)

Modern players are unlikely to appreciate F-Zero aesthetically, but assuming they can get past the rougher edges owe it to themselves to understand why it’s what’s under the hood that truly matters. With some of the best music on the console, lightning fast gameplay, and airtight controls there’s very little to take issue with even by today’s standards. Combine these aspects with an interesting and varied set of tracks, capable opponents, and rewarding systems… and the only real complaint you’ll hear from us is the painful absence of a two player mode. Despite this, F-Zero is absolutely worth playing today and it could easily be argued as one of, if not the best, racing game on the console.

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