I remember reading this post by someone about playing GX. He was saying he'd find himself playing the same track in time attack, hours on end, shaving off precious tenths of a second, trying to set a new best track or lap record. This is the kind of passion F-Zero evokes.
F-Zero X was released in Japan july 14th 1998.
In Europe, it came out around the same time as Ocarina of Time, which of course hogged all the attention, with perfect or near perfect scores. I played through OoT, but the game that really took me was F-Zero X. I hadn't heard about F-Zero up to that point (never owned a Snes), but looking at the box art and screenshots from the game, it instantly looked cool to me and I don't regret it!
X received good scores upon release, 8's and 9's, but not OoT or Mario 64-like scores, which in my opinion it most definitely deserved. It still holds up incredibly well today, unlike some if not most N64 games. One of the points of critique at the time was graphics, specifically lack of scenery. Ironically, because it's also one of the N64 games that holds best visually, while most of that primitive N64 scenery now looks bland, uninteresting and rough.
I disagreed with that judgement at the time. Nintendo made all the right choices opting instead for a rock-solid 60 frames per second (pretty much unheard of in those days), all while weaving through a pack of 29 ships all interacting which each other on crazy corkscrew tracks. This makes playing F-Zero X an incredibly smooth, fast-paced, intense experience. It also has its own unique visual style/charm and importantly, clear line of sight on the tracks. Some more modern racers have a lot of clutter, which can make it hard to figure out the next bend or where to go next, which kind of works against them.
The real gem of X though are the physics and the precise controls giving it the right 'feel'. Airtime, generating lift on curved surfaces. Different cornering techniques, stacking boosts to build speed, that fine degree of control with that unique N64 analog stick. And then of course advanced techniques like railsliding or double tap dives (DTDs). This game still blows my mind. Let's also not forget the ramming (side attack system), which is super cool and isn't cheap. It requires great skill to use effectively, keeping it a pure skill racer (instead of a whacky party game like Mario Kart) and involves a speed trade off.
And then there's the soundtrack. Boy that soundtrack...
I'm still passionate about X all these years later, to me still the greatest racing game I ever played. It is a game that flirts with perfection and so do/did some of it's best pilots.
Extra tracks and a track editor (virtually the same tool the developers used), dubbed the 'Expansion Kit', were released, but unfortunately this was on on the ill-fated 64DD platform (an add-on for the N64), of which I believed only ever about 10 000 copies were sold/released and in Japan only. Nintendo never subsequently rereleased it on a different platform to give access to the general public (the 3DS would've been a great fit for a rerelease/remaster with its circle pad, touch screen and 3D effect).
And that was that. After Climax sold poorly (releasing 3 gameboy advance F-Zero's in a short timespan wasn't the smartest thing to do) and the anime bombed, it was over. But before that, at least we were fortunate enough to get GX on Gamecube, another great 3D Fzero with impressive graphics.
What does the future hold? Well, X (as well as the other Fzeros) lives on in the many custom track packs created by players and the time attack competition running to this day. Which is in and of itself is quite the feat in a market with fast evolving technology and companies always trying to direct the public's attention to the next best game/toy to have. A testament to the enduring quality and genious of the F-Zero games.
I have talked about F-Zero's esport potential, with the possibilities of 30-player online multiplayer and track creation and sharing. But we have already made it into an (underground) esport with the various time attack competitions, campaign speedruns and TASes (tool-assisted speedruns) pushing these games to the limit.
May I finally add I'm looking forward to the release of Aero GPX, a futuristic racer truly inspired by Fzero, which has been in development for some years now and reached its crowdfunding objectives a while back.
To close, an example of a custom track. A relatively simple one but I like it. Slider strat in action. Notice how he's able to skip several platforms with good speed and air control.
Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn't seem to care about any of their IPs if they don't sell as much as Mario or Zelda or aren't party and casual games. There are many IPs that haven't come back and that I love, such as Wave Race (first Gamecube game for many, myself included), F-Zero, Star Fox, Donkey Kong... The lack of Wave Race and F-Zero is more outrageous because of how bland and casual Mario Kart has become since the Wii and Wii U/Switch entries. Mario Kart 8 (DX) has the worst gameplay in the whole series.
I agree with your post, F-Zero X has aged very well because of the 60fps and the simple visuals that make racing more consistent and cleaner. F-Zero GX (by Sega) is one of the most impressive Gamecube games, although it's too difficult for many.
@Banjo- Yeah I really dug Wave Race 64 back in the day and have fond memories of Star Fox 64. Too bad Zero's controls were such a mess, never got the hang of it. Luckily we have indie devs filling some of the void left by Nintendo. For Star Fox there's Ex Zodiac and Exploration Showcase. There was also this Wars clone in a more medieval setting, I forgot the name. I've logged quite some hours on Polytopia, which is also played competitively.
I think for GX it is imperative that before playing the game you set the analog stick to max range (keep dead zone the same) to have less sensitive controls. This should've been the default setting, I bet a lot of people don't know about it. Controk stick sensitivity is crucial, which is why N64 hardware is still the best official way to play F-Zero X (in second comes Wii emulation with a Gamecube controller, the Wii U version's controls are just too sensitive (even though they were patched), I don't enjoy it).
The fact that Nintendo never put in the effort to properly emulate the F-Zero games, nor make the Expansion Kit available to the wider public, is another slap in the face to the fans. They sit on gold and just ignore it or treat it poorly, because they'd rather invest their effort in easy money. That's not the kind of Nintendo I want to support.
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Topic: F-Zero X's upcoming 25th anniversary
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