F-Zero series

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JaySevenZero
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F-Zero series

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for the F-Zero series for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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Buskalilly
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Re: 591: F-Zero series

Post by Buskalilly »

I bloody love F-Zero games.

I first encountered the series on GBA. Playing Maximum Velocity via link cable with my mate Rich for hours one night, commenting on how exciting close games were, was when I first realised that a good contest was fun whether you won or lost.

I dabbled a little with the original on Wii Virtual Console or more recently on the Switch Online. It's fun and frantic and fast.

F-Zero X on Wii VC got a lot of play when we should have been doing something more useful back in Sixth Form. The speed, the madness of some of the tracks, the cheesy voices and music; perfect fodder for some kids slightly too young to drink booze, slightly too awkward to chase girls and slightly too hyped up on sugar to actually study. More recently I tried playing with a friend on the other side of the planet and even with the sound utterly garbled the fun of the race was undeniable.

And then there's F-Zero GX.
The visuals? Sublime.
The speed? Mind-melting.
The control? So precise!
It got plenty of multiplayer sessions but the real joy was when my good friend Muss, after finally giving into my goading and playing through Dark Souls, challenged me to beat Mission Mode. Its one of the hardest gaming feats I ever undertook, but pulling it off felt glorious. It's a crime this hasn't at the very least been given a lick of paint and an HD release with online multiplayer.

Oh, I've also had a couple of chances to play AX. There's a map on google of where machines can be found, and I hiked twenty kilometres across Tokyo to play one at the start of 2019. F-Zero GX, essentially, but played with a wheel/ joystick thing while sat in a moving cockpit. Incredible! I also played one in Sapporo but the boost button was busted so it was literally impossible to maintain a lead after the first lap. I ain't got boost power!
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Iain[Ian]Ianson
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Re: 591: F-Zero series

Post by Iain[Ian]Ianson »

Have only given any meaningful time to the original SNES game, and Maximum Velocity on the GBA.

They’re both excellent. The vibe in the first one is so delightfully garish and colourful.

The amount of face-button tapping that’s needed (especially on Maximum Velocity) I think has caused me some genuine long-term nerve damage.

I also love the way you can play quite riskily by bouncing off walls to cheese certain corners, hoping you’ll get your sliver of life back on the next lap. Heart in mouth stuff.
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NoMoreSpearows
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Re: 591: F-Zero series

Post by NoMoreSpearows »

In my mind, there are two types of F-ZERO games.

On the one hand, you have titles like the Super NES original and Maximum Velocity. These are ones where victory is handled primarily through expert handling of your vehicle and knowledge of the course layout. Even when you're in first place you aren't guaranteed to win, since NPC vehicles are peppered throughout to make you swivel out of the way just enough to make you either fall behind or hit a game-ending obstacle.

The second, and more popular, are those such as X and GX where you're more likely to win by being the last vehicle on the track. With fewer stage boundaries, a lot more characters, and benefits provided for making as many drivers retire as possible, it feels less like a race than a destruction derby. Sure, you can win through the same methods that would work in the other half of the series, but doing so is an exercise in futility once you start aiming for the harder cups and higher difficulties.

Suffice to say, I prefer the former category. I like that F-ZERO has created an identity with the destructive side of things, but I find a lot more satisfaction from learning the layout of the tracks rather than them being elaborate playgrounds where I'm meant to memorize where and when to shove someone into the abyss more than anything. Credit where it's due, attempts have been made to combine the two, namely GP Legend and the Japan-exclusive Climax, but I feel like the perfect blend still hasn't been found yet. Perhaps that would be the key to the series getting its oft-requested new installment; when that happens, I'm looking forward to getting boost power once again.
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AndrewElmore
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Re: 591: F-Zero series

Post by AndrewElmore »

F-Zero:
An incredible statement of intent for a new generation of hardware, and a wonderfully fun game to this day. The sense of speed is unrelenting, and the controls are finely tuned to match. The art and music are as good as they are enduring, and it's still a blast to play to this day. A perfect example of leaning into a piece of hardware's strengths and weaknesses to create something with real longevity. As someone who plays an awful lot of less-fondly-remembered games from this era, and as someone who plays an awful lot of racing games in general, the fact that a Super Famicom launch game from 1990 has retained every ounce of its original luster is a wildly impressive feat. Most people I know in the racing game community (such as it is) tend to reluctantly agree that the genre didn't really "work" until it became viable in three polygonal dimensions. They'll concede respect to Sega's earlier SuperScaler efforts like OutRun, but mostly view them as interesting historic stepping stones that got us to the arcade hardware of the early 1990s, when "Racing Games" really "began" with Virtua Racing, Daytona, and Ridge Racer. So for a humble Mode 7 racer from the launch of the Super Famicom to have retained such joyous playability and elegant nuance after all these years, I don't know, I think that's worth a whole heck of a lot of something.

--

F-Zero X:
Where we're going, we don't need textured polygons! One of the only examples of 60fps games on the N64, I think F-Zero X is magnificent. It's easy to see it in hindsight as a rough draft of sorts for GX/AX, but without the aid of a time machine, I suspect the people who made it didn't see it that way during development. FZX leaps from the flat Mode-7 sprite rotations of its predecessor into the wide, wild world of 3D with such contagious enthusiasm! The original game spun gold from straw with its use of jumps, turns, layers, and gaps to add some verticality to its world, but X asks "What if you were racing inside all the various tubes from Tempest?" then drops a cinderblock on the accelerator. It's exhilarating, flying across the inside and outside of huge pipe-shaped courses with bullring loops and neck-snapping turns, guided by some vague notion of Mario Galaxy-esque gravitational physics.

--

F-Zero GX:
This one is almost intimidating to talk about. I have the utmost respect and admiration for everyone at Amusement Vision, and I adore the game they created. I love the way Nintendo was able to recruit Sega and Namco during the GameCube era to really get out there and experiment with their properties, I wish we could see more of that again. Amusement Vision (Previously AM4) would of course go on to become, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the famed Ryu Ga Gotoku studio, which also explains FZGX's having been built in a modified version of the Super Monkey Ball engine. F-Zero GX sees the series at the absolute peak of its precision tuning. It both provides and requires a level of memorized familiarity in addition to highly attentive reflexes to such a degree that it feels akin to playing an extremely difficult STG (or "shmup" if you're nasty). It's a legendarily difficult game, but I feel that the handling, physics, art direction, and track design are all so masterfully crafted and assembled that even if you're coming in dead last every time, there's still a tremendous amount of fun to be had here. The game just MOVES at what feels like an impossible pace, and it generously extends a hand, offering to take you on the most whiplash-inducing thrill ride ever devised by human hands and minds. That's an offer I'll happily take again and again for the rest of my days. What a game.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (14.10.23) - 591: F-Zero series

Post by Jobobonobo »

My first experience with F-Zero was in Christmas 1998 and getting a N64 with two games: Super Mario 64 and F-Zero X. I had heard about F-Zero X from Nintendo magazines and really liked the futuristic comic book style it had. It reminded me of Extreme-G only more stylish. I plugged the N64 in and tried out F-Zero X first as my brothers were also interested in trying it out. We were blown away, the speed was unlike anything I had ever seen before especially for a 3D game. The whole experience was exhilarating, racers smashing into each other, death defying jumps, crazy half pipes and cylindrical surfaces where one could drive anywhere without restriction. What an absolute overload of the senses. This was one of the most mind blowing introductions to the next generation of consoles a young boy could get! Even better was that the N64 came with an extra controller so I had multiplayer sessions with my brothers all Christmas. Over the next few years it became a favourite among friends if we were to have a multiplayer session on the N64 and when we finally had four controllers than the matches got even more intense. When I moved out to go to University, the N64 came right along with me and F Zero X was another big hit among my friends and housemates.

While I have briefly played other entries in the series, X is the only that really ticked all my boxes. Exhilarating sense of speed, crazy course design, ridiculously cheesy rock soundtrack, joyous multiplayer, accessible for newcomers but rewarding for veterans and character design that is truly unlike any other Nintendo series, X did not disappoint. The original was single player only and too basic while GX had a very high difficulty spike which made it far less approachable. They are still fine games at the end of the day but X will always reign supreme for me. I really would love Nintendo to do a proper new entry in the series. Their propensity to flat out ignore certain series for decades if not longer is frustrating to say the least. But to end on a more happy note, great under-looked series of racers that are highly recommended to anyone who likes sci-fi silliness mixed with high speed action.

TWR: Wipeout without weapons
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