The Wonder Years 1.31.07: Week 41 - F-Zero

Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 01.31.2008

High speed critical future racing, baby.

Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up on the Wii's Virtual Console at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:

F-Zero

(Nintendo, Super NES, 1991)

Oh yes, arguably the most famous racing game of the early 90s gets its time in the sun (or at least, the 10pt Arial font) this week. That statement's going to earn me a kicking from Mario Kart fanboys, isn't it? Anyway, F-Zero was a title that really kickstarted the whole "futuristic racing" sub-genre of gaming - see its successors, both more famous (WipEout) and less so (Extreme G), all owing a sizeable debt to Nintendo's original template. It's a quintessentially 90s game, no less so for having arrived right at the start of the decade, and an essential experience for anyone wishing to learn more about the history of gaming in the last two decades. And if you think hovercars and sci-fi racing is a gimmick done to death, well, now you know where to place the blame.

The story, for what it's worth (and credit where it's due to Nintendo for actually bothering to include an attempt at a plotline for such a game, and indeed expanding upon the storyworld in future versions of the game), hints that five hundred years into the future, mankind and its alien compadres will grow tired of their accumulated wealth and galactic dominance, and seek entertainment in watching plasma-powered flying cars race round massive tracks at bowel-clenchingly high speeds. The sport? F-ZERO. Yeah, so I guess it's pretty generic, but it's a tad better than "Mario and chums want to go for a spot of go-karting". Such is the setup that sees you choosing one of the F-Zero originals Captain Falcon, Dr Stewart, Samurai Goroh and Pico and racing them through three leagues of increasingly tricky motorsport, with the obligatory time-trialling thrown in for good measure, although we're sadly absent a multiplayer mode at this point in the franchise.

The genius of F-Zero lies in the Mode 7 technology that came to be the technical hallmark of the Super NES. Why waste graphical horsepower throwing cars around a 3D racetrack when you can pin them to the center of the screen and have the track scaled and rotated about them to give the illusion of movement in a 3D environment? It's an idea of breathtaking simplicity, and I'm in no way claiming that some Nintendo bright spark actually came up with it (hell, everyone has/had seen the cheap own-brand arcade machines that fixed a plastic car to a rotating screen to make it look like you were driving towards a weird horizon line), but F-Zero was by far and away the best title at implementing the creation, and stands up against titles from five or six years later that used a similar conceit. The visuals are luvverly and smooth, and move at a remarkable pace (which, incidentally, makes navigating some of the harder tracks pretty damn tricky - the franchise has always been pleasantly challenging).

At this point, I'd usually employ a platitude of "all the pretty graphics in the world ain't worth squat if you don't have the game to back them up" and, y'know, that's true. Thankfully F-Zero is a great game, with the limited number of racers (four) more than compensated for by some excellent track design among the fifteen courses available, some memorable audio choons, and a gaming experience that proves sufficiently deep without ever really taking a long time to master. However, at the time of its release, there's really no overstating the importance of the game's technical merits. Released at the Super NES's launch, it showed the world that Nintendo had stepped up and really delivered a console that could compete with Sega's Genesis from a technical standpoint - and further that they could back up their hardware prowess with a bloody good game or two as well.

Of course, F-Zero is eminently (and indeed, imminently) playable these days, thanks to its worldwide availability on the Wii's Virtual Console - doesn't that thing just make you thank your lucky stars for the ready availability of classic older titles? Well, it does if you're an old gaming fart like I am. Anyhoo, my feeling is that this a title of such classicness [I had a think about that and couldn't come up with the mot juste] that you'll really be best served by actually tracking down the original cartridge, as it's bound to be worth a pretty penny in a few years' time. At the time of writing, I'm quite surprised at the number of boxed copies available on eBay (about a dozen) for prices ranging around $7 to $10, even if some of them are Swedish listings. I may even have to avail myself of a copy, as I never actually owned the game, merely borrowed it from a friend for a couple of years - lord knows what prompted her to remember about the cartridge and ask for it back. After all, the only game she ever really played on the console was Street Fighter 2, but you know how it is with girls, they're always better at fighting games than you'd expect. But I digress! My point is, stay out of my biscuit tin.

Oh, and take advantage of eBay's generosity and purchase yourself a copy of F-Zero. It's brilliant.

F-Zero trivia

• The game featured a pseudo-sequel, which generally goes by the name of BS F-Zero Grand Prix, including a handful of new tracks and some redesigned vehicles and characters. I've never played it, but there's probably a reason why it was largely forgotten about.
  
• The ex-head of Sega AM2 (the company's primary software development arm) has credited F-Zero with showing him what gaming should be all about.
  
• The game was one of only two that actually launched the Super NES in Japan, which clearly shows how confident Nintendo were in the title.
  
• F-Zero is, perhaps surprisingly, only an honorable mention in my official all-time Top 100 games.

The Videosphere

Let's take a look at this week's video highlight. Everyone knows the F-Zero series thrives on speed, and the N64's F-Zero X is probably the best exponent of that maxim, with an aesthetic entirely devoted to soul-destroying speeds. Check out the following movie from one gamer utilizing a speed code that boosts your vehicle to 2,500 km/h. Utter insanity.




General indulgences

Every week in this section I'll endeavor to provide you, the faithful readers, with a fascinating insight into the various forms of entertainment currently dominating my spare time.

This week, I have been mostly enjoying:

Resident Evil 4 on the Wii. How on earth did I miss this before? It's absolutely glorious, and I usually despise shooters that force you to protect an innocent third party while you're gunning shit down. Now if only pesetas were easier to come by so I could test that tasty-looking rocket launcher...

The Blue Harvest episode of Family Guy, which is much more faithful to Star Wars than I was expecting, and wasn't actually that funny if you're not a fan of the franchise. Fortunately, I'm a huge fan, so I loved this.

Unweaving the Rainbow by Frameshift. Prog-rock concept album based on a Richard Dawkins evolutionary text, anyone? Not exactly straightforward listening, but very rewarding, even if only because one of the tracks features heavy banjo riffing.

and Sex in the City, which my girlfriend has been watching in bed recently. If by "enjoying" I mean "tolerating". And if by "tolerating" I mean "wanting to snap the DVD in half and impale my eyes on the sharp bits".


And finally…

As always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome, I respond to everything so just drop me a line or leave a comment. You can also check out my science fiction column "The Flux Capacitor" over at 411 Movies. Next week in "The Wonder Years" - organized crime, in a video game? Whatever will the critics think! Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.