I might make myself unpopular discussing today's title from my efforts to play one from my 603 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown...
F-Zero X on the N64
Previous days' entries can be read HERE
I’ve noticed these posts have been getting a bit long recently but F-Zero X is unlikely to follow that trend as, in all honesty, what could I possibly say that’s new?
That the graphics are pretty basic? That the 60FPS speed and 30 racers at once is impressive? That it’s really, really hard? All these things have been repeated ad infinitum by anyone who has played and discussed this game for the last 20 years - and I can’t disagree with any of them.
Full disclosure before I go on: This game was not chosen by Selectron™, (the name I’ve given the random selector tool I've built into my game database). I was scrolling through the list yesterday and noticed I had this game on it twice; once on the virtual console for the Wii and once as an unboxed cartridge for the N64. Because of the logic I use for my collection, playing this today will lower my 'Unplayed' count by two, meaning that tomorrow my total unplayed will be at 600 on day 40 - and as I'm a tiny bit OCD about round numbers that appeals to me enormously.
I insinuated that I wouldn’t be going over old ground, but even as a big fan of low-poly graphics there’s no denying F-Zero X has extremely simple vehicle models. Personally I still quite like them, the bigger issue is that they clash completely with the comic-book style of the menus and character art.
This character and vehicle roster is huge, but perhaps the game’s biggest issue for me is that they are locked behind a pretty prohibitive ‘achievement wall’ that means a GP must be won on Expert level in order to unlock a set of new avatars. My best finishing position in the easiest GP on Expert level so far has been 4th and individual race finishes average about 7th. A better approach would have been to open up a couple of characters for each level beaten, with their quality proportionate to the difficulty the GP was beaten at.
To be clear, the issue here isn’t the challenge, but rather that the route to improvement isn’t immediately apparent - and immediacy is what this kind of game should be all about.
The last full game released in this series was F-Zero GX on the Gamecube in 2003 and there was no handheld entry for either the DS or 3DS. Because of this there’s a hard core of support for the F-Zero franchise that bemoans the series' lack of love from Nintendo.
This may be a little controversial but I really can't see why they bother. This type of game has been done so much better by so many others in the intervening years that it’s hard to see what Nintendo could bring to the party. The original Wipeout arrived in 1996 and the series was untouchable in this arena right up to the PS3, even on Nintendo’s own systems the ‘FAST Racing’ series has had an entry on the Wii, Wii-U, and Switch and has improved to the point where the most recent entry, Fast RMX, is better than anything ever released in the F-Zero Franchise.
I guess there’s an argument that Nintendo should roll up Shin’en, the Fast Racing developer, and use them to do reboot (Especially as Capcom are proving the viability of that route) - but it’s pretty clear the big N aren’t in the habit of propping up unprofitable IPs and that ‘hard core’ of vocal series fans aren’t a large enough consumer base to ensure they can make money from this brand.
In terms of F-Zero X I’m left wondering what this game has to offer me in return for any future dedication. I know there are unlockable modes available but it’s difficult to see the appeal of extra characters if I’ve already had to beat a game at it’s hardest to unlock them.
F-Zero X - It’s okay, but it’s difficult to see it having such a following were it not a Nintendo brand.
