Developer Nintendo EAD
Publisher Nintendo
Genre Racing
Released 1998F-Zero X
T
his might seem a weird thing
to say about a game in which
you race aliens in the year
2560, but F-Zero X is possibly
the ‘realist’ racing game there has
ever been. There’s no rubber-band AI or
result-fixing so rivals always come out
on top – just you and 29 other racers
going hell for leather to the finish line.
There’s stakes, too. Using boost
comes as the expense of your health
bar – but an even bigger risk of using it
is that you could misjudge a corner and
tumble into the abyss. We’ve seen races
end with less than five left in the field.
Oh, and it’s fast. Very, very fast.The Jack Cup’s second track, Silence, is little
more than a big loop punctuated by go-faster
strips. Hit them all and you could hit speeds
in excess of 1,000 km/h. It’s a tremendous
introduction to the game’s blinding speed –
and a well-timed collision is a great opportunity
to end your rivals’ race early.CLASSIC MOMENT