F-Zero was released for the SNES in North America in 1991 and is by far one of the best racing games for the SNES. It is a futuristic racing game taking place hundreds of years in the future. The only thing F-Zero really lacked when it was made was a 2-player mode which would have made the game even more fun to play. Not sure what the limitation was on that but it is too bad it was never included. That would have made F-Zero the best racing game for the SNES for sure.

Graphics 8/10 – this game looks great. The 4 cars you can pilot are all uniquely designed and operate in their own ways. The levels are also all very unique with only similarly named levels looking the same. The visuals do a great job of creating the hectic, fast-paced racing action that you expect to get from a game like this. The background moves as the track changes direction and the sides of the track whip by so quickly that you can’t focus on any of the edge parts for more than a split second. And remember that this was released in 1991 so it was pretty revolutionary with what it could do graphically. Still, I feel there was room for more detail in this game but it was still really well done.

Sound 9/10 – this is a place where F-Zero really excels. The soundtrack for this game was great. Every track has high paced and exciting to listen to but like the graphics, only similarly named tracks had similar sounding music for them. From beginning to end the music for this game excels. I can not think of a track that doesn’t deliver. Red Canyon, Port Town, Silence, Mute City and Big Blue come to mind as some of the best ones.

The sound effects are also quite good. I like the sound when you hit the energized barrier around the outside of the track and the sound of the healing machine that comes and fixes your vehicle when you go into the healing strip. It all sounds very futuristic as you would expect. The explosions and bumping into other vehicles also sound great. Sound for this game was just done well. Really can’t complain about much.

Addictiveness 9/10 – this game is so much fun to play. I’ve played it dozens and dozens of times. Just trying to beat each league at first is a challenge without increasing the difficulty at all. Having the ability to learn the tracks on an easy difficulty makes doing the hard difficulty levels more manageable later on.

The other great aspect to this game is playing certain races over and over and trying to beat the best time. That is probably something I did the most often. That was about the only way you could compete with your friends. The time trial mode allowed you to play the same track over and over and seeing if you could beat your friends’ best time was fun. Especially if you allowed “distractions”. This game is fun in a way that brings you back for more over and over.

Story n/a – it is a racing game. There is no story to it. There does not need to be one.

Depth 6/10 – unfortunately there are not more tracks for this game because it would be even more memorable if there were. There are 15 tracks over 3 leagues and each league can be done at 4 different difficulty levels so there are lots ways to play the game. However, in the end it is still the same 15 tracks to play. Even with 4 cars (which I find only 1 is really worth using) it does not make the game deep enough even then.

Difficulty 7/10 – to beat the game is not the most difficult thing to do. I can probably sit down right now and beat all 3 leagues on the easiest difficulty setting right now without much trouble at all. I doubt I could do that on any of the leagues on the hardest difficulty though. With as much range on the difficulty setting as you have it is impossible to rate this game fairly as the beginner setting would be easy for anyone and the hardest setting would challenge someone who has played the game 100 times. I figured 7 was a good compromise because the game provides that compromise in its difficulty.

Overall 7.8/10 – Do not let that rating fool you. This is a great game. I could have easily put the difficulty higher and gotten a higher rating but that wouldn’t be fair. The graphics and music for this game are great, especially the music. And the game is FUN!

The 2 things that are drawbacks are no 2 player mode and only 15 tracks. If the game had more tracks it would definitely have been even more fun but really, without a 2 player mode this will never be the amazing game it could have been. This is a great game that could have been one of the all time best on the SNES with just a few tweaks to it.

geeogree : I used to own this game. While the sense of speed and setting (of what little you could see of it) were great, I didn't feel the stages were very creative. Other than a couple ramps on some stages, there isn't much here - despite talking about being on alien planets with vicious, high winds, and molten lava.  Come on, game! Given the futuristic setting, I would have hoped they would have taken more advantage of how the race scene could have changed in so many years and gone a bit more Mario Kart kooky. 

And only 4 racers on the whole track, and they're poorly balanced? Yeesh.