Third parties never seemed too interested in making good racing games for the Nintendo 64. While there were a few (RUSH and its sequels spring to mind), most of the great racing games developed for the N64 game from Nintendo themselves. From the exciting 1080 Snowboarding to the near-religious experience of Wave Race, Nintendo broke a lot of ground with solid, original titles year after year. However, somewhere in the midst of the million-sellers, like Mario Kart 64 and the previously mentioned Wave Race, a gem of a game was overlooked. That game was the sequel to the hit title F-Zero (a game released to critical praise early in the life of the SNES, in case you missed it). That game was F-Zero X. Perhaps the most underrated game of all time. If you don’t believe me, check the other reviews (2) of the game on this very site. Perhaps other reviewers weren’t patient enough with the game. Perhaps they never played it with friends. But the fact of the matter is, F-Zero X is currently in the bargain bin of most every software store, and it is indeed one of the very best deals the N64 has to offer.

Shigeru Miyamoto (the genius behind Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda) has always been a fan of futuristic science fiction. Miyamoto’s first vision of the future came with Metroid; a game set in a dark future, with a bad ass, femme fatale bounty hunter as its main character. Sadly, despite a small minority of loyal fans, Metroid did not sell very well (ostensibly due to a story that just didn’t fly in the days of Mario and Sonic), and Miyamoto shied away from sci-fi games from then on. However, he did manage to slip a futuristic theme into F-Zero X; covered by an excellent racing game, so no one would notice. That vision may not have much of a story to it, but you have to admit that the idea of hyper-charged racing cars flying around roller coaster-like tracks, miles above the sparkling cities of the future, at 1000 KM/hour is a pretty damn cool one. And that is the background we are given going into F-Zero X.

Unfortunately, that vision does not translate particularly well to your television screen thanks to the games one drawback: graphics. In order to get F-Zero X to run at a blazing 60 frames per second (even in four-player mode) some cuts had to be made in the graphics department. So instead of the sparkling cities previously mentioned, we are left with blurry objects that somewhat resemble buildings. Instead of slick, intricate racing buggies, we are left with polygon-starved, under-detailed chunks of single color. Two colors if you are lucky.

But this game is not about graphics. It’s about gameplay. Darn good gameplay at that. Everything in F-Zero X is faster than anything in any game ever before envisioned. It is faster even than the disappointing Star Wars: Episode One Racer. For this reason alone, it is one of the most exciting racing games to play right out of the box. But I warn you, it will not be easy. The speed of the game is such that it takes a good deal of getting used to, and you will find yourself struggling to make even the easiest turn at first. But with a bit of patience, you will realize that the controls are not only adequate, they are some of best ever featured in a racing game. The A-button is the accelerator, while Z and R help you turn. There is be a brake, but where’s the fun in that? The simplicity of these three basic button controls is quite refreshing in these days of complex systems like those found in any game where gears are involved. And before you ask it, yes, a simple arcade racer can remain fun. That is thanks to extremely challenging later levels, terrific track design, and a great multiplayer.

Which takes us to perhaps the most important aspect of the game. While Wave Race and 1080 were great games, they didn’t have much when it came to multiplayer. F-Zero X is not perfect either, but it is certainly an improvement. Few Nintendo-made N64 racers contained a two-player GP mode, and F-Zero X is no exception. But while it lacks that feature, it does keep track of the number of points earned (i.e. 5 points for a first place finish, 3 for a second, etc.) by each player for the whole time you are in multiplayer, so you can basically set up a two-player GP mode by yourself. There really isn’t much you can do in multiplayer except straight up racing, but that doesn’t make it bad. Thanks to a huge track selection and four-player thrills the multiplayer fun can go on for hours at a time. And in case you missed it the last time it was mentioned, the game moves at 60 frames per second in four-player mode.

The sound in F-Zero X is exactly what it needs to be: adequate. The sound effects are nothing special (then again, at this stage in the N64’s life, no sound effects were anything special). The music is low-quality MIDI fake guitar rock. That may sound awful, but in actuality the music is quite good and it gets you pumped up to race.