Emulator And Super Nintendo

Retronomicon 07.27.11: F-Zero

Hello ladies, gentleman and sentient A.I. and welcome to yet another edition of the Retronomicon. As ever I am your host Lee Price. You should know this by now and if you don't, where have you been all my life? Welcome, here's hoping you love me like I love chicken. Which is a lot. A hell of a lot. Anyway I'm rambling, probably because I have very little to talk about to get us past the adverts. So I'll moan about something that irritates me instead. That being the douchenozzles who shave shapes into their haircuts. I'm not sure why but it irritates me when I see somebody who has paid to have an elaborate pattern shaved into their hair for the sake of looking like an idiot. I just want to ask them if they noticed when the aliens landed and made their hair circles. If I had ever met one person who wasn't a complete tool who had this hairstyle I would perhaps not be so annoyed by it. As it stands, they always seem to be chavs. To my US brothers and sisters, I guess these would equate to all those white kids who think they are "gangsta" cos they listen to 50 Cent or something. This seems to be their haircut of choice and I hate it. However I like the fact that we are passed the banner so lets get right to the... I got more comments than I expected for Wiz 'n' Liz last week, considering the game's relative obscurity. A certain Missy was conspicuous by her absence, thus making me realize how strange it is that I have a batch of regulars who usually put in an appearance every week. It gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling whenever I think anybody enjoys my writing to the point that I actually notice when they aren't there. I remember seeing this game in the store as a kid, looks like I missed out as it looks pretty fun from the video- I'd just like to point out for a game that looks like its for kids those are some of the creepiest and ugliest bosses this side of Splatterhouse. I think that ripped in half face one whose teeth you have to break would have given me nightmares back then. I'm not sure what sort of licensing issues would be keeping Wiz 'n' Liz from being re-released. I'm not sure if the game was a property of Bizarre Creations before they were shut down or Psygnosis, plus the title references a bunch of Psygnosis games in the process. Regardless, if Bizarre owned it then it is likely in Activision's hands now, whereas Psygnosis became Sony Liverpool so if it was theirs it is now Sony's. Back in 1991, the console market had finally passed the NES by. The console, which had been pretty much single-handedly responsible for the recovery of the games market, was finally being made to look outdated and obsolete when compared to the SEGA Genesis. It was high time that Nintendo moved on to a console that could compete with SEGA's powerhouse on every level in an effort to prevent them achieving an increased market share. Of course, this being Nintendo, they were more than ready for the NES' departure and, in that same year, unleashed the follow up on the American audience. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was noticeably more powerful than both the NES and the Genesis, with a host of neat little tricks hidden up its sleeve to give the games contained on the console an edge over the ones on the Genesis. One such trick was dubbed ‘Mode 7 Scrolling' a graphical technique that could create an illusion of 3D by allowing a background layer to be placed and rotated around a central object. It was intended to be a major selling point for the console, but the company were having trouble finding a way to really slot it into one of their big launch releases. Enter Nintendo EAD, who had just the game to show off the Mode 7 capabilities of the console while also making the gimmick a central gameplay premise. Their game was a futuristic racer that would use Mode 7 to convey a 3D track that could be pelted along at speeds never before seen in a racing game. The title was given the OK and, when the SNES launched in 1991, F-Zero was launched right alongside it. It's quite fair to say that nobody had seen anything quite like F-Zero before. The game was simply not possible on any other kind of hardware, not even the Genesis (at least at the time), and can be one of those titles that is truly a product of its time. Fortunately, Nintendo's quality control helped to ensure that F-Zero wasn't just a graphical powerhouse. It was also an extremely substantial game that played like a dream. The game has a surprisingly detailed story considering that it is a racer. Of course any sort of story is really an added bonus in this genre, but at least there was a bit of effort put into this one. The year is 2560 and the world has apparently evolved into some massive tech heaven that is ruled over by a select few billionaires. So really 500 years hasn't really changed much when it comes to social order. Of course regular entertainment, whatever that maybe be in 2560, is simply not good enough for these billionaires. Thus they feel the need to create a new sport that seemingly exists solely to entertain them. And apparently they chose what would surely be a defunct motor racing sport as the inspiration. Formula One racing is apparently the inspiration behind the new F-Zero competition, in which racers will ride specially crafted high speed vehicles that hover above the ground. Kind of makes you wonder if F1 was still the racing style of choice over 500 years after its inception. But still, there you have it. The title really ended up standing out based on both its graphics and gameplay. As I am pretty much formatted to talk about gameplay first in these columns, that's what we will be doing here. F-Zero played like nothing that had ever been seen before, and this was in large part thanks to the Mode 7 capabilities of the SNES. The pseudo 3D approach allowed for a racing experience that no other game could rival at the time, and it wasn't until much later that games would appear that could compete with the sheer sense of speed conveyed by F-Zero. Speed is pretty much the buzzword for the game. F-Zero seems obsessed with ensuring that you are moving as fast as possible at all times, with crafts able to reach speeds in excess of 500km/h putting everything that came before to shame. Playing the game today, it's difficult to convey just how fast F-Zero felt to gamers that had been conditioned by slower racers. More importantly things were not only fast. They were smooth too, which meant that players could get totally absorbed into the adrenaline rush, rather than playing a game that struggled with a frame rate that couldn't handle the immense speeds being chucked around. However speed wasn't the only thing that F-Zero had to offer, with the developers realizing that simply designing courses that could be blown through would lead to gamers getting bored pretty sharpish. Thus they created some of the most fiendish course designs around, with the game gaining a reputation for difficulty as a result. However it was never unfair, with F-Zero managing to strike that delicate balance between difficult and cheap. The game would punish you mercilessly for any mistake on the higher levels, however the mistake would always be your own fault and it pushed gamers to improve their ability as a result. At the same time, the game played well enough that there was also plenty of room for a more casual gamer to have some fun. While those at the higher end of the spectrum could spend hours working out the nuances of the 15 tracks, people who just wanted a quick blast were catered for as well. I've often talked about games that managed to combine accessibility with depth and F-Zero is one of the best examples from the 16 Bit era. There is a little something here for everyone. Races themselves consisted of five laps around whichever track you happen to be playing on, with your choice of 4 different racers; Captain Falcon, Dr. Stewart, Pico, and Samurai Goroh. Of those we all know that Captain Falcon has since become the face of the series, thanks in no small part to a certain meme spread about by a later game. Players must complete each lap in a higher position than they were in previously to be allowed to continue. They are aided with speed boosts, which can be saved up and used whenever needed, though only a maximum of three can be stored at any time. Players are given the choice of entering Grand Prix mode, where they play through the various cups in an attempt to conquer a game that becomes incredibly difficult the further in you get, and Practice mode, where players inevitably end up spending many an hour after having their arse handed to them in Grand Prix mode. The only real knock against the game is that it lacked a multiplayer mode. Whether this was down to the developers not being able to integrate one into the game with their early understanding of Mode 7 technology or it was a simple design choice, it does hurt a game that seemed to be custom built for competitive play. Of course I've already waxed lyrical about the graphics a little bit before, but it stands to be further emphasized that F-Zero looked quite unlike anything that had been seen before. I keep banging on about Mode 7 but it was integral to F-Zero's success, allowing the developers to create a very convincing 3D effect whilst also allowing them to develop a sense of speed that no other racer had offered before. It was all down to this neat graphical trick, which essentially rotated the track around the player at high speed, creating a near perfect illusion of control and speed. However this technology had its disadvantages. While ship sprites all looked good and chunky, also being well animated in the process, the tracks themselves looked perhaps a little lifeless. One thing that stands out is that every track is completely flat, a necessary sacrifice to make for developers using Mode 7 as it simply did not allow for variations in the height of the tracks. Its a small knock, especially when its against a game using the technology for the first time, but it can be noticeable. Musically the game was nothing particularly special. Each track was accompanied by a slightly rocked up tune but they had a habit of fading into the background, especially when all your concentration was being placed into maintaining speed and not crashing. Similarly the sound effects for which vehicle are a little uninspired, with what appear to be high pitched screeches substituting for engine noises. I suppose it is meant to add into the whole futuristic setting, but it can grate a little bit. All in all though, F-Zero was all about the sensation of speed and the flaunting of capabilities that other consoles simply didn't have. The game would go on to be the success it deserved to be thanks to solid and difficult gameplay, however it was that first taste of well used Mode 7 graphics that many a gamer would remember. After F-Zero racers would never quite be the same again. F-Zero was a hugely popular game right from the off. While not selling as much as the really big sellers on Nintendo's books, it found a large niche almost immediately and easily surpassed the million sales mark as gamers were impressed both by its amazing graphics and the insane speeds that the racing was conducted at. Critical and consumer praise was almost unanimous and a spin-off of the racing genre was born. However it wasn't until the development reigns were handed over to SEGA for F-Zero GX that the series reached the heights of the original. The title marked the first real collaboration between Nintendo and SEGA, with SEGA AM4 proving they could do an excellent job as third party developers, assuming they were handed the right property. It was also quite a surreal experience to see a Nintendo property in the hands of SEGA, but in the end it all worked out. Since then though there hasn't been a whole lot of activity on the F-Zero front. The series never managed to find its way onto the Wii and the last release in the series was F-Zero Climax for the GBA, which itself only saw the light of day in Japan. After seven years of inactivity, it is quite tempting to claim that the series is pretty much dead, however that would be a massive shame. Hopefully the series will see a revival soon as it would be especially interesting to see how it would work on the 3DS.