{"id":86652,"date":"2019-03-05T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/03\/soapbox_its_time_to_admit_that_f-zero_x_is_the_best_f-zero"},"modified":"2019-03-05T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T17:00:00","slug":"soapbox-its-time-to-admit-that-f-zero-x-is-the-best-f-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/03\/05\/soapbox-its-time-to-admit-that-f-zero-x-is-the-best-f-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Soapbox: It’s Time To Admit That F-Zero X Is The Best F-Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n

There is a bit of a running joke here within the Nintendo Life team; it\u2019s a well-known fact that I\u2019m a huge<\/em> fan of F-Zero X<\/strong><\/a> on the Nintendo 64, and despite my strong beliefs on the subject, almost everyone<\/em> tries to convince me otherwise as to which is the best F-Zero.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll find references to this hidden across Nintendo Life, our social media channels and even spilling over into private areas, such as our Slack<\/a> loading messages. The most recent example is a meme tweet<\/a>, which was created in a moment of madness during what should<\/em> have been a top-level business meeting and finally<\/em> compelled me to write this article.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a bit of fun… or is it?<\/em> Let\u2019s first travel back to 1998 and find out what all the fuss is about. The Nintendo 64 had been out for almost a year here in Europe and had (thus far) been severely lacking any decent racing games. Annoyingly, Sony\u2019s PlayStation had been awash with quality in the genre, including WipEout<\/strong>, Destruction Derby<\/strong> and Ridge Racer<\/strong>. Over on the N64, it had been the likes of Crusin\u2019 USA<\/strong>, San Francisco Rush<\/strong> and Top Gear Rally<\/strong>. Not really a fair fight; heck, even the third-placed Sega Saturn was blessed with better racers than Nintendo’s console.<\/p>\n

\"I'm<\/a>
I’m slightly ashamed at the condition of these… maybe it’s time to trade up?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Nintendo still had an existing racing franchise up its sleeve: F-Zero<\/em>. Now, the original SNES game<\/a> was a firm favourite with me on the previous generation system, a game I vividly remember going into Woolworths a few days after Christmas and buying with my Christmas money. The character and ship artwork was fantastic, and combined with the Mode 7 effect and memorable music, left a lasting impression on my young imagination.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 1997. F-Zero was no longer deemed relevant; its cartoonish graphics were outdated and childish. The super-cool and ultra-sleek WipEout was the new<\/em> future of anti-grav racing. Nintendo needed a new take on the racing genre and called upon Shigeru Miyamoto to deliver something special and \u2013more importantly \u2013 something cool<\/em>. Apparently conceptualised around the time of Mario Kart 64\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> development, Nintendo started work on \u2018F-Zero 64\u2019.<\/p>\n

The best way to get news on upcoming video games back in those dates was either via word of mouth or print magazines. Sure, the internet existed back then (56k modem, anyone?) but it was still the magazine space that dominated the world of video game news and reviews. Any enthusiast gamer was buying at least 2 to 3 different magazines a month, and I was no different. These publications were a vital conduit between players and the industry.<\/p>\n

\"N64<\/a><\/figure>\n