F-Zero X is a 1998 racing game developed and published by Nintendo. The second game in the F-Zero series, it was released for the Nintendo 64, eight years after F-Zero (1990).
Whereas the SNES game was a racing game inspired by Formula One with a futuristic twist, F-Zero X goes much further with that twist. Racing machines are armed with Boost Power that is Cast from Hit Points, giving the players a chance to make a turnaround at the expense of risking early retirement. Vehicular Combat elements are in the game, further escalating the war between competitors. Mix that with 30 unique racing machines always present in all modes (while maintaining stable 60FPS), much requested Competitive Multiplayer support, and heavy metal soundtrack, and you have a game that prevailed as a Spiritual Antithesis to Mario Kart 64 and made the F-Zero series people now know as.
It received an Expansion Pack on the 64DD called the F-Zero X Expansion Kit. It requires the original cartridge to be used in tandem with the disk and adds two new cups (DD-1 and DD-2) and other customization options. Because the 64DD was not released outside Japan, so was Expansion Kit, and Nintendo has only re-released the base game minus the 64DD enhancements for digital service. An unofficial cartridge conversion of Expansion Kit exists that combines the base game with the Expansion Kit, making it possible to run the game on Nintendo 64 without the console peripheral.
Tropes featured in F-Zero X include:
- Aggressive Play Incentive: In GP Mode, you get an extra life for every five opponents you destroy in a single race.
- Announcer Chatter: This is the first installment to introduce an unseen announcer that responds to and updates with your current position. The most famous is when you unlock Boost Power system in the second lap: "You got Boost Power!"
- Artificial Stupidity: CPU machines poorly react to random geometries generated in X Cup and are prone to veer off the course to their death. The game tones down their aggressive behavior on higher difficulties to solve this, but they still have trouble making sharp turns if present on the tracks.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: The game's course music is rife with heavy metal, in contrast to F-Zero (1990) that had some serene tracks. Expansion Kit upgrades it to stereo CD music. The metal soundtrack in F-Zero X has since become the iconic part of the series, with crossovers like Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 featuring rock music inspired by this game.
- Cast from Hit Points: F-Zero X replaces the Nitro Boost power-ups with Boost Power, which can be activated unlimited times but drains your ship's Energy directly. It plays a big role in creating a high-risk/high-reward gameplay the F-Zero series is known for. Spending too much Energy leaves you very vulnerable to retire, possibly exploding just from a scratch, but a carefully planned use of Boost Power can secure your victory as long as you make it to the finish line. Using Boost Power is a must even on easier difficulties, as CPU machines also take advantage of it to catch up with you.
- Company Cross References: One of the courses in this game is a recreation of Mario Kart 64's Rainbow Road. The Expansion Kit also uses an arrangement of the Rainbow Road theme.
- Darker and Edgier: While not quite darker than the SNES game, the game is edgier in its looks, evident in pilot portraits drawn in style of American comics and heavy metal music, both unusual for family-friendly Nintendo.
- Design-It-Yourself Equipment: Create Machine in Expansion Kit is a mode allowing players to make a custom machine, having the players choose from a number of body parts and set the stats to the completed machine.
- Easy-Mode Mockery: Playing on Novice difficulty denies the character ending in Grand Prix.
- Expansion Pack: The 64DD add-on disk, F-Zero X Expansion Kit, adds two new cups, a Level Editor, a Design-It-Yourself Equipment mode, and CD music.
- Franchise Codifier: The SNES game might be more recognizable to those outside the playerbase (due to the series' 16-bit graphics and music constantly represented in games like WarioWare), but it is F-Zero X where almost everything important in the series got their start. This includes the series' huge and diverse cast, Competitive Multiplayer mode, the Cast from Hit Points Boost Power system, Vehicular Combat, Announcer Chatter, anti-gravity circuits, and heavy metal soundtrack.
- Have a Nice Death: Retiring out of a race by blowing up from lack of Energy or going off-course into the great abyss below results in the announcer shouting "TOO BAD! YOU LOST YOUR MACHINE."
- Level Editor: Course Edit in Expansion Kit can create custom courses, saved up to 100. It can generate almost everything in the official cups, supporting complex geometries like tunnel and halfpipe.
- More Diverse Sequel: The SNES game only had one alien pilot with the other pilots and the manual comics mostly consist of human cast. F-Zero X goes crazy with Sci-Fi Kitchen Sink, featuring octopus (Octoman), dinosaurs (Bio Rex), and undead people (The Skull).
- Randomly Generated Levels: X Cup is a Grand Prix Cup without unique tracks of its own, creating random courses every time you play. These circuits can range from straight lines with no real danger to perilous sharp turns with strange shifts in elevation. CPU racers have trouble completing the latter, often falling off the course.
- Retcon: F-Zero X gives Age Lift to two returning pilots, as Dr. Stewart aged up from 31 to 41 and Pico's age became much higher, from 34 to 123. Because of this mismatch in their age and the game not really acknowledging the events of the SNES game, it's not clear whether it's just a retcon or this game is meant to be a Continuity Reboot.
- Sequel Escalation: The first game's normal machine velocity is capped below 500km/h. This game lets you push it easily over 1000km/h.
- Spin Attack: Holding the Z and R button and double-tapping one of them lets your ship perform spin attack that damages machines nearby.
- Spiteful A.I.: F-Zero X introduces the Rival system that picks rival cars from a pool depending on your pilot of choice, who will always try to get close to and attack you.
- Tech-Demo Game: This game has a 60 FPS framerate to show that the Nintendo 64 can indeed have action-focused games that move at such a smooth framerate, something that Nintendo Power emphasized in its preview articles for the game.
- Vehicular Combat: F-Zero X is the first installment to have a method to engage in direct combat with the other racers. By pressing Z and/or R button repeatedly, you can perform side attack and spin attack that damages adjacent machines. Retiring a rival machine bars them from earning rank points and is a valid strategy. In addition, an Arrange Mode named Death Race is entirely designed around this, putting racers on one big loop track.
- Video Game 3D Leap: This game makes a complete upgrade to 3D visuals and gameplay, allowing for twisting, looping track designs not possible under the pseudo-3D format of the original.
- A Winner Is You: Completing a Grand Prix with 1st place in ranking on Standard difficulty or higher gets you an ending screen unique to each character. It only consists of an illustration and a few lines. Captain Falcon has the second ending available when completed on Master difficulty, but that's all the game has.
- "X" Makes Anything Cool: Instead of something like F-Zero 64, like so many games on Nintendo 64, this game is named F-Zero X without real justification, which continued with F-Zero GX.
YEAHHHH!! That's right!
Way to go, it's a new record!
