F-Zero X - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Overall, critical reception of F-Zero X was positive; the game has an aggregate average of 86.93% based on 15 reviews at Game Rankings, and a metascore of 85 at Metacritic. Critics generally praised F-Zero X for its fast gameplay, abundance of courses and vehicles, keeping a high framerate with up to thirty racers on screen at the same time, and track design. However, the game has been widely criticized for its lack of graphical detail. Peer Schneider of IGN considered the game to rival Wave Race with its "perfectly fine-tuned controls and a fresh approach to racing". The title received Game of the Month for November 1998 from Electronic Gaming Monthly. An editor stated "the graphics may be simple, but they're smooth and the action is fast".

Allgame called F-Zero X as "certainly not up to Nintendo's usual standards" in terms of detail and texture quality. GameSpot also criticized the games' graphical detail, calling the low polygon count on the vehicles as "particularly uninspiring" and that the "track detail is also very limited, giving the track a spartan feel to it". Despite its visual setbacks, critics exalted the game for managing to keep a steady 60 frame/s, which some felt made up for the lack of graphical detail. The Electric Playground found the framerate to give "the game a major boost in the feel department" making it "seem like your vehicle is bursting through the sound barrier".

In regard to the music, EGM considered it "really good with some excellent remixes of the old F-Zero tunes", while CVG called the music dreadful. The Electric Playground thought it goes hand-in-hand to the simulation of speed in the game, but the reviewer commented "I wouldn't in a million years buy music like this to listen to".

In GameSpot's retrospective review, they gave it a 6.5/10 calling it "the black sheep of the series" when compared with the other F-Zero games in "visual style and technical flair". IGN described F-Zero X as an exceptional update to the original game that "only suffers under its generic look". Peer Schneider believed that unlike the first game, F-Zero X "is not about showing off graphics or sound capabilities -- it's all about gameplay".

F-Zero X sold 383,642 units in North America and 97,684 units in Japan. The game sold 56,457 copies during its first week of sale in Japan, but sold nearly five times less the following week due to the N64 having a small dedicated fanbase.