Stunt Race FX

"Nice try, but it seems that the FX chip is not suitable for racing games."

With this game Nintendo tried to make another hit like Star Fox using the FX chip, but unlike Fox’s McLeod galactic adventure this driving simulator is a pretty bland experience.

The first problem is lack of vehicles, there are only four different vehicles (five with that big truck, but that one is only available during the bonus stages, so I guess it doesn’t counts), these vehicles have eyes and their design is very funny and attractive, but I repeat there are only four of them. However, at least there are big differences between them aside from their visual appearance, the first one, that kind of yellow beetle, is the typical standard car for beginners, then we have a big 4x4 which is slower but very resistant, a very fast but weak against collisions sports car, and the last one is a green motorcycle, the best vehicle in the game, but that is only if you can manage to control it, because it is so fast that is nearly impossible to play without ending on the top of tree.

We have four play modes, the first one is the Speed Trax, which is basically a Tournament mode, we have to try to be one of the first ones to reach new courses.
Then we have Stunt Trax, in which we have to collect stars on each track. Battle Trax, which is a versus mode. And finally Test Run, in this mode we can practice freely before trying to beat a more serious competition.

The gameplay is quite good, the game is very hard, but not because to the game’s controls. The tracks are very well made, they have slides, tunnels, bridges... they are pretty nicely done. Also, in this game we have check points, beating our opponents is not enough if we don’t get to these check points on time. I liked the idea of using check points a lot, don’t know exactly why.
We have a turbo bar we can fill obtaining those blue “things” scattered around some circuits, there are also red “things”, those are to repair our car during the race, because we also have a damage bar, so if we are not cautious and take too much damage our car will end up exploding in a very nice way.

The two player option is terrible, because while the screen splits in two in the same way than in Mario Kart, with all the numbers, the turbo bar and all the trash on screen you will hardly see a thing, really, more or less 60 per cent of the screen is occupied by numbers and statistics. I found the two players mode unplayable.

The graphics the same ones from StarFox, they are in the same 3D but with more colours and a bit more detailed, there is a lot of pop up and sometimes the game gets really messy, but in general everything looks pretty good. Anyway, even if the graphics are good, I think they are not suitable for a racing game.
The music fine, it is funny and, that is it, basically.

My conclusion:
Stunt Race FX is a good racing game for one player, but for one player only, and what makes racing games entertaining is the possibility to play with a friend, and then we have another problem, there is a game called Super Mario Kart, which happens to be the best racing simulator ever crafted by the mankind, and so there is no real point of playing this one, because Super Mario Kart is also the most entertaining racing game for one player.
If you don’t mind playing alone this game is fun for a while, otherwise stick to Mario Kart.

”My lack of vocabulary and grammatical errors (if there’s any) are because I’m not from an English speaking country, sorry about that.”

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/25/04