PixlBit

Hey look, it's 3D! And I think I'm gonna be sick.

Stunt Race FX is a 3D racing game for the Super NES that was released in 1994. It was developed by Nintendo and Argonaut, and published by Nintendo. It uses the special FX chip to give us real 3D (although these polygons look extremely primitive by today's standards). Argonaut was the developer who helped with Star Fox the year before, a game that wowed the world over, so they decided to make another game using the FX chip. What a shame this game is nothing like Star Fox and has lost all sense of fun.

The game has four modes: Speed Trax, Stunt Trax, Battle Trax, and Free Trax (I guess spelling "tracks" with an X was cool or rad or something). Four vehicles are available to play, each with a different body, acceleration, and max speed. To give the vehicles more personality, they were given eyes; this speaks to the fact that the game was aimed at kids, not teens or adults. I imagine kids would enjoy this game more than teens or adults because kids are not nearly as picky (something which I am when I review games).

Speed Trax is the main game. There are eight tracks total, four in the Novice category and four in the Expert category. Right away you'll notice that the atcual game is relegated to a smaller screen with info given at the bottom such as your lives and health; this is frustrating because you need all the screen you can get in order to see what's coming up in the course. The controls are a problem too! For some reason, they made the B button the acceleration button and A for reverse (which is backwards from all the other racers for video games). Y makes your vehicle jump, but the reversal of A and B means that you'll have to stop accelerating in order to do it; jumping is also pointless in the game because there's never anything to jump over. L and R are used for sharp turns. Turning is a major problem because the controls are very unresponsive; at first the vehicle will not turn at all, then it will turn too much and usually put you in a wall.

Your car also has health (what is this, Herbie?). If you take too much damage, your car will fall to pieces and retire. The problem is, the unresponsive controls will cause you to hit a lot of walls, so that damage thing will be a problem. For the main game, you're racing against only three opponents. However, you have a time limit, which is displayed in the top right corner. The time must be updated by passing checkpoints, and truly, you're racing against the timer more than the other racers; making the checkpoints can be tough.

The Stunt Trax mode lets you pick one of four courses and gives you the mission of collecting stars. These courses are not racetracks, but rather obstacle courses with hills and ramps. There are 40 stars to collect, and good luck getting them all within the time limit. Many times hitting a sloped area will turn your vehicle around, and turning back is not easy. Those blasted controls will hinder you in steering and turning, making this mode frustrating to the max.

Free Trax mode allows you to play through any of the eight main tracks a'la time trial. This mode is much more relaxing because instead of racing against the timer, you're racing for the best time, so there's no timer ticking in the top corner. However, it's also not that exciting. There are no power-ups or anything like that in SRFX. But wait, you can jump! And the cars have eyes! What a shame that these things are wasted in the game.

Battle Trax is the two player mode in the game. You can choose between four courses. That's right, you do not have the option of racing on one of the eight main tracks, only four "battle trax." This is one on one racing only; no other vehicles are present. One neat thing I noticed when I tried out this mode was the fact that if one of the players does not start driving within three seconds of the race's start, the CPU will take over and race against you. That's actually a pretty cool idea. If neither car starts racing within three seconds, the CPU will control both cars and you can watch them race. This is the most interesting part of the game.

What can I further state about this game? It's kind of a mess. Even worse, it's a 3D mess that looks horrible today. Sometimes knowing when to turn is difficult, and making sharp turns is even harder. But here's the nail in the coffin: the constant turning and swerving makes the course move too, and you will literally start to feel sick to your stomach! This game almost made me barf, and that is a sad testimony for a game that's supposed to be fun.

Final Verdict--2 Stars: Not Worth It

I'm sure that Stunt Race FX was a blast to play in 1994; it must have been amazing to see those real 3D graphics! But the truth is, this game does not hold up well at all. Unresponsive controls, difficult courses, and barf-inducing choppiness make it pretty terrible. The thing is, there are no stunts in this games (unless they count jumping as a stunt)! The vehicles cannot do any flips or wheelies or anything like that. Please, if you want to play a good racing game for Super Nintendo, play Super Mario Kart or F-Zero. Perhaps the best part of this game is the box art; I love those clay models they use! Otherwise, stay away from this one. And if you do want to try it out, keep a barf bag handy.

Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.