 SNES DROP! F-Zero was a launch title for the Super Nintendo all the way back in August of 1991, so it came out the same day as Super Mario World, Pilotwings, SimCity, and Gradius III in North America. Obviously, it's a bit of a steep challenge and a lot of pressure to be able to nail down a first-party launch title. Rest assured, though, this game is still a classic. Before I talk about the game, though, I want to talk about what might be the greatest instruction book of all time. Think this is just a racing game? No, my friend. You are in the year 2560, and you've gotten rich from all the intergalactic trade with all these cosmic species discovered throughout the universe. But alas, you've gotten bored with your wealth, and have decided amongst your alien friends, why not do like the Earth plebeians did in the 20th century and hold some kind of Formula One-style race? Only with super-sweet, futuristic race cars, of course. Not only that, but let's build these race circuits 300 feet above the ground. Why? Because we can. I absolutely love stuff like this, because on the surface, this game is just racing. There's no cutscenes or dialogue, or not even any other game modes, but the book here fills in all these hilarious details. It doesn't stop there. There's also detailed information about each driver and the cars they drive, explaining the strengths and weaknesses of each, but the best part is the comic that features the heroic Captain Falcon fending off his adversaries before deciding to settle their differences on the racetrack. This kind of stuff, in essence, is what Nintendo does best. They take such a simple idea, something you can describe in three words, futuristic racing game, and give it all this detail, color, personality, and background to make such a basic game seem like a much larger deal than it really is. Now, when I say basic and simple game, I don't want that to come across as bad. F-Zero plays very well, runs very smoothly, and the game's biggest strength is how the sense of speed is conveyed. In F-Zero's fictional universe, you're going upwards of 400 kilometers per hour, all while cranking one of the best racing soundtracks ever. The racing here really gets you into kind of a trance, almost like you're playing a shoot-em-up, like R-Type 3 or Space Megaforce. This game can get every bit as difficult as a shoot-em-up as well, especially on the King difficulty. There's a total of 15 tracks split between three difficulty settings. You can pick from four cars, and like I noted earlier from the instruction book, each has a strength and weakness, so you pick your vehicle based on how you like to race, whether it be reckless, slamming into barriers and other cars just as long as you go fast, or more careful driving with quick acceleration as you break to avoid obstacles. Anyway, yeah, not only is F-Zero easily one of the two or three best racing games on the Super Nintendo to this day, it's also one of the best launch titles ever. It really feels like a leap from the NES to the SNES. If you were used to stuff like RadRacer and you saw F-Zero for the first time, there's no way you weren't at least a little impressed. To this day, a few games match the sense of speed of F-Zero, but not only that, if you're going to check this game out, I recommend tracking down the instruction book as well. It's worth it.