Stunt Race FX

The Super NES is not a 3D gaming powerhouse, but to be fair, it was never designed to be. It’s actually pretty amazing to think that the system was able to create a totally playable 3D experience, although fairly primitive by today’s standards.

Stunt Race FX was not the first 3D game to grace the venerable Super NES, that would be Star Fox. Star Fox and Stunt Race FX used a specialty chip built into the game to provide the Super NES with the ability to perform rudimentary 3D functions. Don’t worry, I won’t get into the particulars here. These resultant 3D scenes were small, featured no texture-mapping, and were not fluidly rendered, but none of that mattered. You were doing things that nobody thought the system could do.

Stunt Race FX puts you in control of one of a number of cars, complete with cartoony eyeballs, that race around a series of tracks. Your goal, as is the case with most racing games, is to reach the finish line in first place while not wrecking your vehicle, and you will crash your vehicle. Mostly, you’ll overcorrect every time you go around a corner, weave down the road, and slam into the wall. It’s inevitable, especially when you are using your Boost(tm). Thankfully, there are red globe-like things all over the place that will fix some of the damage that you will certainly incur (there are also some blue ones that refill your Boost meter). This is important, if your car gets too damaged, it will be knocked out of commission and lose.

So, where does the ‘Stunt’ part come in? Your vehicles can jump… and there are half-pipes. Stunts.

Okay, so the stunt part is kind of lame, but the game is actually decent. After you play for a few hours, you hardly notice the choppiness.

One Response to “Stunt Race FX”

  1. [...] fun enough. But this game also uses (more or less) the same chip that allowed the Super NES to push 3D graphics for all kinds of interesting effects. Like blocks that squash and stretch, and enemies that grow to [...]

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