Stunt Race FX (1994)

Stunt Race FX has some truly impressive FX on display with its 3D polygons but other than that the game's poor steering and difficulty maintaining speed make it very hard to enjoy.

The game is a straightforward racing game with a handful of cartoon vehicles - the cars can accelerate, boost, make sharp turns with the brake or the L/R buttons and slightly control the vehicle as it makes jumps to minimize damage. Cars can get damaged, but unless the player really puts the car through the ringer or jumps off the track they should be fine. There are also powerups to gain boost and gain health if need be.

The game usually consists of a 4-track grand prix, though there are other modes such as a human-only battle mode and a mode to collect stars on a track under a set time limit. If the player gets a low enough ranking they fail and have to to restart a track, which depending on the car they choose can be tricky. Beginner vehicles have lower speeds, making it very tough to maintain a lead on tracks but has manageable control. On the other hand, the faster vehicles have terrible steering, resulting in more crashing and spinning out of control since the game's physics are more finnicky.

The tracks themselves are fairly impressive for the SNES - simple polygons as they are, you get ramps, bumps, snowscapes, city streets, tube tracks, etc - music is peppy but otherwise forgettable.

While the graphics wow the eye as a tech demo and the physics are advanced, Stunt Race FX isn't really the racer of choice on SNES. Players will struggle to deal with the terrible tradeoffs between speed and steering and will most often suffer on the tougher tracks.