Current Events > Unpopular Games I liked #14: Stunt Race FX (SNES)

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"Unpopular" can mean generally considered bad, forgotten, overlooked or even just not discussed enough. Some of these can even be considered good games but can still qualify if not enough people talk about them.

Previously on UGIL...

Unpopular Games I liked #1: Atari Climber (2600)
Unpopular Games I liked #2: Fatal Run (2600)
Unpopular Games I liked #3: Gravitar (2600)
Unpopular Games I liked #4: Save Mary! (2600)
Unpopular Games I liked #5: Star Strike (2600)
Unpopular Games I liked #6: Yar's Revenge (2600)
Unpopular Games I liked #7: David Crane's A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia (NES)
Unpopular Games I liked #8 and #9: Rad Racer and Rad Racer II (NES)
Unpopular Games I liked #10: Rescue: The Embassy Mission (NES)
Unpopular Games I liked #11: Mario is Missing!
Unpopular Games I liked #12: Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse (SNES)
Unpopular Games I liked #13: Road Runner's Death Valley Rally (SNES)

And now...

Unpopular Games I liked #14: Stunt Race FX

Believe it or not, there were 3D games on the SNES. Believe it or not, Star Fox wasn't the only one. If you ever had a game that had the little mini connectors on each side of the main connector, that game used the SNES Super FX chip, which was used for more complex graphical purposes, including 3D model rendering, rotation and scaling, all that kind of stuff.

Now that you know that, it will come as no surprise to hear that the game named after the chip, Stunt Race FX, was one of these games. This is the reverse situation of the MARIO chip, where the chip was named after a game. The weird thing is that, MARIO and Super FX are actually the same chip.

I was kind of on the fence as whether this one could really count as unpopular, since everyone who ever played it loved it, but there's also the matter of my having made the only topic I've ever seen about it outside of its own board.

If I had to guess, Stunt Race FX pushed the Super FX further than any game before it just by the sheer quaniltity of rendered models. The road was 3D. The walls were 3D. The cars were 3D. Obstacles, 3D. Your car's explosion effect, 3D. The trade-off, of course, being that it runs like a slideshow.

The game has two main modes: Stunt and Race (they were not very creative with the title). In Stunt mode, it's your job to navigate an obstacle course and pick up... uh... pickups... in your pickup. These pickups would be strategically placed for maximum wicked awesomeness when you pick them up.

Race mode was not exactly what you would expect. A hybrid between the old Rad Racer style and a more conservative interpretation of what racing is, you would race against other players while also racing against the clock. Fall too far behind and you'll be disqualified when you don't reach the next checkpoint in time.

The three four, with one being unlockable cars all had different stats, and interestingly, one of those was durability. The monster truck was the most durable, meaning it could take more licks before exploding. The F1 car, on the other hand, explodes if you look at it wrong.

What I loved about the game was its simple fun style, having a blast in stunt mode and the surprisingly moderate amount of challenge for a game about cartoony cars with eyes on them.

Despite the clear "little kids" target demographic, I got this one for my 26th (or so) birthday (from myself) and had a lot of fun with it. There's a chance it could have been nostalgia from a couple of rents as a kid but everyone else who has played it seems to love it too.
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