F-Zero: Maximum Velocity 2001

Is it still worth playing?

Twenty five years after the first F-Zero, a new generation of pilots races hovering machines in this 2001 racing game for the Game Boy Advance, the first portable F-Zero. Captain Falcon and the original pilots are absent. There are four cups of five tracks, and every race is five laps. You lose a race if your machine explodes, leaves the track, falls to 20th place or finishes a lap below the rank limit. Each lap completed earns a boost you can use once, which raises your speed a lot but lowers how well you can turn, and a boost before a jump carries you further. Boost time and speed differ by machine. The shoulder buttons lean the machine into tight turns, and Mode 7 gives the pseudo 3D look. The fourth cup unlocks after the first three on expert. Saving a boost for the right moment still makes every lap a decision.