When comparing F-Zero vs RayStorm, the Slant community recommends RayStorm for most people. In the question“What are the best and the most revolutionary games of all time?” RayStorm is ranked 96th while F-Zero is ranked 103rd. The most important reason people chose RayStorm is:
For the time, the graphic effects were insane. Lights and explosions were plentiful, and big. These effects helped make RayStorm exciting to play.
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Pros
Pro Launch title for the NES
The NES brought a revolution to console gaming, and F-Zero was a part of that by being one of the launch titles.
Pro The first game to use "Mode 7 Scrolling"
The NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) was the first console to allow for what Nintendo called "Mode 7 Scrolling", and as a launch title F-Zero was the first game that took advantage of that feature.
Mode 7 Scrolling refers to the newest (at the time) graphic mode which brought new ways to configure the background layers. Background layers could be manipulated in new ways than what was available before. It allows layers to be scaled and rotated, and for background layers to move in the foreground in front of some sprites.
This was at a time when backgrounds were flat and could only consist of 2D objects. Mode 7 scrolling - and F-Zero as the first game with it - brought a much more dynamic background to RPGs and racing games especially.
Pro Stunning visual effects
For the time, the graphic effects were insane. Lights and explosions were plentiful, and big. These effects helped make RayStorm exciting to play.
Pro Points based gameplay
Instead of just shooting enemies, in RayStorm you need to shoot big groups of them at once in order to get your score multiplier up, which would dramatically increase your score.