S.T.U.N. Runner is the only home port of the arcade game that started the futuristic racer, and it's in 3D.
User Rating: 8.4 | S.T.U.N. Runner LYNX
A quick search online will quickly reveal that S.T.U.N. Runner is a prime example for how the Industry has changed. F-Zero and Wipeout were very nearly direct rip offs of this game's gameplay, with neither having this game's specific gameplay of shooting through tubes and having to hold the best position to maintain speed. Yet, the only comment on this game at Gamefaqs is a general thrashing of all things "arcade", as if arcade gaming was a bad thing all along. S.T.U.N. Runner has a title screen that leads to a menu that allows you to level select to three different sections of the over 30 different tracks. As nearly as I can tell, menu wise and gameplay wise it is identical to the arcade original from the late 80s. The audio, too, is very nearly a carbon copy of the arcade game's sound effects and voice samples. Though it's hard to tell on the small screen, the Lynx port doesn't appear to be polygonal as the arcade original was. The tracks and tubes are still 3D and round, but they appear to be using 2D software scaling techniques to generate the effect. The objects, cars, and your car are all scaling sprites rather than polygonal ships. Your car still gains wings that can be blown off by crashing into objects though, so the shift doesn't affect gameplay at all. This is also a prime example of why absolutely nobody should review a game based on experience in playing the game using an emulator. S.T.U.N Runner is, for some reason, absurdly easier when played with emulation on a PC. You might say that doesn't matter, but it means that the gameplay is different. Emulation always messes up timing and framerate, even if only by a little, if it doesn't mess up graphics and sound and therefore change the presentation of it all. If you played S.T.U.N. Runner via emulation, you'd think, as the gamefaqs reviewer did, that it's just an easy game of mashing the fire button. Pop it in on the Lynx, as the developer intended, and all of a sudden you're having to react to those invincible drones and bombers much more effectively, and everything seems faster and more frantic. It's not a change in framerate, it's just the change to the small screen combined with the Lynx's controls, and the fact that the developer tested on the Lynx, not on a 2003 PC with a Sidewinder gamepad. If you had played S.T.U.N. Runner in the arcades or on the Lynx before the Super Nintendo came out, you'd have seen what the inspiration for F-Zero was. You may have even wondered why F-Zero is so simple in comparison as without 3D tubes the gameplay simply isn't as complicated. If you had played S.T.U.N. Runner before Wipeout on the Playstation and later the Saturn, you'd have seen those games for what they always were, almost direct rip offs of the original futuristic racer. 
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