(stylised as F-ZERO) is a series of racing games published by Nintendo, developed by Nintendo EAD and other third-party companies. The first game was released for the Super Famicom in Japan in 1990. Its success prompted Nintendo to create sequels on subsequent consoles.

The series is known for its high-speed, futuristic racing, characters and settings, difficult gameplay, and original music, as well as for pushing technological limits to be one of the fastest racing games. The original game inspired games such as Daytona USA and the Wipeout series.

The series has been largely dormant since the release of F-Zero Climax in 2004 in Japan, although elements have been represented in other Nintendo video games, most notably the Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart franchises. Past installments have been emulated across multiple Nintendo consoles with the Virtual Console service. The original F-Zero is one of the selected games emulated on the Super NES Classic Edition. F-Zero was one of the launch games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Nintendo Switch Online collection, released on September 5, 2019. After over 19 years of absence, a battle royale based on the original game, called F-Zero 99, was released for the Nintendo Switch, exclusively for Nintendo Switch Online members.

Gameplay

Each of the games in F-Zero series requires the player to beat opponents to the finish line while avoiding obstacles such as land mines and slip zones. The games usually require a mixture of memorization of the tracks and quick reflexes for its fast-paced racing gameplay. In F-Zero and F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, a speed boost is given to the player for each lap completed. Starting with F-Zero X, players may execute speed boosts if they have finished at least one lap, but now in exchange for losing energy when boosting. It is therefore necessary to use recharge strips around courses to replenish this energy, or risk exploding when it drops to zero. Strategically situated dash plates allow boosts without energy loss. In combination with course obstacles, drivers are allowed to attack each other with their vehicle bodies.

The games' planets include different climates and terrains, and are home to many different races and tribes of aliens. There are geographical differences from game to game, but distinctive locations recur, such as Big Blue, Mute City and Port Town. Circuits are usually set on the outskirts of cities or above them situated high in planet atmospheres at an elevation as much as above ground. They contain anti-gravitational guide beams on both sides of the course that keep them in place. Rich merchants from cities in the clouds or asteroids with almost uninhabitable environments invested their wealth in the construction of racing circuits.

The vehicles used to race in these video games are known as "F-Zero machines", which are designed to hover instead of travel on wheels. An anti-gravity unit, known as the "G-Diffuser System" (first used by the Star Fox franchise's Arwing), allows an F-Zero machine to drive at high speeds while retaining a hold of the track, located from a few inches to a foot below it. F-Zero machines have a maximum speed exceeding that of sound. This is possible due to the ultra-compact micro-plasma engines used by the machines.

Each machine has four basic performance attributes: body, boost, grip, and weight. Body, boost, and grip are rated on a scale from A to E (A being the best, E, the worst). The higher a machine's Body rating, the more durable it is and the less damage it will sustain in a collision. Machines with a good Body rating are, therefore, able to withstand more attacks before exploding. The game explains the "Horrific Grand Finale" was a violent and fiery accident that burnt fourteen drivers to death, including Sterling LaVaughn during the old days of F-Zero. The crash ushered in the establishment of the "F-Zero Racing Academy", after a speech, by Super Arrow to the Federation Congress, which helped to lift the ban. The fictional competition was brought back with the rules and regulations revised. Maximum Velocity is considered a reboot continuity to the rest of the home console games since it has made no indication of the safety revisions carried forth after the huge accident, in fact it states just like the original F-Zero game, the extreme danger involved when participating in those races.

F-Zero GX does not mention the Grand Finale event, but instead the game states Sterling LaVaughn was racing during the F-Max era and the F-Zero Grand Prix was suspended four years ago. In Japan, only it and Super Mario World were initially available for launch. In North America and Europe, Super Mario World shipped with the console, and other initial games included F-Zero, Pilotwings (which also demonstrated the console's "Mode 7" pseudo-3D rendering capability), SimCity, and Gradius III.

Kazunobu Shimizu recalls that F-Zero initially began as a sequel to Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race. The sequel was rejected by Nintendo of America staff, stating that "[r]acing cars should be cooler". Shimizu then stated, “Well, if that's what you say, then I'll make something really cool!” During Shimizu's stay in America, the 1989 film Batman "was a big hit," and so he "bought a bunch of Batman comics and then came back to Japan. And that just happened to be when [Yasunari] Nishida was experimenting with a racing game." He also stated that the futuristic setting was also inspired by the 1989 film "because a futuristic world like the one portrayed in the Batman movie was on my mind." Shimizu added on, saying that "having tyres would have made things much more difficult."

Artist Takaya Imamura stated that the racers in F-Zero was an afterthought, and that "... Captain Falcon was originally the mascot character for Super NES." Imaura elaborated, stating that "[e]ven most people at Nintendo don't know that. When development of F-ZERO was almost complete, I was doing a bunch of illustrations and someone expressed a desire to make a mascot character for Super NES, with a name like Captain Something. So I started thinking about a character who would match the colors of the Super Famicom controller, with some red and blue and yellow." but was released unfinished through the Japanese-only Satellaview peripheral under the name BS F-Zero Grand Prix in 1996. Like most Satellaview games it was released in parts across multiple broadcasts, and featured an update of the first game. It was followed up by BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2 in 1997, an expansion which featured brand new courses.

Zero Racers (G-Zero) was in development for the Virtual Boy in early 1996. The game was completed and had an age rating from the ESRB, but never released as the console was discontinued. The game was previewed by Nintendo Power, and had been earmarked for launch in the United States in fall 1996. Gameplay differed from all other F-Zero games as the vehicles race in all three spatial dimensions in tunnels. In January 2026, Nintendo announced that the game would be publicly released for the first time on the Nintendo Classics service, later in 2026.

Return to international markets (1998–2004)

After a seven-year hiatus outside Japan, the series made the transition to 3D with the third installment, F-Zero X on the Nintendo 64. The game introduces twenty-six new vehicles, while also including the four from the original F-Zero game. In addition to a Grand Prix mode, the game introduces a "death race" mode and a random track generator called the "X Cup". In the death race, the player's objective is to annihilate the twenty-nine other racers as speedily as possible, while the X Cup generates a different set of tracks each time played. The hardware limitations of the N64 resulted in the game running at 60 frames per second with thirty machines on screen at the same time, but with little processor power left for graphical detail and music.

[[File:N64 F-Zero X.jpg|206px|right|thumb|Graphical detail was a sacrifice that had to be made in F-Zero X to keep the game at 60 frames per second.

F-Zero: Maximum Velocity is the series' fourth released installment, but the first incarnation of the franchise for Nintendo's Game Boy handheld. It was the first game developed by the first party subsidiary NDcube. This Game Boy Advance (GBA) launch game returned to the SNES F-Zeros gameplay with a Mode 7-styled game engine.

F-Zero GX was released for the GameCube and developed by Sega's Amusement Vision team, and is the first F-Zero game to feature a story mode. The game was initially titled F-Zero GC. The arcade counterpart of GX was called F-Zero AX, which was released alongside of its Nintendo GameCube counterpart in mid-2003. The game had three types of arcade cabinets; standard, the "Monster Ride", and the deluxe (which resembled an F-Zero vehicle). F-Zero AX had six original courses and ten original characters. However, by certain difficult means, the six courses and ten characters could be unlocked in F-Zero GX.

F-Zero: GP Legend is the second handheld game released for the Game Boy Advance and the second installment featuring a story mode; however, this one is based on the anime series of the same name, introducing a new character named Ryu Suzaku/Rick Wheeler. Unlike the games before it, GP Legend takes place in an alternate continuity set in the 22nd century, instead of following the original continuity set in the 26th century.

F-Zero Climax was released in Japan for the Game Boy Advance on October 21, 2004. Like its handheld predecessor, F-Zero: GP Legend, Climax was published by Nintendo and developed by both them and Suzak. This is the first F-Zero game to have a built-in track editor without the need for an expansion or add-on. Custom tracks can be saved to one of thirty slots for future use and they can be exchanged with other players via link cable. If memory becomes full or link cable connection cannot be done, the game can generate a password for the track; when it is input on any Climax cartridge, the password will generate the track.

Hiatus (2004–2023)

Takaya Imamura, who worked directly on F-Zero throughout its different incarnations, said in 2003 "hav[ing] worked on the F-Zero series, and seeing the results of the collaboration with Sega, I found myself at something of a loss as to how we can take the franchise further past F-Zero GX and AX".

Edge magazine asked Shigeru Miyamoto in April 2012 regarding a future F-Zero installment. Miyamoto stated: "I think at the time [F-Zero] was a really big surprise, a new thing, a product that made sense and the Wii and DS lacks to create a similar impact". In June 2015, news site Nintendo Life reported that in early 2011 Nintendo of Europe approached Burnout series developer Criterion Games to work on a pitch for a new F-Zero game which they hoped to unveil at E3 that same year alongside the then-unreleased Wii U console, and potentially release the game during the console's launch period. However, the developer was unable to handle the pitch as, at the time, they devoted much of their resources into the development of Need for Speed: Most Wanted for multiple platforms. Criterion co-founder Alex Ward (who left the company in 2014) confirmed that Nintendo of Europe did indeed approach the company for a potential F-Zero game on the Wii U.

In a January 2015 video from Smosh Games, Miyamoto was featured as guest star and stated that a new installment in the franchise could be possible if Nintendo were to develop a unique controller interface for one of their upcoming consoles that would be suited for a new game.

Six years later, the producer of F-Zero GX, Toshihiro Nagoshi said that he would be open to working with Nintendo on another installment if the company were given the opportunity to do so, and that he would make a future F-Zero game challenging for advanced players, unlike the "fun and accessible" nature of Nintendo's Mario Kart series. In July 2023, former Nintendo artist Takaya Imamura cited the massive popularity of Mario Kart as a key factor to why there hasn't been any new developments with the F-Zero series.

F-Zero 99 (2023)

F-Zero 99 was released for the Nintendo Switch on September 14, 2023 following its announcement in a Nintendo Direct the same day. The game is a battle royale remake of the original F-Zero taking inspiration from Tetris 99 and Pac-Man 99 having 99 racers on the track at once. The game is available for free on the eShop but requires a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play.

Reception

IGNs Lucas Thomas called the design and style of Mach Rider as an influence to the F-Zero series noting its sense of speed where players have "only a split second to react before you crash into a rock or enemy road warrior". Matt Casamassina of IGN said in 2003 that the F-Zero franchise has remained regarded one of the best video game series in the racing genre.

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In 2008, an editor from Pro-G stated F-Zero GX "still ranks as one of the best high-speed racers ever made, but the series has been lying dormant for years".

The Tampa Tribunes review of GP Legend mentioned that "it feels a little strange to see what was an esoteric-but-outstanding racing franchise attempt to go mass-market".

Nintendo World Report gave Climax a 7.5 out of 10. Siliconera praised the fast gameplay and track editor features, but criticized it for feeling more like an expansion pack than a sequel.

Shigeru Miyamoto commented in 2007 that past F-Zero and Star Fox collaborations with outside development houses turned out to be a disappointment for Nintendo. He stated that "consumers got very excited about the idea of those games, but the games themselves did not deliver".

Legacy

Anime

is a 51 episode animated adaptation of the video game series produced by TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Ashi Productions and directed by Ami Tomobuki, with Akiyoshi Sakai handling series composition, Toyoo Ashida designing the characters and Takayuki Negishi composing the music. Shigeru Miyamoto and Takaya Imamura served as supervisors for the series. It debuted in Japan on October 7, 2003, on TV Tokyo; the final episode aired on September 28, 2004. 4Kids Entertainment licensed the anime series for North American broadcast. According to Kombo, in North America, the show was modified by 4Kids. Fifteen episodes of GP Legend aired on the FoxBox, later 4Kids TV, block on the Fox network in the United States before its cancellation. It was being re-aired on Tokyo MX from 7:30 to 8:00 every Thursday in Japan. It is a reboot of the franchise taking place in the year 2201. Lifeforms from all across the galaxy come to compete in the new racing tournament called "F-Zero".

Police detective Ryu Suzaku (Rick Wheeler in the 4Kids adaptation) is one of the protagonists. The Super Smash Bros. franchise also features a few stages directly derived from the games, such as Mute City or Big Blue, and includes many other F-Zero characters as virtual trophies, stickers, and spirits. The Blue Falcon appears in Mario Kart Wii as a vehicle, though only small/light characters can use it. The Blue Falcon also appears in Mario Kart 8, albeit via The Legend of Zelda × Mario Kart 8 downloadable content pack. The same DLC pack also adds a course based on Mute City, while the Animal Crossing × Mario Kart 8 DLC pack adds a course based on Big Blue. A minigame based on the F-Zero series, Captain Falcon's Twister Race, is part of the Wii U ensemble game Nintendo Land. Several playable characters can dress as Nintendo characters in the Wii U version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, where Bruce Irvin, Bryan Fury, Craig Marduk, and Raven can take on Captain Falcon's appearance.

Notes

References

  • Unaffiliated:
  • History of F-Zero at IGN
  • Official:
  • GX/AX official website (third-party archive)
  • F-Zero Climax at Nintendo.co.jp