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F-Zero |
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F-Zero
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 North American box art |
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| Developer(s) | Nintendo EAD |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Designer(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto (producer)1 |
| Engine | Mode 7 (single-layer)23 |
| Platform(s) | SNES, Virtual Console |
| Release date(s) | SNES4 JP November 21, 1990 NA August 13, 1991 EU June 4, 1992 Virtual Console NA November 19, 2006 JP December 2, 2006 EU December 8, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Futuristic racing game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E |
| Media | 4-megabit cartridge |
| Input methods | Gamepad |
F-Zero (エフゼロ Efu Zero?, F-ZERO) is a futuristic racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The game was released in Japan on November 21, 1990, in North America on August 13, 1991, and in Europe on June 4, 1992.4 The title was downloadable over the Nintendo Power peripheral in Japan5 and was also released as a demo onto the Nintendo Super System in 1991. F-Zero is the first game of the F-Zero series and was one of the two launch titles for the SNES in Japan, but was accompanied by additional initial titles in North America and Europe.67 In late 2006, F-Zero became available for the Virtual Console service on the Wii.8
Players control fast hovercrafts and use their speed-boosting abilities to navigate through the courses as quickly as possible.3 The game takes place in the year 2560, where some multi-billionaires with lethargic lifestyles created a new form of entertainment based on the Formula One races called "F-Zero".
F-Zero is acknowledged by critics to be the game that set a high standard for the racing genre and the creation of the futuristic sub-genre.389 Critics lauded F-Zero for its fast and challenging gameplay, variety of tracks, and extensive use of the graphical mode called "Mode 7".1011 This graphics-rendering technique was considered by critics to be a innovative technological achievement at the time that made racing games more realistic - first of which was F-Zero.212 As a result, the title reinvigorated the racing genre13 and inspired the future creation of numerous racing games.1415 However, critics agreed that the game should have used a multiplayer mode.81617
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F-Zero is a futuristic racing game where pilots race inside plasma-powered hovercars in an intergalactic Grand Prix at speeds exceeding 500 km/h. There are four characters that have their own selectable vehicle along with its unique performance abilities.14 The objective of the game is to beat opponents to the finish line while avoiding hazards such as land mines, slip zones and magnets that pull the vehicle off-center in an effort to make the player damage their vehicle or fall completely off the track. Each machine has a power meter, which serves as a measurement of the machine's durability; it decreases when the machine collides with the side of the track or another vehicle.18 A race in F-Zero consists of five laps around the track. The player must complete each lap in a successively higher place to avoid disqualification from the race. For each lap completed, the player is rewarded with an approximate four-second speed boost called the "Super Jet" and a number of points determined by place. An on-screen display will be shaded green to indicate that a boost can be used, however the player is limited to saving up to three at a time.18 If a certain amount of points are accumulated, an extra "spare machine" is acquired that gives the player another chance retry the course. F-Zero includes two modes of play. In the Grand Prix mode, the player chooses a league and races against other vehicles through each track in that league while avoiding disqualification. The Practice mode allows the player to practice seven of the courses from the Grand Prix mode.18
F-Zero has a total of fifteen tracks divided into three leagues: Knight, Queen, and King. Difficulty is determined by the league selected and difficulty level chosen. The game has three initial difficulty levels: beginner, standard, and expert.18 The master difficulty level is available for a given league once that league on the expert class is completed.19 The multiple courses of Death Wind, Port Town, and Red Canyon have a pathway that is not accessible unless the player is on another iteration of those tracks, which then in-turn closes the path previously available. Unlike most F-Zero games, there are three iterations of Mute City that shows it in either a day, evening, or night setting. In BS F-Zero 2, Mute City IV continued the theme with an early morning setting.
F-Zero is set in the year 2560, when humanity's multiple encounters with alien life forms had resulted in the expansion of Earth's social framework. This led to commercial, technological and cultural interchanges between planets. The multi-billionaires who earned their wealth through intergalactic trade were mainly satisfied with their lifestyles, although most coveted more entertainment in their lives. This resulted in a new entertainment based on the Formula-1 races to be founded with vehicles that could hover one foot above the track. These Grand Prix races were soon named "F-Zero" after a rise in popularity of the races.1418
A merger between Nintendo's various internal research and development teams led to the creation of Nintendo EAD, which was headed by Shigeru Miyamoto. F-Zero was one of the launch titles for the SNES that EAD had approximately fifteen months to develop completely.20 The pseudo-3D capabilities of the SNES were designed to be represented by both F-Zero and PilotWings,21 with 1UP.com stating these two games "existed almost entirely for the sake of showing them off".6 Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell commented "this abundance of Mode 7 was unheard of" for the SNES.22 The game introduced the first set of F-Zero characters: Captain Falcon, Dr. Stewart, Pico, and Samurai Goroh.14 Takaya Imamura, art director for the game, was surprised to be able to so freely design F-Zero's characters and courses as he wanted since it was his first game.15
F-Zero became part of the Player's Choice line by selling at least a million copies.4 Opinion on the Nintendo Entertainment System version of the game has been generally positive. F-Zero was widely lauded by game critics for its graphical realism, and has been called the fastest and most fluid pseudo-3D racing game of its time.232425 This has been mostly credited to the development team's pervasive use of the "Mode 7" system.10 This technique allowed different kinds of scaling and rotation effects of bitmap graphics, which the game used to simulate 3D environments23 without processing any polygons. The Mode 7 rendering applied in F-Zero consists of a single-layer which is scaled and rotated around the vehicle.3 Critics consider such techniques in video games to be revolutionary at a time when games were restricted to static/flat backgrounds and 2-dimensional (2D) objects.14 Electronic Gaming Monthly stated F-Zero used the SNES's technology "to give console gamers an experience even more visceral than could be found in the arcades" which created the "most convincing racetracks that had ever been seen on a home console".23 IGN assured readers "F-Zero was one of the few 16-bit games" of its time "to perfectly combine presentation and functionality to create a completely new gaming experience". The title was also praised for its music, variety of tracks, and multiple levels of difficulty.3 GameSpy thought the game "was something of a finesse racer. It took lots of practice, good memorization skills, and a rather fine sense of control."11 An author from The Virginian-Pilot gave F-Zero an A-grade commenting that the game is more about "reflexes than realism", and it just lacked the ability to save progress between races.26
F-Zero inspired the future creation of numerous racing games inside and out of its own futuristic sub-genre, including the Wipeout series.14 Amusement Vision's President, Toshihiro Nagoshi, stated in 2002 that F-Zero "actually taught me what a game should be" and that it served as an influence for him to create Daytona USA and other racing games. Amusement Vision collaborated with Nintendo to develop F-Zero GX/AX, with Nagoshi serving as one of the co-producers for these games.1527
Nintendo initially developed the sequel of the first F-Zero game for the SNES, although it was broadcasted in several versions on the St. Giga subscription service for the Satellaview attachment of the Super Famicom instead.317 Using this add-on, gamers could download titles via satellite and save it onto a flash ROM cartridge.28 The sequel was released under the names of BS F-Zero Grand Prix17 and BS F-Zero 2 Grand Prix29 during the mid-1990s, making them the second installments of the franchise. Subscribers received the original 15 tracks from the SNES game along with four different playable vehicles.30 There are additional tracks named as a follow-on from F-Zero—the first track is called "Mute City IV", since Mute City I-III appeared in the original game. According to Nintendo Power, the game was under consideration for an North American release via Game Pak.30 BS F-Zero 2 Grand Prix features one new league containing five tracks, a Grand Prix and a Practice mode.29
An F-Zero album was released on March 25, 1992 in Japan by Tokuma Japan Communications. It features twelve songs from the game on a single disc composed by Yumiko Kanki, Yukio Kaneoka and Naoto Ishida and arranged by Robert Hill and Michiko Hill.31 Although the F-Zero franchise made the transition to 3D on the Nintendo 64, the Mode 7 engine continued to be used for the Game Boy Advance installments Maximum Velocity25 and GP Legend.32 When F-Zero was released onto the Virtual Console service, GameSpot rated the game an 8/10 praising its controls, longevity and track design. GameSpot felt the title offered exceptional gameplay, with "a perfect balance of pick-up-and-play accessibility and sheer depth". However, reviewers agreed that the game should have used a multiplayer mode.81633 IGN scored the title as an 7.5/10 criticizing the lack of a substantial plot and mentioned F-Zero "doesn't have the same impact these days".1734
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