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The F-Zero series (abbreviated from Formula Zero (Gravity)), was first published on November 21, 1990 by Nintendo and developed by Nintendo EAD. The games are primarily set on a futuristic Earth, although some circuits have been set on different planets. The gameplay concept gives little focus to "car combat" but instead consists of high-speed racing at speeds that can exceed 2000 km/h. The series has been known for its graphical capabilities, inspiring pilots and settings, difficult gameplay, and stirring original music.

Overview

Story

=Original F-Zero Era
=
Further information: F-Zero (Story)
As mentioned in the manual included with the F-Zero X game and the Skull's pilot profile, F-Zero is a successor to Formula One races from the 20th and 21st centuries and F-Max Grand Prix from the 24th century.
It is now the year 2560, and due to the human race's countless encounters with alien life forms throughout the Universe, Earth's social framework has expanded to cosmic proportions. Now, trade, technology transfer and cultural interchange are carried out on an interplanetary basis. An association of wealthy space merchants created the F-Zero Grand Prix in an attempt to add some excitement to their opulent lifestyles. When the first one was held, people were angered at the brutality of the competition due to the various obstacles and traps along the raceway. As time passed, they got used to these dangers and soon demanded even more excitement in the race. Many believe the F-Zero championship is the highest claim to fame in the galaxy. It purportedly has billions of fans, many of whom like to gamble on the outcomes of races.

=F-Zero X Era
= The original F-Zero ended due to the extreme danger of the sport. The huge accident saw many pilots get injured but miraculously, none were killed, thanks in part to Dr. Robert Stewart. Mighty Gazelle is of particular interest; he had barely survived and had to become a cyborg. The sport was brought back under the name F-Zero X (also the name of the Nintendo 64 game). It is unknown, but likely that later games in the series such as, F-Zero GX, will be taking place during the F-Zero X era on future Nintendo home consoles.

Characters

Main articles: F-Zero pilots, F-Zero AX Pilots and F-Zero GP Legend pilots.

There are currently over 40 pilots available in the later games of the series, each with a unique story and reason for entering the F-Zero Grand Prix. Some of the characters are superheroes, supervillians, cyborgs, mutants, and the like, which makes the series akin to something out of an American comic book.

F-Zero machines

An antigravity unit known as the "G-Diffuser System" and the black reverse magnetic plates located on the bottom of the F-Zero machines allow them to drive at hyper speed while hovering just inches to a foot above the magnetic track. These machines are also well-known for their ability to have a maximum speed exceeding that of sound. This is possible since F-Zero machines are built with micro-plasma engines. 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 being the worst). Weight is displayed in kilograms and affects all aspects of the machine.

=Performance
= Body - The higher a machine's Body rating, the less damage it will sustain in a collision. Machines with a good Body rating are also able to withstand more attacks before they explode.

Boost - The Boost rating takes into account the duration of a vehicle's boost and how great a speed increase it provides. A machine with a high rating can travel at higher than normal speeds for an higher extended period of time.

Grip - Grip determines how well a machine negotiates turns. A higher Grip rating means that the players vehicle will steadfast turns. A machine with a low rating will drift around more, especially through tight corners.

Weight - Weight affects a vehicle's acceleration, grip, cornering ability, max speed, and the amount of damage it sustains in a collision. A lighter vehicle is superior in the first three categories, while a heavier vehicle has the advantage in the latter two.

=Engine Model Numbers
= The Engine Model Number for each pilots' machine is not merely a bunch of random numbers and letters, but in fact is totally influenced by specific pilot/machine attributes. For example, Deathborn's machine is called the "Dark Schneider", its Engine Model Number is, DS021Px3. The DS can mean "Dark Schneider" or for two other machines "under the influence of" Dark Schneider (Black Bull/ Blood Hawk model number's share the same "DS" at the beginning). The "x3", represents the number of exhausts (or group of exhausts) and engines, that specific machine has, in the Dark Schneider's case, that's 3.

Games

The following is a list of the main installments of the series, with the original year of release and the platforms they appeared on.
Game Title Year Released System
F-Zero November 21 1990 – Japan
August 1991 – America
1992 – Europe 		Famicom Disk System – Japan
Super Nintendo Entertainment System – America, Europe
F-Zero X July 14 1998 – Japan
September 30 1998 – America
November 6 1998 – Europe 		Nintendo 64
Maximum Velocity March 21 2001 – Japan
June 10 2001 – North America
June 22 2001 – Europe 		Game Boy Advance
F-Zero GX July 25 2003– Japan
August 29 2003 – America
October 31 2003 – Europe 		Nintendo GameCube
F-Zero AX 2003– Japan
November 2003 – America
2003 – Europe 		Arcade
GP Legend (video game) – Japan
GP Legend (video game) – America, Europe 		November 28 2003 – Japan
June 4 2004 – Europe
September 21 2004 – North America 		Game Boy Advance
F-Zero Climax – Japan 2004 – Japan Game Boy Advance

Other Games include (not part of the main series):

Game Title Year Released System
BS F-Zero Grand Prix – Japan 1996 – Japan Satellaview – Japan
BS F-Zero 2 Grand Prix – Japan 1997 – Japan Satellaview – Japan
Zero Racers – Japan, America, Europe
Cancelled Nintendo Virtual Boy
F-Zero X Expansion Kit April 21 2000 – Japan Nintendo 64DD

History

First game in the series, F-Zero was the first SNES title to use a technique that Nintendo called "Mode 7 Scrolling", a form of Parallax scrolling, to simulate 3D environments. Such techniques in games were considered to be revolutionary in a time when most console games were restricted to static/flat backgrounds and 2 dimensional (2D) objects. The result was developer Nintendo EAD creating the world's fastest and smoothest 3D racer ever on a console at that time.

The BS F-Zero series of games were released for the Super Famicom's satellite-based expansion, Satellaview, in the mid 1990s in Japan. The first game in this BS series was known as BS F-Zero Grand Prix, it was a modified version of the first F-Zero game. A year later, it was then followed by BS F-Zero 2 Grand Prix, it was more of an update than a sequel, as a result, it contains only one league with five tracks.

After a hiatus to the rest of the world, the series made the transition to 3D with the second (official and international) installment, F-Zero X on the Nintendo 64. Fans were expecting a repeat from the previous game, a racer that pushed the console to its max. Nintendo set out to do just that with F-Zero X, unfortunately with twenty-four machines on one circuit meant that the N64 had to do plenty of work, leaving little processor power left over for track graphics, texturing and music. The result is a game that looks rather bland, with little texture detail, simple car models and courses and a mono soundtrack. F-Zero X simply tried to do too much at once. A 64DD expansion known as F-Zero X Expansion Kit was released in Japan only and was the last add-on disk. The Expansion Kit added three new machines, the ability to create original machines, new background musics (including an F-zero style arrangement of Mario Kart 64's background music for "Rainbow Road", presumably to go with the track of the same name that appeared in F-Zero X and shared it's course design with it's Mario Kart incarnation) and a course editor.

The next game, Maximum Velocity, was the first incarnation of the series for Nintendo's Game Boy handheld. This is the first F-Zero title with 3 save slots and to feature customizable controls.

The next F-Zero title, for the GameCube, surprised many fans with the revelation that the new game, F-Zero GX would be developed by Sega's Amusement Vision team (known for the Super Monkey Ball game series) and to feature a story mode for the first time ever. This game, initially known as F-Zero GC, retained the core gameplay of the previous games. The only arcade edition of the F-Zero franchise was called F-Zero AX. It was released alongside of its Nintendo GameCube counterpart in the latter part of 2003.

GP Legend (video game) (its Japanese name is F-Zero: Falcon Densetsu, which roughly means Legend of Falcon), is the second game featuring a story mode, however this one is based on the anime series of the same name. This results as the main character not being Captain Falcon, but a new character named Rick Wheeler. The third GBA incarnation was released only in Japan. F-Zero Climax featured a track editor and new characters/machines.

Chronology

The precise chronology of the F-Zero universe is debated among fans. As time progressed and more games were released, the exact order of the overall timeframe became complex and heavily disputed. There are bits and pieces of definitive information to connect the home console games to each other. However, there is no definitive explanation for how every game relates to each other in a standardized timeline of events, thus resulting in the creation of a seperate timeline for most of the GBA games and the anime counterpart.

The creators of the series have repeatedly dropped hints as to the order of the series, but over time most of these "revelations" have been overridden by newer materials, games, and statements.

Much of the ambiguity of the chronology of the F-Zero series is due to the fact there is an lack of information of when and where exactly the huge accident took place. How far it happened after the first F-Zero game and the exact year it happened before F-Zero X with relation to F-Zero GX. Evidence that can be considered contradictory to the claim the huge accident happended four year ago prior to F-Zero GX is Mighty Gazelle's pilot profile in F-Zero X. While it states that he was injured in a "freak accident" three years ago, the beginning of the F-Zero X instruction manual states that the huge accident happened several years ago. “F-Zero X manual.” World of Video gamesSite. Retrieved July 1, 2006.

This concludes that the manual is inferring that Mighty Gazelle's accident and the accident that suspended the Grand Prix are two seperate events. However in F-Zero GX, Mighty Gazelle's pilot profile states that he took the worst damage in the huge accident that suspended the Grand Prix four years ago. This also concludes that the Amusement Vision division of Sega, cause confusion to arise as a result of combining these two events into one.

To make the timeline even more complicated to produce is the fact that F-Zero Maximum Velocity takes place twenty-five years after a F-Zero game not specified. However, Maximum Velocity can be considered a reboot continuity since it still states how dangerous the sport is and ignores the safety revisions done in F-Zero X. Basically, if one was to map out a timeline, it's currently impossible to know where the huge accident, F-Zero X and GX takes place compared to the first F-Zero game and Maximum Velocity.

The general rule of thumb is that the games are the final authority. The information in the instruction manuals is also canon, unless contradicted by the games, anime or mistranslated. Manuals are marketing and technical material, and thus are not always subject to the scrutiny of the creators of the game. Information from other official sources, such as Nintendo Power magazine and its Official Strategy Guides, may also be acceptable, though this is not acknowleged by all fans. Here is a list of the Nintendo-published games in order of release, with the known information regarding their place in the timeline:

Cultural influence

References in other games

This is a list of games that have contained cameos or references to the F-Zero series.

  • Super Smash Bros. (N64) — Players can choose to be Captain Falcon as their fighting character. They can also view Captain Falcon during the opening cinematic.

  • Super Smash Bros. Melee (GC) — Players can choose to be Captain Falcon as their fighting character. They can also view Captain Falcon racing in the Blue Falcon against Samurai Goroh racing in the Fire Stingray during the opening cinematic.

  • Shadow the Hedgehog (GCN/PS2/XBOX) — The boss of Lethal Highway is called "Black Bull" (the name of Black Shadow's vehicle). Also, the boss of The ARK is called "Blue Falcon" (Captain Falcon's vehicle). This is probably due to the fact that Sega, developed F-Zero GX and F-Zero AX.

See also

References

Books

Notes

External Links

F-Zero series | Computer and video game franchises

F-Zero | F-Zero | F-ZERO

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "F-Zero series".

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