F-Zero Title Screen

F-Zero Select Vehicle

FZero SNES

F-Zero Super Nintendo

F-Zero Nintendo Screenshot

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Introduction

F-Zero was developed and published by Nintendo and released in North America on August 13, 1991. With its original scenario and style of gameplay, F-Zero was the first of its kind and also features what was considered to be a groundbreaking technological achievement at that time, spawning a sub-genre. Graphically the game was strong in thanks to 'Mode 7' which allowed tracks to be scaled and rotated around the vehicle to simulate a 3D environment.

Story

The story of F-Zero is as follows: Near the end of the 20th century mankind was gripped by the fear of being invaded by extraterrestrials. However, by the year 2560 humanity's countless encounters with these alien life forms throughout the Universe expanded Earth's social framework to astronomic proportions. Trade, technology and cultural interchange are carried out between planets.

The multibillionaires who earned their enormous wealth through this intergalactic trade were satisfied with their rich lifestyles. However, they also yearned for new entertainment to stimulate their lazy lives, so a new entertainment based on the old F-1 races was founded. People came to call these Grand Prix races simply, "F-ZERO".

Gameplay

In the game, there are two modes of play; Grand Prix and practice mode. In grand Prix mode, the player chooses a league and races against 20 other vehicles. Practice mode lets the player manually choose which course they want to practice on.

Characters race on plasma-powered hover cars while racing at speeds of up to 400km/h. A race consists of five laps around a course. In the course there are various obstacles including land mines, magnets and slips areas that the player must avoid in order to maintain power. If the player finishes any lap in last place then he is automatically disqualified. Every time a lap is completed, the vehicle is rewarded with approximately 4 seconds of speed boost time. The speed boost gives the player an advantage by speeding them up for short periods of time.

Characters

F-Zero introduced the characters; Captain Falcon, Dr. Stewart, Pico, and Samurai Goroh. Each character has their owne vehicle each with unique performance abilities. Each machine has an energy meter, which measures the machine's health. If the energy meter gets low enough, a warning sound will play. If the energy gets to empty, the players hover car explodes and a life is lost

Character
Color
Engine
Max Power
Max Speed
Weight

Character
Color
Engine
Max Power
Max Speed
Weight

Blue Falcon
Blue
BF-2001 x4
3200ps
457km/h
1260kg

Wild Goose
Green
ES-8302 x3
3670ps
462km/h
1620kg

Golden Fox
Yellow
GF-2614 x4
2950ps
437km/h
1020kg

Fire Stingray
Pink
RS-5025 x2
3800ps
478km/h
1960kg


Tracks

There are fifteen tracks divided into three leagues. At first the game has difficulty levels; beginner, standard, and expert but Completion of the expert class in any league unlocks the master difficulty level.

Knight League
(Easy)
Mute City I
Big Blue
Sand Ocean
Death Wind I
Silence
Queen League
(Moderate)
Mute City II
Port Town II
Red Canyon II
White Land I
White Land II
King League
(Hard)
Mute City III
Death Wind II
Port Town II
Red Canyon II
Fire Field

Controls

L Button ... shift weight to the left
R Button ... shift weight to right
Control Pad Left ... steer left
Control Pad Right ... steer right
Control Pad Up ... point nose up
Control Pad Down ... point nose down
Select Button ... move cursor
Start Button ... pause; unpause
X Button ... brake
Y Button ... brake
B Button ... throttle
A Buton ... super jet