F-Zero

Platform: SNES Developer: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo NA Release date: August 13, 1991 Genre: Racing Media: 4-megabit cartridge

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 for their time 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 slip 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.

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.

Leagues:

• Knight (Easy) Mute City I, Big Blue, Sand Ocean, Death Wind I, Silence
• Queen (Medium) Mute City II, Port Town II, Red Canyon II, White Land I, White Land II
• King (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 … nose up
• Control Pad Down … nose down
• Select Button … move cursor
• Start Button … pause; unpause
• X Button … brake
• Y Button … brake
• B Button … throttle
• A Buton … super jet