F-Zero (video game)

F-Zero is a futuristic high speed racing game released by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 and 1991. Kicking off the broader F-Zero series, this game features high intensity races that occur at over several hundred kilometers per hour. The game used a number of tricks to create the illusion of 3D on Super Nintendo hardware, an impressive feat for the time.

It was later made available for the Nintendo Switch for the Nintendo Switch Online service.

• Attract Mode: A track will play out if the game is left on the start screen.
• Car Fu: It is possible to ram into other F-Zero machines. It’s of questionable value.
• Cool Car: The Blue Falcon features four engines and a jet inspired appearance.
• Collision Damage: Accruing enough can knock the player character's machine out of the race.
• Chess Motifs: The league select options include Knight, Queen, and King.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: When the player car looses all power it explodes into flaming wreckage.
• Early Installment Weirdness: Zig Zagged. In the 2000's it seemed like the series was moving to 3D, with the original Mode 7 style gameplay only kept to work on entries for the limited hardware of the Game Boy Advance. Then a long Hiatus ensured and the title F-Zero 99 was released as a battle royale game version of the SNES original.
• Level Map Display: A map of the track appears in the bottom left hand side of the screen.
• Life Meter: Represented by the power bar in the upper right hand side of the screen.
• Mega City: The sprawl of Mute City stretches on to the skyline.
• No OSHA Compliance: On the track Mute City III there are landmine like explosives embedded in the race track.
• Port Town: The setting of the Port Town map.
• Skybox: A primitive version exists in the background, simulating this.
• Technology Porn: The car selection screen rotates the selected vehicle while displaying machine specs, some useful such as a graph of acceleration, and some less so, such as Flavor Text on the engine loadout.