F-Zero is a series of futuristic racing games originally created by Nintendo EAD and has been continually produced by Nintendo, although the company has let outside development houses work on some installments.[1] The video game franchise has led to an anime series and a variety of merchandise.
The series casually centers on the F-Zero racer Captain Falcon and his talented racing and bounty hunting abilities as well as his encounters with the other F-Zero characters, ranging from superheroes and supervillains to cyborgs, mutants and aliens. Numerous characters were introduced in each completed installment of the franchises' video games with many of them appearing in multiple titles. The games are either set in the 22nd century or at a later time period, with each game revolving around the high-speed F-Zero Grand Prix races. Each character has their own unique vehicle and reason for entering the F-Zero Grand Prix. The winner of the Grand Prix receives prestige as well as a large sum of prize money.[2]
Takaya Imamura was in charge of the character designs for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System games F-Zero and Star Fox.[3] During the game's development, Imamura was surprised at the level of freedom he was given to design the characters and courses since this was his first game.[4] The game's producer, Shigeru Miyamoto, called the F-Zero characters "seven heads tall" in comparison to the characters for Super Mario Kart, who are "three heads tall in order to suit the design of the karts".[5] IGN claimed Captain Falcon "was thrust into the limelight" in F-Zero since he was the "star character".[6] An eight-page comic was included in the manual of the original game that carried the reader through one of Falcon's bounty missions.[7]
The character Mr. EAD bears a few character attributes from the Mario series. "EAD" is also the same abbreviation used by Nintendo for their internal development group who are responsible for producing the Mario games. The F-Zero character James McCloud bears a resemblance to the Star Fox character Fox McCloud. According to Nintendo Power, "It's just one of the fun things the developers decided to put into F-Zero GX." Although James is also the name of Fox McCloud's father in the Star Fox series, they also stated "As similar in looks as they are, Fox and James McCloud don't have any connection."[8] Toshihiro Nagoshi, one of F-Zero GX's co-producers, was fond of the characters and found a way to draw out their personalities during the games' development.[9] The co-producer mentioned Amusem*nt Vision was given relative freedom in designing the characters.[10] With the introduction of a story mode in F-Zero GX, Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that the characters Imamura designed are finally "coming to life and taking on some personality". Nagoshi stated that its story mode was included because the development team felt that the F-Zero universe was unique and they wanted to explain some of the characters' motivations and flesh out the game world.[9]
The original F-Zero game introduced the first set of F-Zero racers: Captain Falcon, Dr. Stewart, Pico, and Samurai Goroh.[11] One of their vehicles can be chosen to compete against generic vehicles of different colors as well as the other playable vehicles through each track in its Grand Prix mode.[citation needed] F-Zero X introduces 26 vehicles, and brings back the four from the original game.[12] In the Game Boy Advance title F-Zero: GP Legend, the majority of the characters originally appeared in the N64 game. During GP Legend's story scenes, the characters incorporate a Japanese animation artstyle for their designs as they appear in the cartoon show.[13]
A total of twenty-seven characters debuted in F-Zero X, with two of them sharing the same vehicle.
Haruka Misaki / Luna Ryder[cn 1]
Some characters of the F-Zero series have had various toys modeled after the likeness of their vehicles. In December 2003, a series of toys based on the vehicles in F-Zero GP Legend were distributed in Japan by Bandai.[46]
Captain Falcon is one of Nintendo's most popular characters in the Super Smash Bros. series, but he rarely has a starring role in games he appears in.[47] Andy Eddy described Captain Falcon as a character with no real strengths.[48] Nonetheless, GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann called him the "poster boy" of the F-Zero franchise.[49] GamePro claims that Captain Falcon demonstrates "clear superiority" over other F-Zero characters.[50] Nagoshi stated this character "has a very strong image, and represents a dominant visual aspect for the series". He claimed this is the type of character Sega does not have in their racing games like Daytona or Sega Rally that the player can "identify with behind the wheel".[10] Erick Wong from The Orange County Register was highly critical of the characters in F-Zero GX's story mode, stating "the goofy, spandex-clad characters feel seriously out of place".[51]
GameDaily named Captain Falcon as the 25th top Nintendo character of all time.[52] Jared Thomas referred to Captain Falcon as "the only known last legitimate use of the word 'extreme'".[53] UGO remarked that Captain Falcon is "cool" for his speed, but came off as annoying when shouting out the name of his slow "Falcon Punch" attack.[54] Chris Kohler of Wired magazine claimed he greatly enjoyed playing with Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.[55] IGN has called Captain Falcon an experienced fighter, and "one of the most important and recognizable characters" from the F-Zero franchise who appears always ready to give an "ass-kicking to anyone that comes his way."[56]
