F-Zero
F-Zero is a series of futuristic racing games published by Nintendo, developed by Nintendo EAD and other third-party companies. The first game was released for the Super Famicom in Japan in 1990. Its success prompted Nintendo to create sequels on subsequent consoles.
| F-Zero | |
|---|---|
Logo since 1998 | |
| Genre(s) | |
| Developer(s) |
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| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Creator(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto Takaya Imamura |
| Platform(s) | |
| First release | F-Zero November 21, 1990 |
| Latest release | F-Zero 99 September 14, 2023 |
The series is known for its high-speed racing, characters and settings, difficult gameplay, and original music, as well as for pushing technological limits to be one of the fastest racing games. The original game inspired games such as Daytona USA and the Wipeout series.
The series has been largely dormant since the release of F-Zero Climax in 2004 in Japan, although elements have been represented in other Nintendo video games, most notably the Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart franchises. Past installments have been emulated across multiple Nintendo consoles with the Virtual Console service. The original F-Zero is one of the selected games emulated on the Super NES Classic Edition. F-Zero was one of the launch games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Nintendo Switch Online collection, released on September 5, 2019. After over 19 years of absence, a battle royale based on the original game, called F-Zero 99, was released for the Nintendo Switch, exclusively for Nintendo Switch Online members.