F-Zero X

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F-Zero X
Details
Developer	Nintendo Enertainment Analysis and Development
Publisher	Nintendo
Director(s)	Tadashi Sugiyama Yasuyuki Oyagi
Producer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto Hiroshi Yamauchi
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64, iQue Player, Virtual Console
No. of players	Single player, multiplayer
Release dates
North America	N64: October 26, 1998 VC: June 25, 2007
Japan	N64: July 14, 1998 VC: May 29, 2007
Europe	N64: November 6, 1998 VC: June 15, 2007
China
Australia	N64: 1998 VC: June 15, 2007
Ratings
ACB	G
CERO	A
ESRB	E
PEGI	3+
USK	0+
Installments
Previous game	Zero Racers (cancelled)
Next game	F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
External websites

F-Zero X (F-ZERO X, Efu Zero Ekkusu^[?]) is a futuristic racing video game for the Nintendo 64 console. Developed by Nintendo's EAD division, it was released in Japan, Europe and North America, in 1998. F-Zero X has been re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan, in Europe as the 100th VC title, and in North America, in 2007. When the game was later developed and released for the iQue Player in China in 2004, it became the first and only title of the series to feature online multiplayer, as well as being Nintendo's first racing title with online multiplayer. In 2000, an expansion of the game was exclusively released in Japan providing numerous extra features not in the original game.

F-Zero X is the third released installment in the F-Zero series and the first released video game in the franchise to feature 3D graphics. The game has a steep learning curve and its gameplay experience is similar to that of the original F-Zero title. However, the title does introduce a "death race" mode and a random track generator called the "X Cup". In the death race, the player's objective is to annihilate the 29 other racers as speedily as possible, while the X-Cup "creates" a different set of tracks each time played.

At first, only six machines are available for play, extra ones are unlocked by beating the Grand Prixs on the various difficulty levels. These are: Novice, Standard, Expert, and Master (unlockable).

Gameplay Modes

Circuits

F-Zero X has five Cups in total whose names are based on face cards. Four of them contains six courses each. Initially, only the Jack, Queen, and King Cups are available to choose from and each varies in difficulty from beginner, intermediate and expert respectively. The Joker Cup can be unlocked by coming first overall in Jack, Queen, and King Cups on Standard difficulty in the Grand Prix. Beating each of these four cups on Expert difficulty unlocks Master difficulty for that cup. Beating all four cups on Expert unlocks the X Cup, which produces a different set of procedurally-generated courses each time it is played.

Jack	Mute City Figure Eight	Silence High Speed	Sand Ocean Pipe	Devil's Forest Corkscrew	Big Blue Cylinder	Port Town High Jump
Queen	Sector α Inverted Loop	Red Canyon Multi Jump	Devil's Forest 2 Up and Down	Mute City 2 Technique	Big Blue 2 Quick Turn	White Land Dangerous Steps
King	Fire Field Zig-Zag Jump	Silence 2 Wavy Road	Sector β Double Somersault	Red Canyon 2 Slim Line	White Land 2 Half Pipe	Mute City 3 Jumps of Doom
Joker	Rainbow Road Psychedelic Experience	Devil's Forest 3 Mirror Road	Space Plant Cylinder & High Jump	Sand Ocean 2 Wave Panic	Port Town 2 Snake Road	Big Hand Deadly Curves

X Cup

An X Cup can be played that consists of procedurally-generated courses, all of which are called X. Each playthrough of the X Cup will be different.

Death Race

The Death Race is a special event where the player has to defeat the other 29 racers on a vertical loop shaped course. The aim is to defeat them all as fast as possible.

Time Attack

Time Attack mode allows players to attempt to beat the best time for the courses. There are also unlockable staff ghosts, which have expert level times to beat.

Practice

Practice

Characters

Pilot #	Name	Image	Age	Manual description	Machine
01	Mighty Gazelle		36	Three years ago, he was injured in a freak racing accident and miraculously survived. Due to the damage his body sustained, he became a cyborg. Others have tried to stop him from competing, but he is determined to win.	Red Gazelle
02	Jody Summer		24	Jody is one of the top rookie pilots in the circuit. While Jody doesn't have much experience, many see her as a dark horse.	White Cat
03	Dr. Stewart		41	He's been living in the fast lane as a doctor. Dr. Stewart became interested in the F-Zero X GP after the death of his father. The Golden Fox belonged to his father.	Golden Fox
04	Baba		18	This young rookie has incredible intuition and is very flexible. After enduring a great deal of training, Baba will make his racing debut this season.	Iron Tiger
05	Samurai Goroh		44	He's one of the best bounty hunters around and the leader of a group of space thieves. Goroh's reason for joining F-Zero is because of his hatred for Capt. Falcon, his rival.	Fire Stingray
06	Pico		123 (or so he says)	Pico used to work for a special unit of the Poripoto army. He's aggressive, but calm. Rumor has it that he is also an infamous hit man.	Wild Goose
07	Captain Falcon		36	He's a well known bounty hunter as well as a great F-Zero pilot. Many mysteries surround Capt. Falcon–the only thing we know is that he's from Port Town.	Blue Falcon
08	Octoman		Unknown	He represents the planet Takora, an enemy of the Milky Way Federation. Takorans are intent on showing their advanced intelligence in the universe.	Deep Claw
09	Mr. EAD		Unknown	This cyborg was developed by the mysterious development group EAD. His purpose for racing is to test his IQ and debug his man-made programming.	Great Star
10	James McCloud		31	James McCloud is a hired ranger, and the leader of Galaxy Dog. He remodeled his space fighter into an F-Zero machine. McCloud is in this grand prix for one reason – money.	Little Wyvern
11	Billy		6	Billy is the first monkey to participate in F-Zero. He's out to prove that monkeys are the superior species.	Mad Wolf
12	Kate Alen		29	This popular singer and dancer has decided to try her hand at racing. She will debut this season.	Super Piranha
13	Zoda		Unknown	Zoda is the incarnation of evil and intent on conquering Earth. Why he's racing in the Grand Prix is still a mystery. His past disputes against the Arrows and Captain Falcon are well known.	Death Anchor
14	Jack Levin		18	Jack's a favorite of the female fans. Any merchandise with his face on it sells out immediately. While most people talk about his good looks and popularity, not too many people mention his racing skill.	Astro Robin
15	Bio Rex		8	This dinosaur is a product of bio-technology. Through this technology, his brain has become very similar to a human's. If he wins the Grand Prix, he will prove that he's superior to humans	Big Fang
16	The Skull		240	Skull was once a great legend among drivers. Using science and black magic, Skull returned from the grave to compete one more time.	Sonic Phantom
17	Antonio Guster		35	Antonio was once Goroh's right-hand man, but Goroh betrayed him. Now Antonio has joined the Grand Prix in hopes of exacting revenge on his former mentor.	Green Panther
18	Beastman		35	When just a child, Beastman was nearly eaten by a giant alligator. Ever since then, he's been a slayer of beasts. Now he hopes to advertise his services in the Grand Prix	Hyper Speeder
19	Leon		15	Compared to humans, Leon is not very bright. He makes up for it with his sharp reflexes and cornering ability.	Space Angler
20	Super Arrow		34	Super Arrow's job is to protect the Earth. When Super Arrow discovered that Zoda, his sworn enemy, had entered the Grand Prix, he entered as well.	King Meteor
21	Mrs. Arrow		26	Mrs. Arrow races with her husband Super Arrow. She's a good wife and team member. Actually, her racing experience makes her a better pilot than her husband.	Queen Meteor
22	Gomar & Shioh		Unknown	These Furikake people always act as one person. They are a very strange race. While the rules don't allow pilots to use machines for two riders, they were approved by the committee. Their machine is the lightest on the circuit.	Twin Noritta
23	Silver Neelsen		97	Neelsen has participated in more Grand Prix races than anyone, but has yet to win. His age has drawn criticism. Because he is resentful of the newer machines, the other racers are avoiding him.	Night Thunder
24	Michael Chain		38	He's the leader of the Bloody Chain gang. Michael participates in the Grand Prix to show off his driving skills to members of his gang. Since he rarely wins, members are slowly leaving the gang.	Wild Boar
25	Blood Falcon		36	Created by Black Shadow, Blood Falcon is an exact duplicate of Captain Falcon. Well, almost. Blood Falcon is evil – very evil.	Blood Hawk
26	John Tanaka		30	Tanaka, an engineer, and member of the Milky Way Federation, is supposed to be assisting Jody Summer. His concern for his colleague compelled him to join the Grand Prix. He seems to be more interested in protecting Jody Summer than winning the Grand Prix.	Wonder Wasp
27	Draq		136	Draq works with Roger Buster, and is a big fan of F-ZERO. Driving in the Grand Prix has been his life-long dream.	Mighty Typhoon
28	Roger Buster		40	Roger, a transportation guru, was supposed to transport a machine to an unknown participant. His partner persuaded him to abandon that idea and race for himself.	Mighty Hurricane
29	Dr. Clash		54	A former F-Zero engineer, it has been Dr. Clash's dream to become a pilot. He is participating in the race with a machine he designed and built himself.	Crazy Bear
30	Black Shadow		Unknown	The King of Evil. Black Shadow strikes fear in the hearts of everyone. His goal is to destroy Captain Falcon in front of millions of viewers.	Black Bull

Development and audio

Initially titled F-Zero 64, Famitsu magazine revealed the project in mid-1997. The game, which was produced alongside Zero Racers, was renamed late in its development. Several key Wave Race 64 programmers including the lead programmer made up the in-house F-Zero X development team. The game made its debut at the Nintendo Space World event in late November 1997 where the public was able to play it for the first time. F-Zero X became the first racing game to run at 60 frames per second with up to 30 vehicles on screen at the same time, but in order to keep the frame rate, polygon counts on the vehicles, textures and track detail are sacrificed. The North American release of F-Zero X suffered from a three month delay due to Nintendo of America's policy of spacing the release of first-party games out evenly. Features from the Nintendo 64DD are included in F-Zero X which allow for the cartridge to be compatible with add-on disks such as track editors or course updates, however none of these were utilized outside of Japan, due to the 64DD's commercial failure.

F-Zero X features remixed music from its predecessor. Besides the games' visual detail, another setback in order for the title to run well at its frame rate is the quality of its audio. Due to compression, the game only features monaural sound. Two soundtracks were released featuring music from this game. The F-Zero X Original Soundtrack was released on September 18, 1998. The F-Zero X Guitar Arrange Edition, which was released on January 27, 1999, contains ten guitar arranged musical tracks from the game. Both the original soundtrack and the guitar arrangement are composed by Taro Bando and Hajime Wakai.

Critical Reception

Critics generally praised F-Zero X for its fast gameplay, abundance of courses and vehicles, keeping a high framerate even though there can be up to thirty racers on screen at the same time, and track design. However, the game has been widely criticized for its lack of graphical detail. The title received Game of the Month for the month of November from Electronic Gaming Monthly. An editor stated "the graphics may be simple, but they're smooth and the action is fast". IGN described F-Zero X as an exceptional update to the original game that "only suffers under its generic look". They believed that unlike the first game, F-Zero X "is not about showing off graphics or sound capabilities — it's all about gameplay". They considered the game to rival Wave Race with its "perfectly fine-tuned controls and a fresh approach to racing".

Allgame called F-Zero X "certainly not up to Nintendo's usual standards" in terms of detail and texture quality. GameSpot also criticized the games' graphical detail, calling the low polygon count on the vehicles as "particularly uninspiring" and that the "track detail is also very limited, giving the track a spartan feel to it". In GameSpot's re-review of the Virtual Console release, they gave it a 6.5/10 calling it "the black sheep of the series" when compared with the other F-Zero games in "visual style and technical flair".

Despite its visual setbacks, critics exalted the game for managing to keep a steady 60 frame/s, which some felt made up for the lack of graphical detail. The Electric Playground found the framerate to give "the game a major boost in the feel department" making it "seem like your vehicle is bursting through the sound barrier". In regard to the music, EGM considered it "really good with some excellent remixes of the old F-Zero tunes", while CVG called the music dreadful. The Electric Playground thought it goes hand-in-hand to the feeling of speed in the game, but not much else.

F-Zero X sold 383,642 units in America and 77,154 units in Japan, making it the 49th best-selling Nintendo 64 game. The game sold 56,457 copies during its first week of sale in Japan, but sold nearly five times less the following week.

Disk Drive Expansion

Main article: F-Zero X Expansion Kit

The F-Zero X Expansion Kit, released in Japan on April 21, 2000, was the first add-on disk for the Nintendo 64DD. The Kit will only operate in conjunction with the cartridge of the original game, however all of F-Zero X's regular features are accessible plus twelve new tracks, a car editor and a track creator. The Expansion Kit includes new soundtracks in stereo as well as the entire collection of monaural audio tracks from the original game. In addition to the two new cups, it is also possible to create custom cups. The disk can save up to a hundred tracks and up to three ghost racers per course. The track creator was singled out as the Expansion Kit's strongest feature since it is virtually the same tool the track designers of F-Zero X used for themselves to create the original circuits.

The Car Editor offers a variety of options when creating a vehicle. Using a set of pre-existing parts, the player must balance their creations' settings and performance abilities before the machine is finished and named. The Track Editor is a detailed track creator that allows the player design their own racing circuits. Using a cursor, the player can determine the basic layout of the track and also add points to it to create track elements such as curves and hills. Furthermore, numerous different properties like half pipes and cylinders, as well as numerous road surfaces, such as slip zones, can be added. The player also can test their creation at any time and run practice laps.

Lastly, Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh and Jody Summer receive updates in the form of unlockable 'Super vehicles' which boasts perfect stats (Body, Boost and Grip at A), slightly altered design and a new color scheme as well as the pilots themselves wearing new clothes.

Gallery

Main article: Gallery:F-Zero X

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  Japanese boxart

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  European boxart

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  European Player's Choice Boxart

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  Australian boxart

Cut Content

Main article: F-Zero X on The Cutting Room Floor

Button Cheats

Unlock Everything

To unlock all machines, cups, and master class, press, L, Z, R, C-Up, C-Down, C-Left, C-Right, Start. A chime should play, if done correctly.

Small Machines

Hold L + R + C-Down + C-Left at the Select Machine screen.

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  Before

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  After

External links

• Official Japanese site