u/NoxiMation

this guy made a game where billionaires in the distant future create death racing because they're bored, and the main character is a bounty hunter and the reincarnation of actual light from the big bang. Is Nintendo lazy?

video taken from @/spinboostable on Twitter

F-Zero has gone over twenty years without a completely new traditional installment, and even when F-Zero 99 released, a huge part of the conversation immediately became whether it was “testing the waters” for the game people actually wanted. GX became accessible again, and we still keep circling back to what Nintendo might do next. At some point, the fandom has to stop treating a hypothetical sequel as the center of its identity. The healthiest thing F-Zero fans could do is act like a new game is never coming and build a autonomous culture around what already exists.

The idea that they could theoretically solve conflict with martial arts and superpowers but choose to do it by driving is for some reason really badass to me.

Video Source: @/spinboostable on X

Honestly, I'm surprised 99 is still getting updates at this point.

(video source)

A stimulant stronger than crack was secretly invented back in 2003. Here's a hit.

(I'm taking no sides here, simply asking for clarification)

I heard that the F-Zero X decomp named "G-Diffuser" by Zorkats is able to now be downloaded. I also heard that it was coded 70% by human hands and 30% by AI.

If the AI coding was reviewed line-by-line and verified by a human, is that still unethical? What would you consider the difference between vibe coding and actual coding when it comes to decomp projects like this?

A true X decomp would bring insane new life to the game and especially the modding community. But as an outsider to coding looking in, I'm wondering what the general consensus is around using AI to make that possible, even if it is human-reviewed.

F-Zero has always felt like a franchise with scattered appeal and respect, but no clear internet-era gateway in the 2010s or 2020s. Other dormant Nintendo series had big personalities and fan culture constantly reintroducing people to their worlds. We got it too, but not really. Captain Falcon's depiction in Smash got a massive cultural resonance, and the anime's Falcon Punch did, while the core F-Zero experience often got flattened into either an “old racing game” by outsiders or “this series is awesome” by fans without much deeper translation.

There have been plenty of F-Zero video essays, but not really a major “F-Zero channel” with enough size and staying power throughout the years to consistently shape how outsiders understand the series. I think that reputation flattening, obviously alongside Nintendo’s refusal to make a new mainline game, is a big reason people rarely see everything the series has to offer as one connected appeal.

But this is not about whether I think F-Zero should be “for everyone”. Its gameplay and aesthetic already lend itself to being a lower-middle tier Nintendo franchise in terms of popularity. It's about giving people more than one honest doorway before deciding whether it is or isn't for them.

there's nothing Samurai Goroh can do to convince people that Falcon isn't badass

Here's my rationale:

A completely new person doesn't need to know the entire timeline or play the most advanced games first. They need one quick point of contact that makes F-Zero feel understandable, accessible but challenging, and social.

• That's why my first step is either F-Zero 99 for its instant online access, tutorial, robust unlock system, and rival rankings that reward players' progress rather than a flat-out victory.
• GP Legend for a more character-focused package that puts a modern player onto the worldbuilding as an appeal alongside the gameplay, and because it's the easiest mainline title.

Those games are followed by the quiz, clips, and community so the person has reasons to keep engaging.

• The Base Experience (SNES and Maximum Velocity) show the stripped-down foundation and can be a natural step up in difficulty from the comeback mechanics of 99. If they've played Classic mode in 99, they've already learned this style of gameplay.
• The Ultimate Experience is where the series becomes a 30-racer, full-contact, 3D speed endurance test. It is F-Zero in its most realized form, but it's also pretty hard and has no tutorial or on-ramp, so it should be a step up after the Base experience. F-Zero X and F-Zero GX are the ultimate "so this is why people are obsessed" proof of evidence.
• The Extended Experience exists because, for some people, F-Zero is easier to care about when the characters are visible. The anime shows the side of the franchise that gets overlooked when F-Zero is reduced to just a “fast racing game,” and its serialized but colorful storylines will help a broader audience understand. GP Legend and Climax are 2D games that carry elements from the 3D titles.

Some people are curious about F-Zero, but will unfortunately bounce off the word “racing” immediately, so these methods give them a way in before asking them to play seriously yet.

• The Personality Quiz allows casuals to attach themselves to a character and their machine in the most self-relatable way possible.
• Operation Spin Booster uploads isolated anime clips that a casual can easily show to their friends. It's a complete HD upscale of the anime (by NoxiMation) with accurately translated subs (by MuteCityDrifters).
• Various content creators have covered F-Zero's history, characters and gameplay, and I have begun to dedicate my own second channel to creating a front door for the fandom.

I hope this guide is helpful. Remember, this is my own personal preference, but I hope an F-Zero fan can use it to eventually create another F-Zero fan.

Samurai Goroh is the critic that stepped up

I find it genuinely impressive how Nintendo created something as cool as a racing game with fighting game mechanics trapped inside a superhero universe, and over the last twenty-something years, its fandom still hasn't developed a widely understood explanation for why the average person would give a shit in modern day.

(I'm a hardcore F-Zero fan)

The only F-Zero conversation with cultural reach is "why won't Nintendo bring it back?", meanwhile the actual franchise contains more than most people (including many fans) choose to explore. F-Zero X and GX are crowning achievements of the genre. The F-Zero Anime is just "an adaptation". The GBA games are just "lesser entries". The comics are "irrelevant". Anything that isn't X or GX gets culturally quarantined, and then we complain that F-Zero has nothing left to discuss.

Does that mean Nintendo is justified in abandoning it? No. Should Nintendo make another F-Zero game? YES. But after twenty years? Time has come for the fandom to just accept that it might not happen, and that they need to stop outsourcing its entire culture to a multibillion-dollar company.

It's like we discuss why it's dead, meanwhile half the fans don't even want to accept that half of their actual series exists. Half the fandom barely knows the corpse, but everyone attends the funeral.

this is my first time making comics in an intentionally crude format so any feedback would be appreciated

Falcon is bad at talking about normal things

the Blue Falcon's graphical evolution concerns anyone who isn't a speed freak

So I was suggesting that had the F-zero anime had aired on Toonami on Cartoon Network in the 2000s, it probably would have gained a lot more recognition in America. Plus I don’t think the voice acting was that bad, I thought Veronica Taylor fits perfectly as Jody Summer.

let's hope the Blue Falcon was a worthy investment