After 20+ years, a new F-Zero is long overdue.

Nintendo’s last F-Zero game, F-Zero GX, was released in 2003. Since then, the series has only had mini games and references: F-Zero 99, a multiplayer reworking of the original game, is available as part of Switch Online, there are some F-Zero themed tracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the (amazing) Wii U launch title Nintendo Land had an F-Zero mini game. That’s pretty much it (it’s also included in Smash Bros., but that references every Nintendo franchise). During the Wii U era, there was some possibility of a new game, but again it came to nothing.

Innovation

Nintendo’s long-standing, and often cited, reason for the lack of any new games is that there isn’t anything new that they can do. To some extent, I understand that reasoning. F-Zero GX is an incredible game, and it’s difficult to see how you could improve on it. Any new entry would have risked becoming a mere rehash, possibly with motion control gimmicks if it had been in the Wii era.

There probably wouldn’t have been a visual improvement either, not in the first 10 years of the wait, since it took Nintendo so long to resume working on the graphical power of their consoles (there’s not much difference between a Wii and a Gamecube power-wise).

All the same, Nintendo’s argument gets weaker with every passing year. It’s been such a long time, and there have been so many hardware improvements, that the mere existence of a new F-Zero game, designed and built for modern hardware, would itself be new and exciting. At this point, it would be difficult for the game not to feel fresh.

Besides, whilst Nintendo does like to innovate, the scale of their innovation is not always dramatic; they do sometimes repeat themselves. The Switch 1 had multiple Splatoon games and the New Super Mario Bros. series, a prime example of translating an older franchise onto newer hardware, began as an innovative update but became a constant rehash of the same ideas.

It could be objected, I’ll admit, that even when Nintendo’s innovation isn’t obvious, there is usually some tinkering beneath the hood. They often make games that are focused on perfecting the mechanics and level design of old ideas. Sure enough, the last entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series (New Super Mario Bros. U) is the best entry, despite being the most stale. After that, Nintendo dropped the Mario Bros. franchise for a decade before entirely changing the formula with the excellent Mario Bros. Wonder. A move that was likely influenced by the then staleness of Mario Bros.

I wouldn’t put it past Nintendo’s developers to obsess over one particular idea for years and then entirely discard it the moment they’ve perfected it. So, if GX really did perfect the F-Zero formula, what else could the franchise have to interest Nintendo?

Switch 2

For all that, I think there is a reasonably good chance of a new F-Zero game being released on the Switch 2. F-Zero 99 and the addition of GX to the Switch Online game library could be helping to rebuild and/or test interest in the series. Nintendo has also been revisiting its discarded franchises. Even Kirby Air Rides is back, after a comparably long hiatus.

I also get the impression that Nintendo needs to round out its release schedule. Many of their big franchises have received new entries within the last few years (except 3D Mario for some reason), and I’m not that sure what they could release while waiting for the next sleight of Zelda, Smash, and other big games to be ready, if that makes sense? I may be overthinking that.

I would again briefly hazard that the substantial hardware improvements of the Switch 2 (20+ years since the GameCube) have given Nintendo a lot of scope for further refining the F-Zero formula over GX. But if that’s not enough to interest them, they could always alter the formula/take the series in a new direction. Sacrilege, I know, but stay with me.

A New Direction

There are new ideas and gameplay mechanics that Nintendo could introduce to F-Zero, innovating sideways instead of forward. If the Wii U entry had worked out, for example, they could have experimented with real-time power management on the Gamepad, in which energy could be diverted between the shields and engines, Star Trek style.

Or, if that’s too gimmicky, they could pivot to an entirely new formula. They’ve done as much with other tired franchises. When they exhausted the Ocarina of Time formula, for example, they pivoted to the open-air Breath of the Wild formula. (That’s not to slam the old Zelda formula, I actually really like Skyward Sword.) Likewise with Mario Kart, an apt comparison to F-Zero as another Nintendo racing game.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, at least in my opinion, perfected the old Mario Kart formula, and many people were unsure about where the franchise could go. So, Nintendo pivoted. In recent years, the most notable racing game innovation has probably been the Forza Horizon style open-world racing, in which you drive between tracks. With little left to improve on 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart World embraced this new formula.

A new F-Zero could make a similar pivot. The speed of F-Zero could make city navigation difficult, but if well-balanced, an explorable Mute City could be awesome.

Personally, I’d like to see F-Zero get a Kirby Air Ride-style City Trials mode, allowing the player to walk around a Mute City hub world, collecting vehicle improvements, completing trials, and getting into fights. I’ll admit I want this in large part because it could include protagonist Captain Falcon’s iconic “Falcon Punch” in an actual F-Zero game. Currently, it’s a Smash Bros thing. I digress. The races and tournaments would obviously still be the main event.

Final Thoughts

My point here is that there is a lot of new stuff that an F-Zero game could do, especially on modern hardware. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a rehash of GX, and to be honest, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if it were a rehash. GX is great. After 20+ years, moreover, even the old stuff is going to feel fresh.

With the switch 2 at the start of its life, and in need of exclusives, this does feel like the perfect time to bring the series back. They may have already been working on it. Though if so, they should perhaps wait another year or two before releasing it, since 2025 has already had Mario Kart World and Kirby Air Riders.

Alternatively, Nintendo may wait until the Switch 3 and then make an F-Zero VR game, which would be awesome, but is a long way off. I’d rather they did both. Still, Nintendo is notoriously difficult to predict.

-Dexter