F-Zero Racers: Difference between revisions

The '''F-Zero Racers''' are the 30 racing machines featured in the 1998 futuristic N64 racing game ''F-Zero X'', and they all make appearances together in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]''. ''F-Zero X'' was the most recent console entry in the series at the time (''F-Zero: Maximum Velocity'' for Game Boy Advence was technically more recent, but it wasn't featured in the fighting game), and the only game thus far to feature 3D graphics, so it was chosen to be the general setting for the game's representation of the ''[[F-Zero universe|F-Zero]]'' universe.

Each of the 30 racing machines in the game use a component called the G-Diffuser system, allowing it to hover inches above the ground and erase the friction that would normally prevent them from zooming up to 1000 miles per hour. This is about the only thing general among them; the 30 machines are each unique and distinctively shaped and constructed, with a unique name and a specialized pilot (or two) dedicated to that one machine. In the F-Zero Grand Prix that's held that year in the N64 game, each racer has his own motive and reason for entering the race, and each machine has its own technical and performance specifications that provides a different racing experience. If a machine has a high body rating, it can take more punishment from ramming by other machines, and it is better at ramming machines offensively. If it has a high boost rating, then when it uses a speed boost the speed boost is both faster and has a longer duration. If it has a high grip rating, it can navigate bending and curving areas of the track better.

==List of machines and racers==

All of the following racing machines have their number printed somewhere on them, so they can be identified in ''F-Zero X'' and ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' by simply their number alone.

===1: Red Gazelle===

The '''Red Gazelle''' is a long, sleek red machine weighing 1330 kg (605 lbs). It has a low Body rating (E), a high Boost rating (A), and an average Grip rating (C). It is piloted by '''Mighty Gazelle''', a 36-year-old former human-turned-cyborg who nearly died in a freak racing accident three years before. In that accident, his survival was miraculous, but the physical damage to his body was substantial enough that he was made a cyborg. He races for the spirit of competition, determined to win, regardless of the efforts of others to stop him from competing in the dangerous Grand Prix.

 

The '''White Cat''' is a smoothly-designed purplish-white machineweighing 1150 kg (523 lbs). It has an average Body rating (C), an average Boost rating (C), and a high Grip rating (A). It is piloted by '''[[Jody Summer]]''', a 24-year-old woman who races as one of the top rookie pilots in the circuit. She does not have much racing experience, but may prove to be a dark horse contender in the Grand Prix. Among the racers, she would have to be one of the most "normal" pilots in the Grand Prix.

 

The '''Golden Fox''' is a gold-colored machine weighing 1420 kg (645 lbs). It has a below-average Body rating (D), a high Boost rating (A), and a below-average Grip rating (D). It is piloted by '''[[Dr. Stewart]]''', a 41-year-old doctor whose vehicle belonged to his father, and he inherited the Golden Fox after his father's death. Dr. Stewart has since been interested in the F-Zero Grand Prix.

 

The '''Iron Tiger''' is a metal-plated machine weighing 1780 kg (809 lbs). It has an above-average Body rating (B), a below-average Boost rating (D), and a high Grip rating (A). It is piloted by '''Baba''', an 18-year-old young African with an amazingly keen sense of perception and adaptability to situations. He has endured much training and makes his racing debut in this season of the F-Zero Grand Prix.

 

The '''Fire Stingray''' is a wide pink-colored machine with a tail fin that gives it the vague shape of a manta ray, with fire painted on its backside. It weighs 1960 kg (891 lbs). It has a high Body rating (A), a below-average Boost rating (D), and an above-average Grip rating (B). It is piloted by '''[[Samurai Goroh]]''', a 44-year-old Japanese-American with much body mass and muscle. He is one of the best bounty hunters, like Captain Falcon, and he hates Falcon for his constantly outdoing him in bounty hunting, so he races to try and defeat Falcon in the grand prix. ''F-Zero X'' claims he is the leader of a group of space thieves.

 

The '''Wild Goose''' is a wide green and yellow machine with a red lightning bolt painted on either side, weighing 1620 kg (736 lbs). It has an above-average Body rating (B), an above-average Boost rating (B), and an average Grip rating (C). It is piloted by '''Pico''', a green alien claiming to be aged 123 years. Both aggressive and calm, Pico used to work for a special unit of the Poripoto army, and it is rumored he's also infamous as an efficient hit man.

 

The '''Blue Falcon''' is a blue, moderately-proportioned machine weighing 1260 kg (573 lbs). It has an above-average Body rating (B), an average Boost rating (C), and an above-average Grip rating (B). It is piloted by '''[[Captain Falcon]]''', a 36-year-old bounty hunter who has gained great fame and a reputation in both bounty hunting and racing that he has gained many enemies over the years, such as rival bounty-hunter Samurai Goroh and supervillain enemies like Zoda and Black Shadow. He hails from Earth, from a city called Port Town, but his past remains enigmatic.

The '''Deep Claw''' is a red machine with grill-like patterns on it, weighing 990 kg (450 lbs). It has an above-average Body rating (B), an above-average Boost rating (B), and an average Grip rating (C). It is piloted by '''Octoman''', an individual of an unknown age but of a race of sentient humanoid octopi called the Takorans, indigenous to the planet Takora, which is an enemy to the Milky Way Federation. Octoman and the other Takorans intend to display their advanced intelligence to the other races of the universe, with winning the F-Zero Grand Prix being one rite of passage towards this objective.

===9: Great Star===

The '''Great Star''' is a large purple machine with an elevated cockpit and stars painted onto its sides, and it weighs 1870 kg (850 lbs). It has an low Body rating (E), a high Boost rating (A), and a below-average Grip rating (D). It is piloted by '''Mr. EAD''', an artificial cyborg developed by a mysterious development group called EAD and sent to race in the Grand Prix to test his IQ and debug his man-made programming. The EAD in both the racer's name and the machine's specifications are an obvious play on Nintendo EAD, the company who developed the original ''F-Zero'' for SNES, and Mr. EAD's moustache resembles [[Mario]]'s and the stars painted on the machine can be said to represent [[Starman]] powerups.

===10: Little Wyvern===

The '''Little Wyvern''' is a thin purple machine with two wings, with weight of 1390 kg (632 lbs). It has a low Body rating (E), an above-average Boost rating (B), and an above-average Grip rating (B). It is piloted by '''James McCloud''', a 31-year-old human male who is a hired ranger, and the leader of a group called Galaxy Dog. His space fighter for Galaxy Dog was in fact the Little Wyvern, which James remodeled into a legal F-Zero machine and uses to race solely for the Grand Prix's money reward. His name and space fighter profession are in homage to the ''[[Star Fox (universe)|Star Fox]]'' series character of the same name, who's the father of [[Fox McCloud]].

===11: Mad Wolf===

The '''Mad Wolf''' is a wide yellow machine weighing 1490 kg (677 lbs). It has an above-average Body rating (B), an above-average Boost rating (B), and an average Grip rating (C). It is piloted by '''Billy''', quite literally a humanoid monkey and supposedly the first monkey to participate in the grand prix. Aged 6 yet fully grown, Billy races to proves that primeapes are superior species to humans.

The '''Super Piranha''' is a wide, sleekly-structured green and red machine, weighing 1010 kg (459 lbs). It has an above-average Body rating (B), an average Boost rating (C), and an above-average Grip rating (B). It is piloted by '''Kate Alen''', a 29-year-old young African woman who's a popular singer and dancer. She decides to try out racing this season and makes her debut this season.

The '''Death Anchor''' is a slick black machine weighing 1620 kg (736 lbs). It has a low Body rating (E), a high Boost rating (A), and an average Grip rating (C). It is piloted by '''Zoda''', a dark-garbed supervillain who's an incarnation of evil that plans to conquer Earth, though his reason for racing in the Grand Prix is unclear. In the past, he has had clashes with the husband-and-wife superhero team, the Arrows, as well as Captain Falcon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The '''Queen Meteor''' is a thin red machine weighing 1140 kg (519 lbs). It has a low Body rating (E), an above-average Boost rating (B), and an above-average Grip rating (B). It is piloted by '''Mrs. Arrow''', the 26-year-old wife of Super Arrow, the human superhero defender of Earth, and they are racing alongside each other this season. Certainly a good wife and team member, and Mrs. Arrow is actually the better and more experienced pilot of the two. The two machines look nearly identical, but the Queen Meteor has additional side attachments to its back section.

 

 

 

 

The '''Blood Hawk''' is a wide red machine weighing 1170 kg (532 lbs). It has an above-average Body rating (B), a high Boost rating (A), and a low Grip rating (E). It is piloted by '''[[Blood Falcon]]''', an evil genetic duplicate of Captain Falcon who was created by Black Shadow to partake in the race and try to take Captain Falcon out. Blood Falcon's appearance is identical to Captain Falcon, but with a red-and-purple coloring scheme on his suit, and the name of his machine is printed on the back of his suit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The F-Zero Racers appear together in several instances of the game's environments. In addition, they appear on some of the game's trophies, and Captain Falcon's Blue Falcon and Samurai Goroh's Fire Stingray are seen in heated racing combat in the game's opening FMV. Aside from the FMV and some of the trophies, the machine's models are the original polygonal models used for the N64 racing game.

 

In the Adventure mode, stage 8 is the '''[[F-Zero Grand Prix]]''', and the character must navigate the track and cross the finish line on foot while the 30 racers zoom along the cycling track. They can be visible in the background, and a warning appears to take refuge on a nearby platform before the racers linearly charge through in the foreground. The character will receive massive damage (32%) and knockback if in the machines' way. A sped-up, more difficult version of this stage in which the player is Captain Falcon comprises '''[[Event 33: Lethal Marathon]]'''.

 

The racers appear on both ''F-Zero''-themed stages that are selectable for multiplayer. In '''[[F-Zero Grand Prix: Mute City|Mute City]]''', the stage takes place on platforms that travel along the first track of ''F-Zero X'', Mute City, and it lands onto the ground at set intervals. The 30 machines will race each other on the track in the meantime, and at times they will race through the battling area from the background while the platforms are landed on the track. Though the machines in this stage are depicted smaller than in other stages, characters will receive 12% damage and knockback from coming into contact with them nonetheless. These machines can be damaged and eventually become smoldering wrecks by their ramming each other along the track and if characters' attacks just so happen to connect with speeding racers passing by.

In '''[[F-Zero Grand Prix: Big Blue|Big Blue]]''', one of the most unique stages in Melee, the battling takes place on larger versions of the F-Zero racers themselves as they speed along the track horizontally and the foreground and background pass by to the left very quickly. The randomly-selected assortment of machines will speed along at consistent speeds and function as disconnected platforms more or less, while other platforms and objects such as the [[Falcon Flyer]] will cruise along with the moving stage above the racers.

The F-Zero Racers make appearances on several of the game's trophies. One trophy in particular, "F-Zero Racers", showcases all thirty of the machines together. This trophy can only be collected by completing Adventure mode with all 25 playable characters.

:'''F-Zero Racers'''

:In the year 2560, an association of wealthy space merchants created the F-Zero Grand Prix in an attempt to add some excitement to their opulent lifestyles. The jet-powered racers have no tires, but use G-Diffuser systems to float a foot above the surface. Many believe the F-Zero championship is the highest claim to fame in the galaxy.

:(F-Zero X, 10/98)

In addition, more detailed models of the Blue Falcon, White Cat, Golden Fox, and Fire Stingray appear alongside enlarged models of their respective pilots on the Classic [[Captain Falcon]] trophy, [[Jody Summer]], [[Dr. Stewart]], and [[Samurai Goroh]], respectively.

[[Category: Common Enemies]]