Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Published , by Ozzie Mejia
There are a handful of franchise staples that Nintendo keeps close by and supports regularly. There's Mario, there's Zelda, and there's Kirby, just to name a few. You know what franchise hasn't gotten support in about 20 years? The answer is F-Zero. There are questions as to why that is and former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime might have some answers.
"The insight I would share is that, at least during my tenure, Nintendo developers were always experimenting with different gameplay styles, always thinking about where a unique experience could be applied back, either to an existing franchise or maybe creating a new franchise," Fils-Aime told VentureBeat. "My bet is that somewhere in the Kyoto development centers, some developer is playing around with an idea that might be applied to F-Zero. It's never a situation, at least in my experience, where the company makes a conscious decision not to continue supporting X-Y-Z franchise. Historically it just hasn't worked that way, not when I was there."
This seems to line up with what others have said about the long-neglected racing franchise. One of those people was artist Takaya Imamura, though he was quite insistent that F-Zero is not dead in an interview with IGN. Takayama also echoed the idea that F-Zero would be a difficult franchise to bring back without an interesting new mechanic, twist, or idea. It's a similar line of thinking that we've heard about a potential Mario Kart 9, where rumors have stated that a new installment would feature a "twist" to the usual formula.
Whether Nintendo will ever get around to cracking this difficult nut remains to be seen. We'll keep watching the F-Zero beat and we'll be back with any news, good or bad, on the series' future. As for Reggie Fils-Aime, his newest book, Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo, is available right now at retailers everywhere. There's even an audiobook narrated by the man himself.