Reggie Fils-Aimé has an explanation for F-Zero’s near 20 year-long absence and it’s unfortunately one we’ve heard before.
One of the longest running questions among Nintendo fans is why the company hasn’t made any new F-Zero games in almost two decades. Barring the occasional cameo or reference in other games, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the series has essentially been abandoned since the GameCube era.
Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé was asked to provide his own insight on the situation, but he insists that isn’t the case. In fact, he claims Nintendo never consciously abandons its franchises, at least during his time with the company.
With F-Zero specifically, he believes that a developer somewhere within Nintendo could be experimenting with new ideas for the series.
‘Why was F-Zero abandoned? 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,’ said Fils-Aimé.
‘My bet is that somewhere in the Kyoto development centres, 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,’ he told GamesBeat.
Fils-Aimé has essentially reiterated comments made by the now retired Takaya Imamura, who worked as a character designer at Nintendo and produced multiple F-Zero games.
He also refuted the suggestion that F-Zero was a dead franchise but admitted that it needs a ‘a grand new idea’ to be brought back.
This all stems from Nintendo’s desire to innovate or reinvent the wheel to justify making another F-Zero, even though fans have been very vocal that they’d be happy with simply a new, modern iteration.
The series hasn’t seen a new entry since the Game Boy Advance game F-Zero Climax in 2004, and that was Japanese-only.
However, the Nintendo 64 entry, F-Zero X, was added to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack only two months ago and featured new online multiplayer options.
Even just an HD remake or remaster of GameCube game F-Zero GX would be welcomed by fans. For now, however, they have to make do with the very occasional re-release and Captain Falcon’s regular Super Smash Bros. appearances.
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