F-Zero Maximum Velocity is joining Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack, just in time for the end of March 2024.
F-Zero Maximum Velocity was a launch title for the Game Boy Advance when it released in 2001. While the world of F-Zero was already futuristic in itself, F-Zero Maximum Velocity timeskips to 25 years after the original game. There is a new F-Zero Grand Prix, with a new generation of racers.
There are no future games that come back to this timeline, so truthfully, the lore of this future title is somewhat irrelevant. But what has remained relevant in a greater capacity is this racer’s gameplay.
Whereas the first few F-Zero games were made by Nintendo EAD themselves, this title was made by NDCube. NDCube also falls under Nintendo, but are actually comprised of former Hudson Soft staff.
NDCube is now best known for continuing work on the Mario Party series, which was made by Hudson before they shut down. However, when Nintendo launched NDCube as a joint venture with advertising firm Dentsu in 2000, they had yet to prove their mettle to their owner.
Hudson Soft may sound familiar to some fans, as they produced many classic 8-bit and 16-bit games, such as Adventure Island, Bomberman, and Star Soldier. They are really only known for making one racing game, Victory Run, on the TurboGrafx-16, but perhaps what was important to Nintendo is that Hudson Soft were longtime trusted partners, and they had picked up their staff to keep working with them.
F-Zero Maximum Velocity features a similar pseudo 3D effect as the original game on the SNES. Taking things further from Mode 7, it used two graphical layers to provide the illusion of depth. But it also featured Donkey Kong Country-style pre-rendered graphics for the racing vehicles, and a wide variety of backgrounds, reflecting the different locales you could race in.
Racing mechanics were refined as well, so instead of a simple drift, players had to do blast turning, and there was a speed boost they could take advantage of if they paid attention. F-Zero Maximum Velocity offered multiple difficulty levels in the main Grand Prix mode, a time attack style Championship mode, and multiplayer for as many as four players.
When you think about it, even now this title is an impressive little package, and on Nintendo Switch Online it will be a great addition to the Game Boy Advance library.
F-Zero Maximum Velocity is releasing on the Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack on March 29, 2024. You can watch the announcement trailer below.
