List of F-Zero characters



F-Zero is a series of futuristic racing games originally created by Nintendo EAD (formerly Research & Development Team 4) and has been continually produced by Nintendo, although the company has let outside development houses work on some installments. The video game franchise has led to an anime series and a variety of merchandise.

The series casually centers around the F-Zero racer Captain Falcon and his talented racing and bounty hunting abilities as well as his encounters with the other F-Zero characters, ranging from superheroes and supervillains to cyborgs, mutants and aliens. Numerous characters were introduced in each completed installment of the franchises' video games with many of them appearing in multiple titles. The games are either set in the 22nd century or at a later time period, with each game revolving around the high-speed F-Zero Grand Prix races. Each character has their own unique vehicle and reason for entering the F-Zero Grand Prix. The winner of the Grand Prix receives prestige as well as a large sum of prize money.

Development
Takaya Imamura was in charge of the character designs for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System games F-Zero and Star Fox. During the development of the F-Zero game, Imamura was surprised at the level of freedom he was given to design the characters and courses since this was his first game. The game's producer, Shigeru Miyamoto, called the F-Zero characters "seven heads tall" in comparison to the characters for Super Mario Kart, who are "three heads tall in order to suit the design of the karts". IGN claimed Captain Falcon "was thrust into the limelight" in F-Zero since he was the "star character". An eight-page comic was included in the manual of the original game that carried the reader through one of Captain Falcon's bounty missions.

The character Mr. EAD bears a few character attributes from the Mario series. "EAD" is also the same abbreviation used by Nintendo for their internal development group who are responsible for producing the Mario games. The F-Zero character James McCloud bears a resemblance to the Star Fox character Fox McCloud. According to Nintendo Power, "It's just one of the fun things the developers decided to put into F-Zero GX." Although James is also the name of Fox McCloud's father in the Star Fox series, they also stated "As similar in looks as they are, Fox and James McCloud don't have any connection." Toshihiro Nagoshi, one of F-Zero GX's co-producers, was fond of the characters and found a way to draw out their personalities during the games' development. The co-producer mentioned Amusement Vision was given relative freedom in designing the characters. With the introduction of a story mode in F-Zero GX, Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that the characters Imamura created are finally "coming to life and taking on some personality". Nagoshi stated that its story mode was included because the development team felt that the F-Zero universe was unique and they wanted to explain some of the characters' motivations and flesh out the game world.

Characters
In F-Zero, one of four playable vehicles can be chosen to compete against generic vehicles of different colors as well as the other playable vehicles through each track in its Grand Prix mode. The Nintendo 64 (N64) sequel, F-Zero X, has twenty-seven new characters composed of all the opponents. In the Game Boy Advance title F-Zero: GP Legend, the majority of the characters originally appeared in the N64 game. During GP Legend's story scenes, the characters incorporate a Japanese animation style for their character designs as they appear in the cartoon show.

Captain Falcon
Captain Falcon (キャプテン・ファルコン) is a character in the futuristic racing video game series F-Zero. He is described as an accomplished F-Zero pilot and renowned bounty hunter. In F-Zero X, it is rumored that he is called "Captain" because he was once an officer on the Internova Police Force. By the age of 36, Captain Falcon had built a reputation as one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy, one that has earned him many enemies. This constant danger forces him to live in a sanctuary on a chain of islands off the coast of Port Town, where he spends most of his time. His desire for solitude is such that even after winning a race, he takes his award and quickly dashes home. Each of his home islands contains a different racetrack, allowing him to keep his racing skills at their peak while remaining relatively safe.

The character drives the Blue Falcon in his races, and uses a sidearm and a midsize spacecraft called the Falcon Flyer in bounty missions. In F-Zero X, Captain Falcon's DNA is stolen while he is hospitalized following an accident in the F-Zero Grand Prix. The thieves use the DNA to create a clone of Captain Falcon, Blood Falcon. In F-Zero GX, Captain Falcon is 37 years old and the sitting champion of the F-Zero Grand Prix, boosting his already high popularity even higher. In the games' story mode, after winning a number of races and saving Jody Summer, he goes on to defeat Black Shadow and Deathborn. In F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, which is set twenty-five years after the first game, Kent Akechi claims to be the son of Captain Falcon. The character is a representative for F-Zero in the Super Smash Bros. video games. He is a fast close combat fighter using a combination of kung fu and streetfighting, whose signature move is the "Falcon Punch", a slow but powerful punch in which a flaming falcon surrounds his fist. In the anime F-Zero GP Legend, Captain Falcon is a title given to a person, instead of an individual's actual name. Throughout most of the anime, Bart Lemming holds this title, and it is passed onto Rick Wheeler after Bart's "death" in the last episode. Although he does not appear in every episode, he plays a significant role in the series: his main goal is to stop the efforts of the Dark Million Organization. The character is voiced by Hideyuki Tanaka and David Wills in the Japanese and English versions respectively.

Unknown racers
Other vehicles seen in BS F-Zero Grand Prix which have unknown racers piloting them are Blue Thunder, Fire Scorpion, Green Amazone and Luna Bomber. Four other vehicles which appeared in the canceled Zero Racers also have unknown drivers which are the Falcon, Goose, Origammy and Stingray.

Merchandise
Some characters of the F-Zero series have had various toys modeled after the likeness of their vehicles. In December 2003, a series of toys based on the vehicles in F-Zero GP Legend were distributed in Japan by Bandai.

Reception
Captain Falcon is not one of Nintendo's most popular characters, and Andy Eddy described Captain Falcon as a character with no real strengths. Nonetheless, Gamespot's Jeff Gerstmann called him the "poster boy" of the F-Zero franchise. GamePro claims that Captain Falcon demonstrates "clear superiority" over other F-Zero characters. Toshihiro Nagoshi stated this character "has a very strong image, and represents a dominant visual aspect for the series". He claimed this is the type of character Sega does not have in their racing games like Daytona or Sega Rally that the player can "identify with behind the wheel".

GameDaily named Captain Falcon as the 25th top Nintendo character of all time. Jared Thomas referred to Captain Falcon as "the only known last legitimate use of the word 'extreme'". UGO remarked that Captain Falcon is "cool" for his speed, but came off as annoying when shouting out the names of his attacks. Video game journalist Chris Kohler claimed he greatly enjoyed playing with Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. IGN has called Captain Falcon an experienced fighter, and "one of the most important and recognizable characters" from the F-Zero franchise who appears always ready to give an "ass-kicking to anyone that comes his way."