F-Zero: Maximum Velocity

F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
North American box art
Developer(s)	Nd Cube
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Isshin Shimizu
Producer(s)	Takehiro Izushi Hitoshi Yamagami
Composer(s)	Masaru Tajima Mitsuteru Furukawa Naoto Ishida
Series	F-Zero
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console
Release date(s)	Game Boy Advance JP March 21, 2001 NA June 11, 2001 EU June 22, 2001 Virtual Console EU / JP / NA December 16, 2011
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ACB: G CERO: A ESRB: E

F-Zero Maximum Velocity (or F-Zero for Game Boy Advance (エフ・ゼロ・フォー・ゲームボーイアドバンス) as it known in Japan) is a futuristic racing video game developed by Nd Cube and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). The game was released in Japan, North America and Europe in 2001 as a launch title for the GBA. It is the fourth released game in the F-Zero series and the first to be released on a handheld game console.

Players control fast hovering crafts and use their speed-boosting abilities to navigate through the courses as quickly as possible. The game takes place twenty-five years after F-Zero.

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay of F-Zero

Every race consists of five laps around a race track. A player will lose the race if his or her machine explodes due to either taking too much damage or landing outside of the track, gets ejected from the race due to falling to 20th place or due to completing a lap with a rank outside of the rank limit of that lap, or he or she decides to give up. In the single player Grand Prix mode, all of these conditions requires the player to use an extra machine if and only if he or she has one or more spare machines to try again.

For each lap completed the player is rewarded with a speed boost, to be used once any time, one of the "SSS" marks will be shaded green to indicate that it can be used. A boost will dramatically increase a player's speed, but will decrease their ability to turn. A boost used before a jump will make the player jump farther, allowing the player to use a shortcut. Boost time and speed varies according to the machine, and is tuned for proper balance. For example, one machine boasts a boost time of twelve seconds, yet has the slowest boost speed of the entire game. Players can also take advantage of the varying deceleration of each vehicle. Some vehicles, such as the Jet Vermillion, take longer than others to decelerate from top boost speed to normal speed, once the boost has been used up. Players can also take advantage of this effect on boost pads.

The Grand Prix is the main single player component of Maximum Velocity. It consists of four series named after Chess pieces "Pawn", "Knight", "Bishop" and "Queen", the fourth of which can be unlocked by winning the others on "Expert" mode. They have five races in four difficulty settings, "Master" mode is unlocked by winning expert mode in each series, the player unlocks a new machine after completing it. The player needs to be in the top three at the end of the last lap in order to continue to the next race. If the player is unable to continue, the player will lose a machine and can try the race again. If the player runs out of machines, then the game ends, and the player has to start the series from the beginning.

Championship is another single player component. It is basically the same as a "Time Attack" mode, except the player can only race on one, special course: the Synobazz Championship Circuit. This special course is not selectable in any other modes.

Maximum Velocity places a particular emphasis on skillful use of the chosen vehicle's capabilities and knowledge of the tracks. In the hardest difficulty, "Master", what would be the slowest vehicle to the player will often pass the player, even if he or she is using the fastest vehicle. Computer-controlled opponents who are on the lead lap will catch up to the player within seconds, no matter how dramatic a shortcut is taken or boost used in Master difficulty. In all difficulties, the player must also dodge backmarkers that could be spawned in locations that could be impossible for them to legitimately reach (e.g. on sections of track that can only be reached by jumps that are so long that these slow machines always fall off the track and crash when they do attempt those jumps). Also, under the appearance of a hard-to-use vehicle, some, though they may supposedly have poor acceleration or handling, exhibit remarkable capabilities in expert hands. Most worldwide records have been set using the Jet Vermillion, which is supposedly the vehicle with the worst turning and acceleration. Master players overcome this with ingenious control and take advantage of its superb boost deceleration, speed, and top-of-the-line toughness. Some of the other vehicles the player has access to, though they may appear quite easy to use, have no such potential.

Story

Maximum Velocity takes place a twenty-five years after Captain Falcon, Dr. Stewart, etc. "piloted their way to fame". Due to the aforementioned, it is the only F-Zero game without Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh, Pico, or Dr. Stewart. However, one of the F-Zero cars resembles Falcon's Blue Falcon. The pilot, Kent Akechi, also claims to be Falcon's son.

Playable characters

Main article: List of F-Zero characters

Multiplayer

Maximum Velocity can be played in two multiplayer modes using the Game Boy Advance link cable, with one cartridge, or one cartridge per player. Two to four Players can play in both modes.

Single cartridge

In single cart, only one player needs to have a cartridge. The other players will boot off the link cable network from the player with the cart using the GBA's netboot capability. All players drive a generic craft, and the game can only be played on one level, Silence. Silence, along with Fire Field, are the only areas to return from previous games. Aptly, Silence in Maximum Velocity has no background music, unlike in most other F-Zero games.

Multi cartridge

In multi cart, each player needs to have a cartridge to play. This has many advantages over single cart: All players can use any machine in this game that has been unlocked by another player. Players can select any course in this game. After race is finished, all of the player's ranking data are mixed and shared ("Mixed ranking" stored in each cart).

Development

F-Zero: Maximum Velocity is one of first titles to be developed by Nd Cube. Maximum Velocity implement the "Mode 7" system used in F-Zero to simulate 3D environments by allowing different kinds of scaling and rotation effects of bitmap graphics. The Mode 7 rendering Maximum Velocity consists of a double-layer; one of which gives the illusion of depth.

Re-release

Maximum Velocity was one of ten Game Boy Advance games released on December 16, 2011 to Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors. A program to give free downloadable games to early adopters who bought a Nintendo 3DS before its price drop.

Reception

F-Zero: Maximum Velocity sold 334,145 copies in Japan and 273,229 copies in the U.S. as of 2005.

External links

• Japanese Maximum Velocity web site
• Official European homepage
• F-Zero: Maximum Velocity at MobyGames