12th Feb: A new policy is being put in place for TRS threads: Make your case that the name/page is broken in the Opening Post, or the thread will be nuked immediately. See Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names for what "Make your case" means.
5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
F-Zero is a long-running Nintendo franchise based around races taking place at speeds exceeding the speed of sound..A key mechanic since F-Zero X is the single energy barwhich is used for both the ship's shields andboost power, so taking damage limits your ability to boost. More to the point, every boost takes you one step closer to blowing up.An anime series entitled F-Zero: GP Legend aired in 2003, but was cancelled in the U.S. before completing a full season. In Japan, it aired as F-Zero Falcon Densetsu. It ran for the whole series in the east, and ended with a Grand Finale (possibly the grandest of them all; just search "FalconPunch" on YouTube).Captain Falcon went on to become a member of the Super Smash Bros. roster. Along with the good captain, this series also has a huge cast of other strange and bizarre racers. How bizarre? Captain Falcon is probably the most normal one.An in-progress compilation of the many characters can be found here. All tropers are encouraged to help out.
YOU GOT BOOST POWER! F-Zero contains examples of the following:
Acrofatic: His impressive swordsmanship in the anime notwithstanding, Samurai Goroh is implied to be a competent fighter, is quite muscular, and is able to perform multiple backflips despite being obese.
Action Girl: Jody and Lily, seeing as they're combat-machine pilot affiliated with the para-militaristic Galactic Space Federation. In particular, Jody has had an eventful and active childhood, while Lily has been training since shortly after her birth and has even seen combat in a few skirmishes. There are hints that Mrs. Arrow is also one of these, particularly of the Action Wife variety. Lisa Brilliant shows her mettle as the wife of Samurai Goroh in the anime.
Actor Allusion: Possibly unintentional. In the anime, Ryu (Rick) is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa. One of the later episodes has him clad in a white dogi, training under a waterfall, with his hair down. This makes him greatly resemble another Ryu voiced by Morikawa.
Adaptation Dye Job: In GP Legend, many characters have their hair colors as slightly lighter shades. The most noticeable change comes from Captain Falcon, whose hair is now brown instead of black.
Affably Evil: Black Shadow in brief flashes. He says the below line as politely and calmly as could be.
Black Shadow: "Falcon, you've come to die? I needn't have wasted time looking for you then."
All Amazons Want Hercules: Jody Summer may or may not have a crush on Captain Falcon. Possibly either played straight or subverted with the Arrows.
All Love Is Unrequited: John Tanaka harbors a crush on Jody Summer, who (if John's bonus movie in GX is anything to go by) is in love with Captain Falcon. Averted with the Arrows, who are a Happily Married couple.
All There in the Manual: Pretty much the franchise's only source of story or character info before GX with its character profiles and story mode.
Except for the anime, and that (with a set of additional games) takes place in an alternate canon.
Alternate Continuity: Three. Maximum Velocity, GP Legend (the anime), and GP Legend (the game).
Amazing Technicolor Population: Somewhat inevitable seeing as aliens are involved, but several characters have alternate colors that give them even weirder skin tones.
Ambiguously Gay: Baba. He wears an outfit with leopard prints and wails like a girl if he falls off the track in X. GX's voice acting gave Baba an effeminate voice and several... questionable comments. And then there's his bonus movie in GX... the less you know, the better.
As of now (i.e. GX), it seems that Baba has traded in the "Ambiguously" for "Camp".
Jack in the anime. It's not nearly as bad as Baba (and he does retain his key characterization), but still. Either that, or he's Camp Straight.
Animal Themed Superbeing: Captain Falcon and Beastman fit types two (Animal Alias) and one (Animal Abilities) respectively.
Anime Anatomy: When Ryu/Rick discovers that Jody is a cyborg due to losing body parts in an explosion that presumably killed her older brother, she's shown in a stasis tube with a small amount of smoke and liquids surrounding her. Of course, it's still Bowdlerized in the dub.
Archenemy: Captain Falcon and Black Shadow, the Arrows and Zoda, Beastman and Bio Rex, Ryu/Rick and Zoda in the anime, etc.
Artificial Gravity: Many of the tracks make good use of this. A few of them actually overlap themselves with the two tracks being face-to-face.
Ascended Extra: While GX did this with racers that had debuted in X, the anime goes even deeper into some characters. Jody, Jack, and Zoda in particular.
Ascended Fanboy: Draq was mostly a rather over-enthusiastic F-Zero fan, until one day his shipping company received two racers with no destination or return address; when this happened, Draq immediately jumped on the racer, entered the league, and now he's running to use the prize money to buy his own racer and start an F-Zero museum. His buddy Roger Buster, while also an F-Zero fan, is more the casual fan type (i.e. not an F-Zero nerd like Draq).
To a lesser extent, Lucy Liberty from GP Legend is a female version of this trope, with her official bio stating that she's a huge fan of the sport.
Autobots, Rock Out!: Happens a lot, especially in the anime, where the themes for Mute City and Big Blue, as well as Hiro-x's "The Meaning of Truth" accompany many a heroic moment.
Awesome McCoolname: A lot of the racers. Naturally, Captain Falcon is a standout here.
A Wizard Did It: Literally. Black Shadow may or may not have been bestowed with immortality and the power to reincarnate by a voodoo priest named Jay Gonso Snarky (Fandom believes him to be Deathborn).
Ax Crazy: Zoda. It's taken to horrific levels in the anime.
Captain Falcon: "Not if I can help it. I'll destroy you yet!"
To put that last one into perspective, Captain Falcon finds the suggestion that even the lords of all creation can best him on the track absolutely ridiculous.
Balance Between Good and Evil: Most notably in the anime, where Captain Falcon and Black Shadow are the current representations of good and evil, perpetually deadlocked. Falcon cannot turn the tides without the help of Ryu, The Savior.
Bare Your Midriff: Kate, Princia, and Lily. For male examples, Dr. Clash (unintentionally) and Blood Falcon in his Master video (his suit shrunk in the wash).
Becoming the Mask: Beastman uses an intimidating facade and costume to hide the fact that he's extremely shy from any potential enemies... but he might actually be turning into a real Badass gradually.
To a lesser extent, Captain Falcon himself would count, since as a bounty hunter wanted by many criminals, he usually hides his face with his helmet. Subverted when the player beats a harder-difficulty cup, which then he reveals his face.
And again with Falcon's "Bart Lemming" identity. Falcon may be a paragon of strength and courage, but as Bart he's gentle, soft spoken, and even a bit of a goof.
Belly Dancer: Princia invokes a bit of it at the Settings screen before a race and during her ending. She even wears suitable attire.
Beyond the Impossible: Can you name any other racing games where 400 km/h700 km/h 1,000 km/h is the norm?
Actually, given his affinity for cats, Leon is probably some sort of humanoid feline (it's more noticeable in his artwork from X). In the anime, Leon is more or less a Big Badass Wolf (or at least, moreso than his game counterpart).
Speaking of Wolf O'Donnell, James' episode in GP Legend has him mentioning a friend who sacrificed for his sake. His friend's last name was O'Donnell.
Big Brother Mentor: Bart Lemming, in regards to several characters, Ryu/Rick being the most prominent. He's also Captain Falcon, The Obi-Wan to Ryu. Jack also takes up this role to Ryu/Rick, in addition to being Vitriolic Best Buds with him.
Big Eater: Bio Rex. His reasons for entering the GX GP? To sait his voracious appetite for big ribs. And, as GX can attest to, he seems to have an affinity for liquor.
Blood Knight: The lyrics to Captain Falcon's theme song in F-Zero GX seems to be from the point of view of one who idolizes Captain Falcon.
The Skull and Mighty Gazelle are in-game examples. The latter is a tragic deconstruction, however, as he lost his fiance when she gazed in horror upon his cybernetic body. Thus, Gazelle turned to racing as it was the only thing he had to live for. He seems to have gotten out of this funk by the time of GX and even has a new girlfriend.
It's hinted that Black Shadow and Blood Falcon love to destroy other machines at a whim. Blood's actions in the anime seem to affirm this.
Pico is no better. Several times has he been called one of the more violent and bloodthirsty racers.
Lest we forget that Pico is widely believed to be responsible for the big accident several years ago that caused the races to amp up its safety measure solely for his aggressive nature on the track, regardless of whether or not he was guilty.
Of course. This is a race, not a war. Weaponsare forlosers whocan'tdrive. It's perfectly acceptable to kill an opponent in F-Zero—but you have to catch him first.
Well, not so much that it's "acceptable", but it's so dangerous that casualties are expected, and it's very easy to make it look like an accident. Knocking another racer off-track with a nudge move that has no other purpose? Accident.
Bowdlerization: Several, but the more prominent ones are changing the name of Blood Falcon's Hell Hawk to the Blood Hawk and renaming Miss Killer as Luna Ryder. The latter actually works to a degree, considering that Miss Killer drives the Moon Shadow, but it's also a case of Never Say "Die".
Boy Band: Jack Levin was once a part of one before joining the F-Zero races.
Brain in a Jar: Look at Deathborn. Look at him! Also, Roy Hughes/Mighty Gazelle in the anime.
Bring My Brown Pants: The normally monotone and calm Mr. Zero is scared witless if he has to interview any creepy, menancing, or downright evil characters. Oddly, he remains calm with Don Genie.
But Not Too Foreign: Samurai Goroh is Japanese-American. Presumably, his son is also mixed.
Butt Monkey: Samurai Goroh seems to be one in GX. He's caught in the explosion of his Fire Stingray, is booed by the crowd at the GP, and few racers appear to like him outside of his son and Princia, who has taken a fancy to him.
As you can see in the picture at the top of this page, a giant-sized R.O.B. appears on the Port Town courses, most notably Port Town: Aero Drive.
Card-Carrying Villain: Whoever is labeled a "villain" in the games will carry not a card, but a poster. Just check out the interviews Deathborn and Black Shadow give to Mr. Zero in GX.
Characterization Marches On: In the games, there isn't much to go on from Captain Falcon except for his righteousness. Then, Super Smash Bros.. turns the guy into a campy, over-the-top brawler with a Falcon Punch. Come the F-Zero GP Legend anime, Captain Falcon is a fusion of both personalities (being a stoic hero as Captain Falcon, but something of a lovable and well-meaning goof as Bart Lemming) and even uses the Falcon Punch in the Grand Finale.
Child Prodigy: Terry "Digi-Boy" Getter. Clank Hughes in the anime. The latter probably remained the same after the Time Skip, but we'll never know for sure.
Chinese People: Dai San Gen. They're not Chinese per se, since they're actually aliens, but they have distinctly (read: "stereotypical") Asian features, come from the planet Shinar, are named after Mahjong tiles, and perform gymnastic maneuvers in their ending.
Christmas Cake: Jody Summer and Kate Alen. As of GX, they are respectively 25 and 30; both are single. In contrast, the 27-year-old Mrs. Arrow is Happily Married.
Cloning Blues: How Blood Falcon came to be. Things only go south from there as it's implied in the games and revealed in the anime that Blood Falcon isn't the only clone of Captain Falcon.
Clothing Damage: A male example comes from Captain Falcon's GX ending movie. After saving Mrs. Arrow's baby from a speeding locomotive, his pants rip, revealing his Goofy Print Underwear. This leaves Falcon in an awkward and compromising position as Mrs. Arrow chuckles at his misfortune.
Combat Stilettos: Averted. While several women wear high-heels as a part of their racing attire, none of the females are ever shown in the midst of a brawl.
This is the case in the original F-Zero where the other racer car could not die even when falling out track and in F-Zero: Maximum Velocity on Master Difficulty, where a machine that tops at 410km/h can keep up with your machine at 450km/h. Both will have the tendency to always have someone on your tail no matter how good you do.
Conspicuous CG: It is a rarity to see the F-Zero machines traditionally animated in the anime.
Cool Car: Pretty much everyone, although some are cooler than others.
Cool Shades: James McCloud, Samurai Goroh, Antonio Guster, Mrs. Arrow, Michael Chain all have them. James and Mrs. Arrow lose 'em in their X endings, and Mrs. Arrow's are missing completely in GX save for her bonus movie.
Cool Starship: Captain Falcon has one in the form of his Falcon Flyer (which according to Super Smash Bros.. Melee, is his primary form of transportation). It finally gets an on-screen appearance in the anime. Samurai Goroh and his crew also are in possession of one, and in a CMOA for Goroh, he uses the ship's mammothspace katana attachment to hack away at the villains.
Critical Existence Failure: If you so much as rub paint with another machine when you're at critically low health, your machine a splode.
Cursed with Awesome: Machines with E-ranked grip aren't as bad of the vehicle parameter system tells you. In fact, these machines are able to exploit several Game Breakers, allowing them to take massive shortcuts and gain ridiculous bursts of speed.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Gazelle looked as if he were going this route (see "Blood Knight" above), but he seems to have avoided this come GX. Played straight with Deathborn, who is believed to have had his humanity eroded by the tinkerings of The Creators. Their dialogue implies that they were going to rip out Captain Falcon's soul when they won and transform him into Deathborn's successor.
Cyber Punk Is Techno: In a toss-up from X's rock-heavy soundtrack, the majority of the songs found in GX are techno.
Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: This can happen to the player if they're not careful; one wrong move while attacking the CPU-controlled racers, and you could find yourself careening off of the track.
In X, attacking bleeds off speed even if you don't hit anything—not to mention that the surest way to take out an opposing machine is to shoulder-check it into the boards, which can bleed off a lot of speed, especially if you miss. And if you do miss, and end up ahead of the target, said target will often slow way down in order to avoid another attack. A burning vendetta against a particular driver can easily cost you a race...
Luckily, GX makes the side tackle a much more viable method of attacking your rivals.
Disappeared Dad: Both Dr. Stewart and Jody's fathers are dead. Both race in honor of their dads and the stats of Stewart's Golden Fox are even D-A-D.
Also Jack's dad left the family when he was four years old.
Distant Reaction Shot: The famous scene in the anime has the light from the explosion of Black Shadow's Dark Reactor engulfing an entire galaxy. Usually, it's made to look like Captain Falcon's Falcon Punch created the all-encompassing destruction.
Distressed Damsel: Jody becomes one in Chapter 5 of GX's Story Mode and has another moment in the GP Legend video game. Pretty much every female suffers from this in the anime. Otherwise, they can all fend for themselves.
Distressed Dude: Ryu Suzaku/Rick Wheeler towards the end of the anime. Might actually be a Badass in Distress, as he and Captain Falcon continue to undermine Dark Millon afterward and Ryu/Rick even gets his own CMOA (well, sorta) in the Grand Finale.
Divergent Character Evolution: Not actually necessary, because Captain Falcon clone Blood Falcon already plays entirely different from him. The scientists working for Black Shadow realized that they wouldn't be able to beat Captain Falcon using an identical machine.
This is actually inverted with the original four characters in regards to the increasing amount of newcomers (see "Jack of All Stats" below).
In the anime, Leon may count in regards to Lucy Liberty, seeing as he risked transforming into a werewolf (and subsequent capture by Beastman) to save her. A possible subversion, as Lucy seems to slightly reciprocate his feelings. Sadly, we'll never know, considering that Leon appeared for all of one episode, and there'll never be a sequel series.
Down To The Last Play: In X and onward, there can be some pretty thrilling moments in the last straightaway as everyone who is playing to win uses up every last drop of their energy to boost past the competition, knowing full well that one scratch = dead after doing that (in some games, your blown-up machine can still drift past the finish).
The Dragon: Blood Falcon to Black Shadow, and Black Shadow to Deathborn.
Duels Decide Everything: You know that really annoying goody-goody-two-shoes who keeps foiling your dastardly plots? Well then, have we got a proposition for you!
Dumb Blonde: Averted with Mrs. Arrow, who has had a classy upbringing in terms of music and linguistics and is held with the same intellectual regard as Octoman, Mr. EAD, and Dr. Clash. See, she's more than a pretty face.
Inverted with Princia, who is something of a ditzy brunette.
Earn Your Happy Ending: Ryu Suzaku/Rick Wheeler and Misaki Haruka/Miss Killer in the anime.
Early Installment Weirdness: The very first game. Only four playable racers with not much personality to go on besides the manual's mini-comic, other racers were portrayed as generic recoloured vehicles, the tracks were all flat with no loops to speak of, and the boost feature here was where you'd be rewarded a boost each time you finished a lap rather than it being Cast from Hit Points.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Michael Chain listens to a combination of Heavy Metal and Opera while racing because it reminds him of his (deceased) mother and father.
Hair Decorations: Lucy Libery, perhaps to enforce the fact that she's the youngest member of the Mobile Task Force.
Every 10,000 Points: F-Zero has an unusual racing game example: As you cross the checkpoint, you gain points in proportion to your standing. You get an extra life every 10,000 points.
Watch It Stoned: Dr. Stewart, Jody, and Princia's bonus movies are essentially acid-trips. The first must be seen to believed.
An in-game example with Zoda, whose body is pumped full of adrenaline and dopamine.
Fake Difficulty: There is some of this in the original, at Master Level. The CPU Golden Fox cruises at 478 kph. The player controlled Golden Fox maxes out at 438 kph.
GX. Mission 7. FUCK. If you unlock the Pink Spider without AX, you win.
For some reason there are cars in the original that are not in the race; they're just there to get blown up. Judging from the sequels the Grand Prix is not an underground racing league at all. Was it also mentioned that the opponents slip right through them?
Fangs Are Evil: In addition to Blood Falcon, Zoda sports a pretty sharp pair of these in the anime.
Fanservice: Beating the Grand Prix on Master difficulty in X or beating Story Mode in GX nets you a quick shot of Captain Falcon with without his helmet. Several of the mini-movies unlocked by beating the GP on Master in GX count as well.
Femme Fatale: Miss Killerwho is Ryu/Rick's Brainwashed and Crazy girlfriend. Lisa Brilliant is a lighter version of this trope. Despite being Goroh's wife and the second-in-command of an intergalactic band of thieves, she isn't so much evil. Still, she can and will use her womanly wiles to get what she wants.
There's also Lord Cyber from Maximum Velocity, a wealthy baron. Sadly, that's pretty much all we know about him. On a very ambiguous note, Black Shadow might count. He's shown to have power and influence in the underground and he remarks that the prize money earned from winning the F-Zero GP (one billion space credits) is a paltry sum.
Fun Personified: Billy is probably the closest fit, although Gomar and Shioh are also somewhat like this.
Future Spandex: Played with. While a large percentage of the cast is decked out in skin-tight spandex and latex, more than a handful of characters are instead shown wearing sleek armor (if not both). Others sport attire not too different from present day fashion trends.
Gadgeteer Genius: Dr. Crash, who's responsible for a great deal of the technology that is seen in the present-day F-Zero machines.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: The story for F-Zero X says F-Zero was discontinued for years after a huge near-fatal crash involving 4 racers. In game, particularly aggressive player will take out more than that many machines in a single race. Now, if we're looking for a way to explain this, the crashes are never fatal in-game despite blowing up the machine, so in the future, it's really hard to die. Evidently the big crash somehow caused an even more spectacular explosion than you can't cause in-game.
Generation Xerox: Dai Goroh very much takes after his father to the point that he shares his dad's rivalry with Captain Falcon. Slight subversion as he doesn't follow his father in all respects; his Silver Rat was modeled after Antonio Guster's Green Panther and Dai plans to spend the money on himself if he wins the F-Zero GP.
Good-Looking Privates: Jody Summer, Lily Flyer, and maybe John Tanaka, who are members of the Galactic Space Federation, a para-militaristic organization dedicated to expanding human relations across the cosmos and keeping the peace. Oh, and be careful about Lily.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Captain Falcon has a single scar located above his left eye. Beastman's entire body is ridden with cicatrices from a traumatic childhood experience involving a giant crocodile on the planet White. Leon has a scar running over his left eye, giving him a passing resemblance to Wolf. It should be noted that all three characters are on the side of Good.
Don Genie's right eye (the one with the monocle) also has a vertical scar. He's evil, or at least highlygreedy.
Grand Theft Me: Pulled off on many of the heroes in the anime by a clone of Blood Falcon who could assume an amorphous shape resembling the T-1000. They all got better.
Green Hill Zone: Green Plant: Mobius Hill, despite being the second course of the second cup.
Grumpy Old Man: "Ironman" Silver Neelson is this with added "crotchediness". Despite his years and years of experience, he seems to be a bit loopy when it comes to new-fangled machines. Most of the other racers try to ignore him. Falcon isn't so lucky in Chapter 3.
Handsome Lech: Jack, who says that all of his female fans are his girlfriends. Surprisingly, he doesn't pursue the handful of single ladies in the games. In the anime, this does get him in hot water, as Lisa Brilliant flaunts her charms to get access to the Mobile Task Force HQ and then ransack the place.
Hero of Another Story: Almost everyone in the cast qualifies. Each racer gets an extensive biography in the manual, but the actual story centers around the series' mascot, Captain Falcon, and his circle of friends and enemies. There are genetic experiments, sorcerers, superheroes, detectives, assassins, monsters, and all kinds of cool characters that are relegated to the sidelines in every game.
Heroic Build: About 80% of the cast falls into this trope.
Heterosexual Life Partners: Gomar and Shioh are from an alien race who all live this way. Their backstory in GX even points out that they are close to retirement since they're about to get married (and thus, leave each other's side).
Prsesumably, the same could be said about Roger Buster and Draq. At the very least, it's an Odd Friendship between a straight-laced intergalatic delivery man and his F-Zero fanatic of an alien buddy. Bonus points: their friendship doubles as an Intergenerational Friendship, considering that Roger is 41 while Draq is 137.
Hidden Eyes: The usually kind and gentle Lucy gets one of these in episode 21 of the anime. Let's just say that Miss Killer pressed her buttons a bit too much. In response, Lucy goes from this to a glowingDeath Glare and proceeds to open up a can of concentrated whup-ass in the form of a Macross Missile Massacre. She then goes mad with laughter. Scary...
Hired Guns: Pico is a hitman. Captain Falcon and Samurai Goroh are bounty hunters, while Beastman is the beast-hunting equivalent of that.
Homage: Captain Falcon's costume rather resembles that of Judge Dredd.
Remind anybody of anything? Clearly an homage to Batman: The Animated Series, considering that both characters are superheroes and the F-Zero series either parodies or does homages to absolutely massive portions of Western culture at every turn.
Batman: "I am vengeance! I am the night! I amBATMAN!"
Idle Animation: Each character was given three in the Settings screen in GX/AX: a basic standing pose, as well as two other character-specific actions that they'd break into from time to time.
Idol Singer: Kate Alen was one (or at least the American pop star/diva equivalent of it) and was even a part of the "Alen Eleven" (Captain Ersatzes of The Jackson Five) with her older siblings before striking out on her own. Jack Levin is a male version of this trope.
Indy Hat Roll: Mission 5 of GX's Story Mode. That is all.
Informed Ability: Captain Falcon is regularly said to be the best F-Zero pilot in the universe, but when the player plays Grand Prix he is rarely better then the other CPU racers, and constantly places in excess of 10th out of 30.
Leon has it worse. His X backstory says that he learned from each of his races and vastly improved over time, resulting in a respectable track record. Nine times out of ten in GX, this guy will be in dead last. Poor guy...
The top speeds of the machines, possibly. In-game, 1,000 km/h seems more like about 300-350.
That's because you're not paying attention to the relative scale of the machines and the track. Even Cosmo Terminal's freakishly narrow-feeling split ribbons are actually fairly wide if you compare them to the vehicles.
Intercontinuity Crossover: James McCloud, resembling a human version of Fox'sdead dad, who also happens to be an expert starfighter pilot, who also drives a F-Zero racer that resembles an Arwing with its wings chopped off... Leon probably also counts as well, and in return the Star Fox series got Octoman and a suspiciously thematic ending in Command.
More precisely, the Blue Falcon is the Jack of All Stats, and has been designed as such from the beginning. Even in GX, the Golden Fox merits the best boost rating in the game, the Wild Goose has some of the best impact resistance in the game, and the Fire Stingray is faster (and heavier) than all but a handful of machines (except for Beastman, you pretty much have to be evil to be faster than Goroh). The GX version of the Wild Goose deserves further discussion. It has the shortest boost in the game, along with some seriously weird handling—its control hysteresis is in the same range as the Mad Wolf, worse than any other vehicle, which combined with the unusual boost strength and duration makes driving it a fairly interesting experience.
The GBA games based on the anime give Rick this status instead, as the Dragon Bird's stats are all graded the same: B.
The Jimmy Hart Version: Black Shadow's theme in GX in a much darker version of Blood Falcon's.
Joke Character: Mr. EAD. The weirdest thing is that it's supposed to be that way. Also a Take That Me since this EAD appears to be the future\alternate version of EAD, which is Nintendo's largest division.
Justice Will Prevail: This is essentially Super Arrow's Catch Phrase (at least by X's standards), although he does put a spin on it by saying, "Justice ALWAYS prevails."
In GX, one of his post-race interviews has him say, "Justice always wins in the end."
For Great Justice: "For Justice and Galactic Peace." Yes, he actually says that.
Mrs. Arrow is pretty much the same as her husband, despite the fact that she has no inherent superpowers.
Kavorka Man: Aside from Silver Neelson at the end of the anime episode focusing on him, there is Samurai Goroh. Lacking in terms of manners and kindness, yet the Spoiled Sweet space princess Princia is head-over-heels for him. He also has a son, which would imply that another women felt the same way in the past. This, however, is subverted with anime!Goroh and his wife Lisa.
Katanas Are Just Better: Samurai Goroh is obviously a standout here. Dai Goroh too, as his profile even states that he takes after his father and loves to take out his katana and whip it around. His wife Lisa Brilliant has also been seen with a katana at least once, but seems to prefer firearms.
In an earlier episode of the anime, Super Arrow (alongside several other characters) is imprisoned behind a cage of laser beams by the Bloody Chain gang. In retalitation, he pulls out a katana to slash through and deflect the lasers, earning the admiration of his peers and wife. Of course, Super Arrow is just snoozing. It never happens.
Legacy Character: According to the anime, Captain Falcon is one. Kent Akechi from Maximum Velocitybelieves himself to be one to Captain Falcon, since he's under the impression that Falcon is his father. He even wears a similar outfit and drives a vehicle known as the Falcon Mk-II.
Loads and Loads of Characters: For a non-licensed racing game, it has quite a few characters and individual machines.
Lolicon: Lily Flyer is 14. Doesn't stop her from wearing an outfit more Stripperiffic than the adult females.
Er, what?◊ Sure, it's rather fanservicey, but compared to the other female racers who aren't wearing spandex, it's pretty normal. Plus, Kate Alen wears much less than that.◊
Lily has her bonus video showing her in a change room, wearing only a towel. No plot reason for this; the devs just figured, hey, that'd be good to put in there.
Taken a step further with The Creators, who are implied to have made Deathborn into the Complete Monster he is today.
Manly Tears: Beat GX's Story Mode on any difficulty and you will shed them.
In the anime, the heroes do this in response to Falcon's Heroic Sacrifice.
Marathon Level: Most of the tracks from the AX Cup suffer from this.
Master of Illusion: Spade. It comes with the job; he is a magician at a circus act after all.
May-December Romance: The Arrows, possibly. He's eight years her senior (as of GX, he's 35 and she's 27), but it's unknown when they first met (so, May September Romance?).
Judging by GX, Princia is trying to attempt this with Goroh of all people. Keep in mind that she's 16 and he's 28 years older than her.
Even more meaningful when you realize his name is the name of Nintendo's main in-house development studio, headed by Shigeru Miyamoto. Mr. EAD's creator's name? Shiggs.
The title itself might be one, considering that the series is a futuristic version of the Formula One races. The only exception is that the machines hover above the ground, thereby reducing the amount of friction to zero.
Or the title could simply mean "Formula Zero".
Megaton Punch: Not part of the canon series, but in Super Smash Bros.. and the anime adaption (here it comes): "FALCON PUNCH!"
The Falcon Punch also got a mention in the F-Zero GXcredits song.
Mighty Glacier: In typical racing game fashion, heavier machines have low acceleration (but in many cases high top speeds) and are well-suited to bullying smaller opponents.
My Hero Zero: Averted, as Mr. Zero is just your run-of-the-mill commentator.
My Rules Are Not Your Rules: In the original F-Zero, Master difficulty ramps the top speed of every machine to 478km/h and gives them insane cornering ability.
Names to Run Away From Really Fast: In order of ascending villainy/creepiness: Miss Killer, The Skull, Blood Falcon, Black Shadow, Deathborn. Averted with Michael Chain's gang, the Bloody Chain; they're nothing more than a bunch of Mooks.
Also, if you are an evil villain/lawbreaker, then you'd most certainly want to run away from Captain Falcon himself.
Nerd Glasses: Terry "Digi-Boy" Getter. Dr. Clash may also qualify if he doesn't fit into Cool Shades above.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Captain Falcon is part racecar driver, part bounty hunter, 100% Badass. Samurai Goroh is a samurai bounty hunter who leads a group of bandits and partakes in the F-Zero GP. Bio-Rex is a beer-drinking dinosaur racecar driver. Billy is a money-obsessed chimpanzee racecar driver. Need we go on?
To be honest, everyone (to some degree or another) falls under this trope since they're all F-Zero pilots that have some other occupation or are an alien.
Nintendo Hard: What else do you expect from a game centered around post-Mach 1 racing? Having said that, GX took it to a whole new level, especially in the story campaign. What I Wanna Be the Guy is to platformers, GX Story Mode is to racers.
This was changed from the SNES version, where the boost was a separate item. You got one at the start of every lap after the first, but you could only store 3 at a time. On the other hand, the item boost effect lasted for about 5 seconds per boost, instead of the "however long you hold the boost button" that happens with the Cast From HP version.
There's also the F-Zero X Expansion Kit, which was released for the 64 Disk Drive, an add-on that never made it outside Japan, either. Anyways, the Expansion Kit had new courses, a Car Editor (which was also in F-Zero GX) and a Course Editor.
No Fair Cheating: Taking a huge shortcut in F-Zero causes a UFO to pop up and drag you back to an earlier part of the course. Taking such a shortcut in GX simply blows your machine up. No such measure in GP Legend, which leads to some massive game-breaking shortcuts.
Noodle Incident: The great accident in GX is mentioned in a number of character profiles and apparently has a role in Blood Falcon's creation, but is never explained in any more detail.
Made even more confusing when you learn there were actually two crashes, and one of them was retconned out of exsistance.
There's mention of a previous racing tournament, F-MAX. All we know is that it ended in a terrible car crash.
No OSHA Compliance: Fire Field in GX is basically this. In fact, many of the courses in the Diamond Cup qualify, since they mostly lack guardrails and are thus incredibly perilous to navigate.
Trident is notable for having long narrow roads with no guardrails on either side.
Older than They Look: Several of the alien racers (i.e. Pico, Octoman, Draq, Gomar & Shioh) have a life expectancy exceeding that of their human contemporaries. For example, Dai San Gen look like children, but are 64 and their species have an average lifespan of 200 years.
Omniglot: Mrs. Arrow speaks over 40 languages, including several alien tongues, one of which is Takoran (Octoman's native tongue and an language that humans have found great difficulty in learning).
Onee-sama: Jody plays this role in the Mobile Task Force, specifically towards Ryu/Rick, Lucy, Jack, and (to a lesser extent) Clank. She later becomes the Team Mom.
One Game for the Price of Two: GX was released alongside an arcade counterpart, AX, which contained a slot for you to plug in your GCN save card. Doing so would allow you to unlock AX's tracks and vehicles, plus components for the Create-A-Car function, on your save.
Fake Difficulty: The number of AX cabinets purchased by English-speaking arcades? 20. Use a Game Shark.
Or if you are around Anaheim, CA, there is one in Disneyland's Starcade.
In the PAL version, at least, it was possible to unlock the AX content by playing through GX.
This is also true in the US version, but this entails beating Story Mode levels on Very Hard difficulty, one for each character. You're better off using a Game Shark.
Beating all the other cups on Master also unlocks it IIRC. The legitimate ways are difficult but can be gotten with enough persistence.
Our Werewolves Are Different: In the anime, Leon (who is normally a bishie teenager) becomes a werewolf after experiencing an adrenaline rush. He usually manages to keep some of his lucidity.
Painting the Fourth Wall: In Draq's bonus clip, he gets so frustrated when he loses to the other racers that he punches the screen. It's then revealed that he's playing a video game of F-Zero and is ticked off by the computer. We don't blame him.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted with Bart Lemming/Captain Falcon, who Jody easily recognizes as her brother Andy. Eventually, Falcon gives up the farce and reveals what Jody already had gathered. A similar event occurs when Clank Hughes also finds out.
Inverted with Berserker. Ryu/Rick and Clank are able to deduce his identity due to his racing style.
Parental Abandonment: The backstories of Leon and Michael Chain. Leon's parents died in a planetary war and was either adopted by Mrs. Arrow (according to X) or a rebelsoldier named Fable (according to GX). Chain was accepted into a gang after his parents died.
Phantom Zone: Phantom Road, which is also used in an altered form for the final chapter of Story Mode.
Promoted Fanboys/Fangirls: A few racers who don't fit into the above Ascended Fanboy trope fall into this territory. A notable example is Mrs. Arrow, who began racing in mock models at the age of 14, became a circuit model, and then finally a racer herself.
Mighty Gazelle could also count, as he decided to qualify for the F-Zero GP after he honed his skills by playing the video game.
Psycho for Hire: Pico. Once a member of a special assassination unit and one of the bloodthristiest racers around. He still takes hits on the side and is shown to be a BadassCold Sniper in his clip from GX. He's more or less the same in the anime, minus a good deal of the chaos and with added composure.
Meta-reference: You race against "the creators", which is literally true as you're racing against staff ghots (presumably a different member of the staff for each difficulty and maybe on a per-lap basis as well).
Racing Medic: Dr. Stewart. An esteemed surgeon and doctor who is also one of the more seasoned racers in the Grand Prix with over ten years of experience under his belt. In fact, his medical expertise helped prevent a good deal of casualties during the Horrific Grand Finale.
Really 700 Years Old: Blood Falcon's profile in GX mentions that he is technically only four, but is a clone of the 37-year-old Captain Falcon.
Recursive Adaptation: F-Zero GP Legend inspired a GBA game with the same title. Yep, Rick Wheeler's there.
Redheaded Hero: Ryu Suzaku/Rick Wheeler. He also happens to be a bit of a Fiery Redhead who takes a few pages from Leeroy Jenkins. He seems to have mellowed out as the new Captain Falcon though.
Captain Falcon also plays the Blue Oni to Ryu/Rick in the anime. Although Ryu wears a blue jacket, he's wearing red under it, playing up the color-coding. As the new Captain Falcon, Ryu now seems to be playing the role of Blue Oni to Clank.
Retcon: Between X and GX, several plot elements were nixed and/or rewritten. For example, The Skull was said to have died in The Horrific Grand Finale (a gruesome crash in which 14 racers burned to death; Super Arrow was the only one to survive) but then was revived due to an experiment he performed on himself as a precaution. Come GX, this crash is discarded in favor of another crash (one that involved Mighty Gazelle), The Skull is simply brought back from the grave from a period of about two centuries ago via necromancyand technology, and Super Arrow is something of a greenhorn who used his superpowers to race adequately. In turn, this makes it somewhat hard for purists to reconcile the original F-Zero, X, and GX into one neat timeline.
Retired Badass: A much younger than the norm example comes from James McCloud in the anime. The heroes comes to him in search of guidance and training. Unbeknownst to them, he also trained members of Dark Million in the past.
Revenge: Antonio Guster's entire reason for being at F-Zero is to enact this upon Goroh, who screwed himbad.
Black Shadow and Zoda are there to deal with Captain Falcon, whose heroic acts majorly screwed up their plans; in fact, one of Black Shadow's trusted confidants was imprisoned and later executed thanks to Falcon.
In X, Black Shadow's reason for entering is to "kill Captain Falcon in front of billions of viewers". Whether he actually filled this out on an official form is left to the imagination of the player.
Goroh is the most notable one (how else did he make it intoSuper Smash Bros. Brawl as an Assist Trophy?), but if GX is any indication, Falcon has Black Shadow, Blood Falcon, Dai Goroh, and Michael Chain gunning after him as well.
This even uses a bit of Gameplay And Story Integration in regards to X. Usually, your rival starting in the second race and at least one of the other characters high up on the leaderboard usually has strong ties to the pilot you're racing as (for example, Falcon almost always has to tangle with Black Shadow and Blood, with Samurai Goroh frequently in the mix as well).
Robot Buddy: QQQ to Phoenix, Speed Bird to Super Arrow, J-Love-1 to John Tanaka.
Rubberband AI: The CPU loves to pull this one on you.
In the higher difficulties of the SNES version, it is literally impossible to get the computer off your tail; they're always right behind you Behind the Black.
Scarf of Asskicking: Both Captain and Blood Falcon have one. The former's is made even more badass in an eyecatcher from the latter half of the anime.
And when multiple Bloods show up in the anime, their scarves are colour coded.
So does James McCloud. Given his source inspiration, it was a no-brainer.
Subverted with Dr. Stewart, who wears a Scarf Of Friendship to symbolize his special bonds.
Princia, Gomar, and Shioh do have scarves... but they're probably not ones of asskicking.
Scary Black Man: Michael Chain would appear to be this at first, but he's not that great at leading an intergalactic gang. Inverted with Black Shadow, who is a Scary Man In Black.
The original F-Zero might look vanilla by today's standards, but when it was released, it definitely qualified — the backgrounds were that big of a step up from 8-bit systems.
Serious Business: The titular races and the vehicles used seem to be how all the villains attack Falcon in the anime and GX's story. It helps that there is a massive amount of prize money involved though.
Black Shadow is explicitly stated to want to blow Captain Falcon up in a race, so that his thousands of adoring fans can watch him die.
To quote the original F-Zero's manual, winning a race means "earning the highest honor that could be bestowed upon anyone in the Universe." Now that's Serious Business.
GX's Story Mode attempts to justify this as the main world and Underworld's championship belts hold the essences of light and darkness. When combined, they possess enough power to turn its wearer into a god and destroy the universe.
Shorter Means Smarter: Shioh values his shorter companion Gomar for his apt decision-making abilities.
Shout Out: Many, most of the characters are "living" shout outs with recipients including Nintendo's EAD group (Mr EAD), Star Fox (James McCloud and Leon), and Crazy Taxi (PJ). F-Zero X also has Mario Kart 64's Rainbow Road as a track.
The Star Fox series from its original inception seemed to be more subtle shoutout to F-Zero. The two most prominent characters were a golden fox and a blue falcon, anthropomorphized.
In one of the endings of Star Fox: Command, Fox and Falco blatantly turn their arwings into F-Zero racecars (it's called G-Zero in Command, but we all know what it's referring to).
The designer of James McCloud's Little Wvyern? Space Dynamics, the same corporation that created the Arwings from Star Fox. In turn, James is the leader of Galaxy Dog, a group of mercenaries, and races to support his wife and child.
James McCloud's name obviously comes from the name of Fox's father, and he even sports sunglasses. Also, in X he had a simple haircut, but in GX he has fox-ear style hair, and has white hair down the middle like the headpiece Fox and his father had in Star Fox 64.
In GX's Story Mode, Captain Falcon enters a bet race under the alias of Famicom.
Additionally, Falcon's odds in that race are 2560:1. 2560 is, canonically speaking, the year that the original F-Zero took place.
Episode 40 of the anime involves a comical Show Within a Show involving the F-Zero machines belonging to the Mobile Task Force docking into Combining Mecha that form something akin to what you'd see in Macross.
If you let the vintro video for the first Port Town track in GX play for a little while, R.O.B. is shown.
In the Pilot Profiles section of GX, the vehicle information for the Blood Hawk notes that its two engines pilfered from the Blue Falcon during the big crash four years ago are model BF2001, whereas the four used by the Blue Falcon are model BF2003. In 2001, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity and Super Smash Bros. Melee were released; GX came out in 2003.
Single-Biome Planet: Most planets not named Earth. GX subverts this by revealing that planets such as Big Blue are more diverse than originally thought.
Spirited Competitor: Several racers come across as this, according to their post-GP interviews in GX. Quite a few refuse the prize money and/or give it away to charity, and others enjoy the challenge of the races and comment on trying to uphold the glory of the sport.
Spy Catsuit: Captain Falcon, although he doesn't rely on stealth too often.
Stylistic Suck: Well, sort of. It's reported that the graphic sacrifices Nintendo made in X were in order to keep the game running at a smooth 60 fps pace.
Super Cop: Falcon and Goroh are rumored to have once served as officers in the Internova Police Force, their rivalry stemming from some sort of past falling-out. This is also the alleged origin behind Falcon's title of Captain.
Rick/Ryu in GP Legend, who is recognized as a extremely competent cop due to the skills he picked up as a Grand Prix champ. Unfortunately, he bites off a bit more than he can clew when attempting to apprehend Zoda.
10-Minute Retirement: Flirted with thanks to Silver Neelson, who is considering retirement (he is close to 100, after all), but is probably too fickle to go through with it.
Theme Music Power-Up: If the BGMs for Mute City and Big Blue or Hiro-x's The Meaning of Truth plays, you know that something grand is going to happen in GP Legend.
There Can Be Only One: Taken quite literally in the episode "Only One Falcon" (episode 30) from GP Legend, as it revolves around Captain Falcon and Blood Falcon duking it out during a high-stakes race. Blood Falcon's machine blows up, but he gets better... sorta.
Those Two Bad Guys: In the anime, any combonation of Octoman, Bio Rex, the Skull, and Baba, all members of Dark Million. It should be noted, however, that none of these characters are evil in the games.
Time Police: Phoenix. He has come from the 29th century to prevent some unspecified "disaster", but how it ties into the F-Zero Grand Prix is never explained. (Fandom believes that it has something to do with Deathborn.) Phoenix doesn't even hide the fact that he's from the future, despite refusing to tell his audience any details about said timeline. His Robot Buddy QQQ is actually his Time Machine, but can't return the pair to the future until his AI is repaired. Fan speculation usually pegs him as Falcon's descendant, but this is attributed more to Rule Of Cool than any verifiable proof.
Token Minority: Played with. We have several species of aliens with only one member representing them (i.e. Pico, Octoman, Draq, Leon, Zoda, PJ, etc.; both Gomar & Shioh and Dai San Gen are exceptions, but this is justified), cyborgs, robots, androids, and genetically-enhanced animals. Most of the humans are presumably Caucasian, but Goroh is Japanese-American (therefore meaning that his son Dai Goroh is also mixed), Kate appears to be of African descent, Alexander O'Neil (of Maximum Velocity) is black, Nichi (also from Maximum Velocity) is a Magical Native American, and characters like John Tanaka and Kumiko (again fromMaximum Velocity) have names indicative of Asian ancestry.
Truce Zone: As seen in GX, the Bet Race Diner in Mute City is this. Many a racer converges here to drink, chat, and race. Even foes like the Arrows and Zoda are shown to be somewhat more amiable towards one another here. It's a general consensus that this is one of the best scenes of the games, as it gives a brief glimpse of life off of the track.
Tsundere: Mrs. Arrow might be this. She's a sweethearted woman who has a soft spot for Leon (according to X), is a loving and caring wife, and was able to win over several of her competitors. Still, Mrs. Arrow is one of the most determined and brutal of the racers (it's All There in the Manual) and it's made quite clear that Super Arrow is nothing more than a docile puppy when it comes to his wife. Given that Character Development didn't really roll in until GX, we have no clue which side is her default mood, although it's suggested that she falls closer to Type B.
Twenty Minutes into the Future: A more lighthearted example comes from the finale of the anime, which takes place seven years after the defeat of the Big Bad.
Maximum Velocity is one... in a sense. It takes place a quarter of a century after the original F-Zero in 2585, with none of the original cast making an appearance. Kent Akechi believes himself to be the son of Captain Falcon and Blitz Wagner is Dr. Stewart's protégé. The game doesn't acknowlege the Horrific Grand Finale from the main canon and uses the same rule set as the original F-Zero.
Phoenix actually sounded more like he was from Australia at times, though since it sounded like a fake accent, that could've been the actor slipping up.
The Very Definitely Final Race: Done twice in GX: Players are set up to believe that the Underworld will be the last race in Story Mode, only to play the final chapter on an ethereal racetrack against what is essentially F-Zero's God.
Villainous Breakdown: Aside from the aforementioned Deathborn example, Black Shadow gets an epic one while the Dark Reactor is Going Critical. He starts ranting about how he won't allow his dream to end. Captain Falcon's rejoinder? FalconPunch.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Black Shadow in the anime. He is not only the head of Dark Million, but Deathborn and Don Genie at the same time!
Wasted Song: F-Zero GX has 41 of them; every pilot has their own theme that is only heard when you read that pilot's profile or toggle it on during replays.
The Watson: Ryu Suzaku/Rick Wheeler plays this role in the anime.
What Could Have Been: The original sequel to F-Zero was going to be called Zero Racers (or G-Zero). It was a pseudo-3D racer and replaced Dr. Stewart with a newer character named Origammy. Nintendo Power previewed it and a prototype was seen at the 1996 E3 trade show. Because it was for the failed Virtual Boy, this sequel never saw the light of day.
The Expansion Kit for X included suped-up versions of the Blue Falcon (Super Falcon◊), White Cat (Super Cat), and Fire Stingray (Super Stingray◊) that were Dummied Out in the original F-Zero X and never were seen again in the series. See here for an example.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Jody accomplished a great deal of impressive feats by the time she was eighteen. She doesn't even seem to be fazed by the fact that Black Shadow tried to kill her by stranding her in an exploding complex. Yet, she cannot stand octopi. Naturally, Jody doesn't take a shine to Octoman, who in turn believes that she should really get over it.
Wings Do Nothing: Phoenix's Rainbow Phoenix has wings that spread when boosting. They're just for show. Same goes for the custom machines with wings. Unless you're space flying.
World of Badass: When you can go toe-to-toe with names such as Captain Falcon and Black Shadow without batting so much as an eye, you qualify for the mantle of badassery. Hell, even Mr. Zero, your run-of-the-mill commentator, is seen as a badass simply for having the guts to interview many of the evil/creepy characters in the series. It is should be noted that few characters have superpowers; i.e. a World Of Badass Normal.
World of Buxom: Applies moreso to the anime, but a case could be made for the games, too, as the only ones with flat chests (and justifiably so) are the 14-year-old Lily Flyer and 60+-but-looks-like-a-child San.
"World of Cardboard" Speech: An unexpected inversion. Zoda of all people swallows his pride and hatred to give one to Ryu/Rick, allowing the latter to initiate the chain reaction that culminates with the Moment Of Awesomeeveryone knows about.
Wolverine Publicity: Besides Falcon, Dr. Stewart, Samurai Goroh, and Pico will almost always be unlocked from the start of each game. Promotional art and renders for GX heavily featured the original four racers (who are even featured together in a group shot on the box art), as well as Black Shadow and Blood Falcon. The Story Mode also put a moderate amount of focus on Jody Summer and Mighty Gazelle (the only other racers available from the beginning of X). AX put the spotlight on the new racers, especially Princia Ramode, Lily Flyer, and Phoenix. The games based off of the anime continuity focused on the leads (Ryu Suzaku/Rick Wheeler and Falcon), as well as major supporting characters Jody and Goroh. In SSB, Falcon, Goroh, Stewart, and Jody all receive Trophies in Melee (as well as a Trophy showcasing the vehicles of all 30 racers from X), while Falcon, Goroh, Stewart, Pico, Jody, Mr. EAD, The Skull, Blood, Black Shadow, and Zoda receive Trophies in Brawl.
You Don't Look Like You: Since the in-game models in GX were developed by a team separate from the team responsible for the renders in each character's bonus movie and Story Mode in GX, quite a few racers look a tad bit different between the two mediums.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Surprisingly, this is mostly averted in a series with aliens. The oddest Hair Colors come from Lisa Brilliant (green) and Miss Killer (dark hair, which seems to be purple-tinted).
Pico and Billy are an odd Mix And Match of this and Older than They Look: Pico's 123, but is only an adolescent by his planet's standards. Billy is one of the younger pilots in the GP at seven (in human years), but is actually about halfway through his projected life expectancy.
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