Franchise: F-Zero

In 2011, Nintendo of Europe approached developer Criterion to create a pitch demo for a new F-Zero game to be shown at E3 2011 alongside the unveiling of the Wii U. However, due to the studio at the time busy with development on Need for Speed: Most Wanted for multiple platforms, they couldn't spare any resources to create it in time so they turned down the offer.

According to a Famicon Tsuushin magazine interview, with Shigeru Miyamoto, the cars in the game hover so that Nintendo didn't have to animate the car's tires.

F-Zero has several tie-ins with the Star Fox series. The character James McCloud shares the name of Fox's father from Star Fox, and the characters have many other similarities:
•They wear the same outfit.
•Both drive drive ships powered by G-Diffusers that were designed by a company named "Space Dynamics".
•F-Zero's James McCloud also is the squadron leader of a space combat team known as "Galaxy Dogs", a clear parody of Star Fox, and his partner, a man named O'Donnell, is a likely reference to Star Fox's Wolf O'Donnell.
•In F-Zero X, James McCloud even states the he "drives like a sly fox", furthering the connection.

Blood Falcon drives a ship known as the "Hell Hawk" in Japanese editions of the F-Zero games. However, in all other regions, it is known as the "Blood Hawk".

In the first F-Zero game, Captain Falcon's ship (Blue Falcon) has the number 111. In F-Zero X and all later titles it has the number 7. 111 is the binary code for 7. It's unclear whether this was intentional or not.

The time difference between F-Zero and F-Zero X is not uniform. Between F-Zero and F-Zero X, the racer Pico goes from 34 years old in F-Zero to 123 years old in F-Zero X, a difference of 89 years. However, Captain Falcon is said to be in his early 30s in the first game F-Zero, while he is stated to be 36 in F-Zero X, giving a maximum amount of time difference to be 6 years.

The character Mr. EAD is based on Mario, Nintendo's mascot. He is corpulent in size, features a mustache and is seen wearing a belt with a Starman. He is also named after the Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development division (EAD) which develops most of the Mario games.

The name "F-Zero" is derived from "Formula-One Racing." (F-1). Both have Grand Prixs (F-1 having circuits built world-wide and F-Zero having circuits built galactic-wide) and both use the best "racing technology" for said Grand Prixs.

An F-Zero game for the Virtual Boy titled "Zero Racers" was in development with a projected release for Fall of 1996. The game would have featured four new racers: Falcon, Stingray, Goose and Origammy; which resembled the F-Zero regulars the Blue Falcon, Fire Stingray and Wild Goose respectively, apart from the Origammy which was an original vehicle. The game was canceled most likely due to poor sales of the Virtual Boy console.