F-Zero - Extinct?

Many moons have passed since last I wrote about the F-Zero series but it has rarely strayed far from my thoughts. Featuring most often among these thoughts is my desire to see a brand new F-Zero game. It has been some 16 years now since the last one - Climax for the Game Boy Advance - and despite ample opportunities for sequels on the Wii, WiiU, DS/3DS or Switch, there hasn't been so much as a whisper.

This continues to be a great source of sorrow for me, not to mention confusion, but never have I sought an explanation for what must be considered a significant oversight on Nintendo's part. According to my subsequent research however, the answer only serves to confuse me even more. The great Shigeru Miyamoto has reportedly said that they stopped producing new F-Zero games because there was little new they could add to the series. This, combined with the fact that other developers started releasing their own futuristic racers, meant that Nintendo didn't want to make any new F-Zero titles unless they could find something new to bring to the table, but they couldn't so they stopped. Now, I can understand Nintendo's, particularly Miyamoto's desire to be innovative - that's basically what Nintendo have always been about, certainly in terms of hardware - but most developers' idea of innovation or progression in a game series is simply to release a sequel/reboot for the latest hardware that takes advantage of the new system's abilities. Why couldn't Nintendo do that for their own systems?

They could've made a F-Zero for the Wii that took advantage of the motion-controller, for example. If they desire innovation with the actual gameplay (i.e. the races and circuits, etc), that should be even easier - the creative potential for course designs alone is practically limitless. It's the future for goodness sake - courses constructed from unknown materials, viewed in 3D, suspended in mid-air above unknown alien worlds - they could make them anything they wanted. Literally anything!

Want innovation elsewhere too? No problem. The F-Zero world is already home to a whole roster of distinctive characters along with their chosen crafts (or 'machines' as I believe they call them). With this in mind, Nintendo could easily incorporate a more detailed story into a future game, perhaps even add non-racing sections. Maybe the odd fight between rival racers (we've already had Captain Falcon in the Smash Bros series so we know it could work) or even maybe some adventurey sections as your chosen character struggles to get from one race destination to the next. Don't like those ideas? Perhaps they could take inspiration from elsewhere. Open world driving games are all the rage at the moment (I think) - how awesome might an open world F-Zero game be, with all 30 racers (or more?) controlled by human players?

It could be set in and around Mute City, or maybe even a whole solar system with various planets/moons hosting the races. There could be side-quests and challenges, shops to buy equipment or modify your machine, garages to repair it if damage modelling was introduced. There are so many possibilities it's almost literally melting my brain. If a below-average intelligence loser with no history in game design like me can come up with a few exciting (to me at least) ideas to spruce up an already-awesome series, what can the ultra-geniuses at Nintendo EAD come up with?

And more to the point, why haven't they? If those heinous suits at EA can belch out a barely-changed FIFA game once every single year (at least), I'm sure Nintendo could manage one F-Zero game in 15 years. Sure, they might have a little more creative pride than EA but I'm hardly the only one who's been crying out for one. Going back to the beginning, F-Zero was the game that broke my hitherto-unwavering allegiance to Sega. I bought a SNES just to be able to play that racing game that had so dazzled me in magazines of the day. I bought an N64 because of F-Zero X which has been my favourite racing game of all time ever since. I bought a GameCube because of F-Zero GX which... well, it disappointed me a little, but it's still an F-Zero game and I still bought a console just to play it. Does it not stand to reason that I'd do the same again if Nintendo ever got off their arses and made another F-Zero game?

I can't be the only one who feels this way, surely? If Nintendo at least came up with a good excuse for not making a new game, I might be able to accept it. Perhaps the production costs would outweigh their projected sales for any new title (F-Zero GX, the flashiest game in the series, apparently didn't sell too well). If that was the case - fine, I could understand it. But to say they haven't made one because they can't add anything to the series is folly, to borrow a word from Boromir.

That, I don't accept. Especially when they release a Mario Kart game on every system they release. Do they vary much? Is each entry in that series dramatically more innovative than the last? I haven't played them all I admit, but I seriously doubt it. So come on Nintendo, stop being flanges with your piddly excuses, get off your arses and make what could potentially be the best arcade style racing game ever. If you do, I promise I'll buy a Switch or whatever new console it might appear on just to play it.

Please?

Special Note: Credit wherever it's due for the F-zero artwork I've included in this post. I found it via a Google search, I don't know who's is responsible for them. Well, the first one is promo artwork for F-Zero X, I just mean the other two.