Zero Racers (lost finished "F-Zero" Virtual Boy racing spin-off game; 1996)

The game's logo.

Status: Lost

Zero Racers (also known as G-Zero) is a cancelled 1996 F-Zero racing game for the Virtual Boy that was to be developed and published by Nintendo. The game was a spin-off of the F-Zero series, not a sequel as originally thought.

Before its cancellation, the game was hyped among other later cancelled Virtual Boy games like Bound High and Dragon Hopper to revitalize consumer interest in the system, and was previewed at E3 1996 and the now-defunct Nintendo Power magazine.

In Feburary 2022, the Youtube channel "Did You Know Gaming?" did a video where it was confirmed due to an interview with the game's localizer that the game was completely finished but still was not released by Nintendo.

Gameplay

According to Nintendo Power, the game would have played similarly to the original F-Zero Super Nintendo game, in that the player takes control of their racer and drives through race tracks in a "Grand Prix" mode to compete against the other racers. However, unlike the original game, players would instead drive through tracks designed as tunnels and could drive in all four directions during the race. There was also a practice mode that would allow players to prepare for the Grand Prix races and to go for the fastest time completing a track.

Four racers were confirmed to be playable in the game, such as Falcon, Stingray, Goose and Origammy, and each of the four racers' vehicles would have played differently from each other.

There were also plans for the game to incorporate multiplayer through the Virtual Boy's never officially released link cable that would connect two player's Virtual Boy systems to allow them to play multiplayer locally.

Cancellation and Availability

The game was cancelled due to the Virtual Boy's failure and discontinuation that same year. Though a prototype of the game was shown off at E3 1996 and was previewed in the now-defunct Nintendo Power magazine, it has not resurfaced or has been leaked to the internet, and it's unknown if Nintendo still has a copy of the prototype.

Gallery

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  Preview of the game in Nintendo Power issue #87, at page 41.

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  Preview of the game in Nintendo Power issue #87, at page 42.

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  Two screenshots taken from a prototype of the game.

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  Another two screenshots taken from a prototype of the game.

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  Another two screenshots taken from a prototype of the game.

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  An individual screenshot of the game.

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  An official render artwork of a racer's ship in-game.

Virtual Boy

Main Article

• Virtual Boy (partially found unreleased games for Nintendo virtual reality system; mid 1990s)

Individual Articles

• Doraemon: Nobita no Doki Doki! Obake Land (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy action game based on manga; 1996)
• Dragon Hopper (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy action-adventure game; 1995-1996)
• Goldeneye 007 (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy movie tie-in game; 1996)
• Mario Bros. VB (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy remake of "Mario Bros." arcade game; 1994)
• Mario Demo (lost Virtual Boy tech demo; 1994)
• Out of the Deathmount (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy game; 1996)
• Shin Nihon Pro Wrestling Gekitou Densetsu (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy wrestling game; 1995)
• Sora Tobu Henry (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy action game; 1995)
• VB Mario Land (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy platformer; 1995)
• Virtual Block (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy game; 1995)
• Virtual Dodgeball (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy game; 1995)
• Virtual Jockey (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy horse-racing simulation game; 1996)
• Wangan Sensen Red City (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy game; 1996)

External Links

• F-Zero Wiki's page on the game.