Zero Racers (lost build of unreleased "F-Zero" Virtual Boy 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 also intended to be a sequel to the original 1991 F-Zero game on the SNES.^[1]

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.^[2]

Gameplay

According to Nintendo Power, the game would have played similarly to the original F-Zero SNES 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.^[2]

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^[2], it has not resurfaced or has been leaked to the internet, and it's unknown if Nintendo still has a copy of the prototype.