Toshihiro Nagoshi has done a lot in his career with Sega. Perhaps most known for the Yakuza series and its spinoffs at this point, he’s also been a part of Super Monkey Ball, Shenmue, and Virtua Fighter. For Nintendo fans though, the most notable credit would be his role as Producer of F-Zero GX. Other than Captain Falcon’s Smash Bros. prevalence and a Nintendo Land attraction, that series has been notoriously quiet over the few console generations. As we speed past its 30th anniversary last November, there may be a bit of boost power for the franchise.
In an interview with Red Bull France, Nagoshi was quoted as being open to returning to the series. GX (and its arcade counterpart AX) were both fantastic high-speed racing games, and marked that last full F-Zero entries back in 2003. It should be noted that in the same quote he also mentions Mario Kart, contrasting F-Zero’s potential as ‘challenging’ with MK’s ‘fun and accessible’ nature.
We’ve included the translated excerpt in full below, as seen on GoNintendo:
“Mmm… Putting aside the odds of it happening, I must admit I have a lot of affection for F-Zero GX. If the opportunity were to present itself, I wouldn’t mind. And in that case, I’d like to make it a challenging game. I believe that if Nintendo just wants a racing game that is ‘fun and accessible’, they already have Mario Kart for that purpose.”
Of course, as far as we know, nothing is in the works. Nintendo hasn’t done much of anything with F-Zero in a very long time. Let’s hope someone at Nintendo is reading these comments, and it sparks interest in bringing the franchise back.
Written by Ricky Berg
When he isn’t writing for Nintendo Wire, Ricky’s anticipating the next Kirby, Fire Emblem, or if the stars ever align, Mother 3 to be released. Till then he’ll have the warm comfort of Super Smash Bros. to keep him going.
