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F-Zero: GP Legend - TV Tropes

  • ️Tue Nov 28 2023

F-Zero: GP Legend is a 2003 racing game published by Nintendo. It's the fifth installment in the F-Zero series and the second game released for the Game Boy Advance. It was developed by Suzak, which created games for other Nintendo properties such as Wario: Master of Disguise.

Though it released the same year as F-Zero GX, it's a different beast from the console game. It's not a continuation from the previous games, but a Recursive Adaptation of the anime of the same name, which started airing just a month earlier. As such, it elects Rick Wheeler from the animated series as the new hero in the story mode, with other supporting characters like Lisa Brilliant, Samurai Goroh, and Captain Falcon unlocked gradually.

From the gameplay perspective, it is also different from F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, the previous game on the Game Boy Advance. Whereas Maximum Velocity was almost a clone of F-Zero (1990), GP Legend tries to find a middle ground between it and F-Zero X. Although it is still "Mode 7" based racing game and uses Pre-Rendered Graphics, Boost Power and Vehicular Combat are introduced and Grand Prix is operated with 30 fixed racers.

F-Zero: GP Legend contains examples of the following:

  • Anti-Frustration Features: The Nintendo Switch Online version of the Japanese version of the game, due to the Switch's incompatibility with the e-Reader, features all of the e-Reader machines and courses available from the start.
  • Arrange Mode: New in this game is Zero Test, which has you run a section of tracks from the game, sometimes under handicaps like riding a machine with poor grip. Each level lasts about a minute or less — sometimes under 10 seconds — but they're the hardest challenge in the game to get a 100% Completion.
  • Book Ends: Rick's first mission involves him chasing down Octoman, who ultimately gets away. In his ending, he is seen chasing after Octoman once again.
  • Breaking Old Trends:
    • Rather than a straight sequel of the previous games, it's based on the anime adaptation, F-Zero: GP Legend, which is not only the first for F-Zero but very uncommon for Nintendo games. This was not for the best in hindsight, as the games sold poorly and the series went into a limbo after Climax, only 1 year later.
    • The "You've got boost power!" line from F-Zero X, GX, and AX is replaced with "You've got a new booster!"
    • Due to this game using the race mechanics from the 3D games unlike the past 2D installments, this means the Safe Rank mechanic is dropped (the only way to be retired out is to crash), each opponent has a unique identity (rather than four unique racers and then generic filler opponents), there is a fixed grid of 30 racers, there are proper standings, and arcade-style Scoring Points are dropped in favor of destroying five opponents in one race for an extra life in GP mode.
    • In past games, changing the difficulty level mostly just alters the competence of the CPU opponents and how many spare machines you get. Here, this still applies to Novice and Standard difficulty, but Expert introduces harder variants of the existing courses.
  • Cap: The maximum bounty reward collected from missions is capped at $2,550,000 for each character. Reaching this cap as each character will unlock one new driver for the other modes.
  • Disney Villain Death: Black Shadow's machine falls off the track and explodes after he is defeated at Lightning, though Captain Falcon doesn't believe he actually died.
  • Distressed Dude: Dr. Clash is kidnapped by Zoda while Captain Falcon is supposed to be escorting him, as Zoda wants the doctor's invention.
  • Escape Sequence: Certain story missions require you to reach the end of a course while another racer tails you, whom you cannot ever let overtake you, or the mission will instantly end in failure. Examples include mission 4 of Samurai Goroh's story, where you must escape from Black Shadow, and mission 1 of Zoda's story, where you must outrun both Rick and Captain Falcon.
  • Escort Mission: Captain Falcon's story has an optional bonus mission where he has to help Jody win a race against Blood Falcon. Falcon must make sure that Jody's machine doesn't get destroyed, and can give Jody an advantage by attacking Blood Falcon to slow him down. The mission will only end in success if Jody defeats Blood Falcon in any way, which could include by crashing Blood Falcon out, allowing Captain Falcon to win the race and still win the mission.
  • Final Death Mode: Platinum Cup on Expert does not give you any Spare Machines, which means one Crash Out is all it takes to lose the entire eight-course gauntlet.
  • Find the Cure!: Samurai Goroh's story begins with him being poisoned by an unseen assailant, and the rest of his story focuses on his efforts to find the culprit and force them to hand over the antidote before he dies.
  • Gameplay Grading: Clearing a mission in Zero Test will award you with a bronze cup, which can be improved to a silver or gold cup if you can clear it in an especially quick time.
  • Marathon Level: Unlike the other three cups, Platinum Cup consists of eight courses instead of the traditional five.
  • Musical Nod: The tracks from F-Zero (1990) reprises the soundtrack remixed from the same game. Silence, Red Canyon, and White Land even use their SNES themes rather than the ones from F-Zero X like for the courses that debuted in this game.
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: Many cutscenes and general backgrounds are recycled screencaps taken from the courses of F-Zero GX.
  • Nostalgia Level: Platinum Cup in Grand Prix mode is entirely comprised of the levels from F-Zero (1990). However due to GP Legend having somewhat different physics and mechanics, their faithfulness to the originals vary (for example, what used to be magnetic strips that pull vehicles towards them are now slide strips with no magnetic-pull effect, and absolutely nothing stops you from taking the massive Port Town II shortcut).
  • Random Event: In Gold Cup, the game randomly picks between Red Canyon: Peak Jump or Illusion: Abyss Drop (or their "II" variants on Expert class) for the final course.
  • "Rashomon"-Style: The game's story mode is presented from the perspective of eight different characters, and the storylines cross over at different points, with you racing against the others. Typically, the post-race cutscenes will change to reflect your character winning, though this doesn't have an effect on the events.
  • Regional Bonus: The Japanese version has a connectivity to e-Reader, which unlocks racers, courses, and ghosts in Time Attack. The distribution of e-Reader was poor in the US and didn't happen in Europe, so the machines were built into the US and European versions that can be unlocked by meeting some requirements, removing the need to pay extra cash for e-Reader. The courses are missing, however.
  • Remixed Level: Expert difficulty not only makes the CPU opponents more aggressive, but also gives the courses more difficult variants.
  • Rotating Arcs: The story mode consists of eight playable characters with 5 main stages each. Only Rick Wheeler is available at start and the others are unlocked by completing missions, letting the player to jump between them.
  • Rubber-Band A.I.: Similar to past 2D F-Zero games, opponents are constantly hot on your tail so long as you're in the lead, even if you take large shortcuts. But let them get ahead of you and they start driving terribly, often smacking into walls or even crashing out entirely.
  • Sequence Breaking: The anti-shortcut flying saucers in the previous installments are absent. You can take developer-unintended "super shortcuts" with no consequences.
  • Timed Mission: Mission 4 of Rick's story gives you just 41 seconds to reach the end of the course. There are no additional opponents, so this time limit is your only obstacle.
  • Villain Protagonist: Two of the story campaigns star villainous characters. Black Shadow's storyline involves him seeking out other characters to force them to become his underlings, while Zoda's features him harassing various racers with the ultimate goal of beating Rick.

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