Following the surprise remaster of Metroid Prime last month, rumors are circulating online that F-Zero, the classic futuristic racing game that started back in the early days of the SNES, will be making a return as well.
At the heart of the rumors is YouTube/Twitter account-holder Nintendo Prime, who made the announcement Friday night that Next Level Games was working on the project, a remaster of F-Zero GX, which originally released on Nintendo Gamecube in 2003. Nintendo Prime would not divulge his sources, but he claimed he has “discovered,” “come across,” and “come in contact with people” who have told him that the game is in development.
A subsidiary of Nintendo Co. Ltd., neither Next Level Games nor its parent company has issued a statement regarding the legitimacy of the claims. Founded in 2002, Next Level Games has a long history of working with Nintendo’s high profile IPs even prior to its acquisition, having developed games such as Super Mario Strikers, Punch-Out!!, and Luigi’s Mansion 3.
Nintendo Prime has reported rumors of an F-Zero revival before, but he emphasized that the sources that provided that information previously were “other people” than the ones who have told him about the project allegedly in development. “We’ve been wanting F-Zero on Switch for so long in this sort of format — improved visuals, probably online play as well,” he said during his announcement.
According to the information leaked on Friday, Next Level has two different teams working on two entirely different games. Nintendo Prime did not specifically say that both were F-Zero games, but the implication was there based on context. The rumor has been generating buzz online, but Nintendo Prime clarified Saturday via his Twitter account that he has no additional information to share at this time.
Even if the rumors of the F-Zero remaster don’t turn out to be true, at least one fan is hoping support from the gaming community will spur developers to make it happen. “[W]e ‘leaked’ the Metroid Prime remaster into existence, we can do it for F-Zero lol,” replied user Legend of Zoey: Trans of the Wild to the original post.
