#especially with hawke what are the chances that all those bandits and gangs would fight to their death?

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

I constantly forget that killing is not is fact just a game mechanic until someone references us killing someone and its like ah. oh yeah, that.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

F-Zero GP Legend Playthrough

Fighter: Captain Falcon

Game: F-Zero GP Legend, Wii U virtual console (GBA). First Released on November 28th 2003.

Fighter Bio.

Captain Douglas Jay Falcon is a famous bounty hunter considered one of, if not the best in the galaxy. His fame as a bounty hunter is only overshadowed by his fame as an F-Zero racer. F-Zero is a future form of racing that’s the next stage on from Formula One, with Falcon’s own machine, the Blue Falcon for example being able to reach speeds of 457 km/h. With these ridiculously high speeds it stands to reason that the sport is considered incredibly dangerous and is only attempted by those with the best skill and reflexes. Captain Falcon is known as one of the best F-Zero racers in the history of the sport, winning multiple Grands Prix and the prize money to go with them. Beyond his fame for these professions however, Captain Falcon lives a reclusive life on a chain of islands he owns off the coast of Port Town. Part of the reason for this is that with his position as one of the galaxy’s most accomplished bounty hunters comes many enemies looking to take him down, and as such for his own safety he lives in his highly secure retreat, only venturing into the public for bounties and to race.

Following his victories in earlier Grands Prix, Captain Falcon found himself involved in one of the most infamous events of F-Zero’s history, a massive accident which resulted in the sport being banned for several years and Falcon being hospitalised. Whilst he was hospitalised, Black Shadow, known as the King of Evil and feared by all saw to it that some of Falcon’s blood was taken, to be used in creating Blood Falcon, an evil clone under his command. With the F-Zero Grand Prix returning under new regulations following the accident, Captain Falcon is there and ready to take on the challenge once again, which he does, winning despite many of his enemies such as Black Shadow and criminals like Zoda taking part. A year later Captain Falcon is training for the next GP but ends up having to face off against various rivals and antagonists beforehand, including Black Shadow and an evil being beyond him known as Deathborn, then finally all-powerful beings known as the Creators. Falcon manages to defeat them all not only remaining the F-Zero champion but also keeping the galaxy safe from Black Shadow and Deathborn. The final events of the main series are set 25 years after the very first F-Zero game, after Captain Falcon has seemingly retired. There is a racer called Kent Akechi who claims to be Falcon’s son and drives the Falcon MK-2, a seemingly improved version of the original Blue Falcon, however whether his claims are true or not is never confirmed.

The series would end there, however there is a second version of the F-Zero universe, which appears in two games which are now the final two games in the series, F-Zero GP Legend and F-Zero Climax, the second of which was never released outside of Japan. This series was also based on an anime of the same name which only had fifteen episodes dubbed in English but had a run of 51 episodes in Japan reaching a conclusion at the end of them. The games do not strictly follow the anime’s plot but in most cases match it in comparison to the original series, especially when it comes to many of the characters. Some neutral or good characters from the original series are part of Black Shadow’s organisation in this series, such as Octoman. Captain Falcon similarly has some differences, mainly being his true identity and his relationship with Jody Summers, however his characterization as a mysterious bounty hunter who only appears for races and bounties remains in this series. Another difference between the series is a new character called Rick Wheeler. Captain Falcon becomes a mentor to him and he eventually takes on the title of Captain Falcon when Bart Lemming (Falcon’s true identity in this series) perishes in the finale defeating Black Shadow. This doesn’t happen in the game’s story, but Rick Wheeler still has his Captain Falcon outfit and Blue Falcon GP available as an unlockable option in Climax. For this post I will not count the anime’s story as whilst this series is based on it, it doesn’t follow the events of it exactly.

Overall, Captain Falcon is a mysterious individual who is willing to fight against the evil and criminals of the galaxy, however he is still a mercenary who mostly gets involved for the bounties these targets have on their heads. He is also proud of his racing skills, often boasting to rivals how they won’t beat him. It has not really been shown in the series, but he is considered a very good fighter which is useful in his job as a bounty hunter, however the main aspect of him shown in the series is his driving skills, with which he not only wins races but is able to engage in vehicular combat with enemies such as Michael Chain’s gang who try to run him off the road at one point. His vehicle the Blue Falcon is considered a good choice for beginners with decent speed, acceleration and handling, however it also doesn’t excel in any area, unlike other racers vehicles which tend to. Regardless, canonically Captain Falcon is considered one of the best racers in the series and a living legend being capable of making his Blue Falcon perform beyond expectations.

Friends: When it comes to the main series, due to his enigmatic personality Captain Falcon isn’t really shown to have many friends. Falcon due to his willingness to take on Black Shadow however has worked with a few other characters opposing him and has protected Jody Summers a couple of times when she’s fighting against his forces. In the GP Legend series Captain Falcon’s true identity is Bart Lemming, Jody Summer’s missing brother. Jody is the head of a task force who take on Black Shadow’s organisation and as such many members often find Captain Falcon working alongside them, although he never officially joins the group, remaining an independent bounty hunter. Falcon does however develop a mentor relationship with Rick Wheeler, a young man who was brought to this era from the past and as such has a lot to learn about the world of this time as well as F-Zero racing. Captain Falcon grows to respect Wheeler enough that he is willing to pass the title of Captain Falcon on to him.

Enemies/Rivals: Due to both of his professions, Captain Falcon is not short on enemies and rivals. His arch enemy is Black Shadow, the King of Evil whom Falcon has caused many problems for by repeatedly capturing his henchmen for bounties. This has led to Black Shadow taking part in F-Zero Grands Prix, which are Extraterritorial with his aim being to kill Falcon himself with his powerful racer the Black Bull. Despite this, Black Shadow also seems to simply enjoy causing destruction in the races regardless and as such he’s one of the few threats where Falcon’s primary concern isn’t simply the bounty on his head. Zoda is the leader of the Zolorkian Coalition from planet Uma-41 who seeks to conquer the planet Earth and use it for things such as mining, refuelling and gambling. He has come into conflict due to this many times with the hero Super Arrow, and also has had dealings with Captain Falcon. Following Falcon rounding up 26 of his henchmen and him narrowly escaping he is even more determined to get revenge on him. Deathborn is the only being who makes Black Shadow feel fear, punishing him when he fails to defeat Captain Falcon in the F-Zero Grand Prix and challenging him himself. He doesn’t personally see Captain Falcon as an enemy so much as a problem that needs to be dealt with in order for him to gain control of the universe. Following Deathborn’s defeat he’s seemingly destroyed for good and is revealed to have been possibly cursed by the Creators into being under their control as they threaten to do the same to Falcon should he lose in a race against them. The Creators are said to have created Earth and are supremely powerful, however it seems when they are beaten in a challenge, in this case a race, they lose their chance to take control of their opponent as Captain Falcon winning in a race with them left them screaming before disappearing. Finally, Michael Chain doesn’t have that much of a connection to Captain Falcon beyond him and his gang the Bloody Chain antagonising him as he drives through what they consider their turf. After Falcon takes down most of them, they abandon Michael before he also flees.

When it comes to rivals arguably every racer on the circuit is one to Falcon, however his fiercest rival is always Samurai Goroh. A bandit who is also a skilled bounty hunter and F-Zero Racer, one thing that drives Goroh is always being considered second best to Captain Falcon. As such, he has a perfect attendance record of F-Zero Grands Prix, possibly due to his obsessive need to beat Captain Falcon at them. He and his gang reside on Red Canyon, a desert planet which they claim as their turf. As such, whenever Captain Falcon has to pick up a bounty on the planet Goroh will make it his business to try and take it from Falcon claiming the bounty is rightfully his as it’s on his turf. He often is unsuccessful in these attempts which ends up fuelling his rivalry even further. This rivalry is pretty similar in the F-Zero GP series, although his main issue with Falcon in the story is that he believes he’s poisoned him, but realises after racing and most likely losing it wasn’t Falcon who had done so. Finally, although he is an enemy, Blood Falcon being a clone of Captain Falcon is also a very fierce rival for him. Blood Falcon is far less stoic than Captain Falcon as well as being blood thirsty and dedicated to his creator Black Shadow’s will. He has a different vehicle to the Blue Falcon, the Blood Hawk which is designed to have an edge over it, however he has yet to achieve a victory over the original. In the GP series Blood Falcon is one of many Falcon clones, all of which don’t really measure up to the original but due to their numbers can cause problems for him, especially when impersonating him. For the enemies in the GP series, they mostly stay the same, although some neutral or good characters do become part of Black Shadow’s villain group in this version of events, however they are mostly simply henchmen who have little to do personally with Captain Falcon beyond being occasionally beaten by him.  

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Captain Falcon is a somewhat unique example when it comes to characters in Smash which I will outline more in a later section, however for this reason, this time along with Captain Falcon himself, I will also mention cameos of his vehicle the Blue Falcon. Falcon himself has only had two cameos in other series, the first was his helmet being a treasure that could be found in Kirby Super Star in the Great Cave Offensive. The second is that he appears on screens in Mario Kart 8’s Mute City course. Neither of these appearances are directly Captain Falcon however but they’re the closest there is to a direct appearance. The Blue Falcon on the other hand has appeared in small cameo roles a few times. In both Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8 the Blue Falcon appears as a Kart body part, although it is a much smaller replica with an open top. Interestingly the version in Mario Kart Wii is based on its appearance in F-Zero GX, but the one in Mario Kart 8 is based more on its appearance in the original SNES game with it most notably having green glass for the cockpit as well as a more rounded design. Notably this replica kart has exhaust ports similar to the original Blue Falcon’s and there is a Mii costume available in the game based on Captain Falcon. The Blue Falcon has also appeared as furniture in the Animal Crossing series being a replica that can be placed inside a Villager’s house. Finally, in Super Mario RPG the Blue Falcon appears as a small figurine in Hinopio’s shop sitting alongside other toys of the Fire Stingray (Samurai Goroh’s racer) and Star Fox’s Arwing.

Why this game?

When it comes to why I chose F-Zero GP Legend over other games in the series there were a couple of reasons. At the time one of the bigger ones was that this was available on the Wii U Virtual Console, which meant I could get screenshots through Miiverse of it. Also unlike F-Zero and F-Zero X this game had a story mode which when I can I prefer to play through as one of my purposes with these playthroughs is to go through each characters story where possible. (With that said, being playable is the priority overall.) F-Zero GX also has a story mode, however in that case I knew due to the stages in Super Smash Bros I would cover that game eventually so I wanted to go with this one instead, even if it is arguably a different continuity to the one Captain Falcon in Smash is based on. The final aspect that helped me make my decision is just a personal preference one, which is that the game also contains tracks from the original SNES game which form the final GP cup, which I just personally find cool which is why I wanted to go with this game.

My past with this game.

I first remember hearing of F-Zero surprisingly (for me) before Super Smash Bros, as I remember it being talked about in old Nintendo magazines I would read. Back then, I didn’t really pay that much attention to it, but the characters stood out mostly to me back then because with the masked faces and eyes that were sort of white triangles on a black vizor or mask, they looked like Batman. It’s funny because I realise now Captain Falcon’s earliest design looks a lot more similar to Judge Dredd, but this was long before I heard of him really, so Batman was who I thought of then. I remember vaguely looking at the artwork of various characters as well as screenshots of the game and thinking it looked cool but not really my sort of thing back then. The game I was seeing at this time was F-Zero X rather than the original on the SNES, which I think I didn’t hear of till later. Another thing which I remember at the time was that there was another game series which was somewhat similar that saw a release on the N64. Whilst I never confused it for F-Zero X, I tended to heavily associate it with Wipeout 64. What’s funny is, I had a poster of Wipeout 64 up in my room (one of the first posters I ever put up) yet I never played or had any interest in the game, I don’t even remember why I put it up, it might have simply been I thought it looked cool and wanted to have a poster in my room. Beyond this however, I didn’t have a whole lot more experience of F-Zero, but probably the best thing about this was unlike Ness and even Samus, I actually recognised Captain Falcon when I unlocked him in the original Super Smash Bros due to these magazines.

Before I go on to the Gamecube era where I actually started looking more into the series, there was one big thing that happened during the N64 era that’s somewhat important for me personally relating to this series. In 1999 a movie came out, one which at the time as a 9-year-old I didn’t realise would be pretty disliked and personally enjoyed a lot, that being Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace. Without going too much into Star Wars, the important part here is in this movie there was a part involving a large race, with all sorts of aliens and Anakin Skywalker, the only human, using extremely fast dangerous vehicles and going through a dangerous race course. For Christmas that year, being a huge Star Wars fan, I asked for a game many consider the only good thing to come out of Episode 1, that being Star Wars Episode 1 Racer. I loved the game and even now with its rerelease on the Nintendo Switch I’ve been having fun with it. What I’ve always liked most is how there’s so many different characters with their unique vehicles, and going further than that as I’m a Star Wars nerd, their own background reasons for being in the race. Of course, I had played Mario Kart games before this and I love that series, but this was different mostly as the only story to this game were the races, rather than being characters I knew from other games competing with each other. The reason this is important and relevant to any of this is because, other than being a similar game when it comes down to it of high speed dangerous futuristic racing taking place on various planets, this series has always had the same appeal for me of having a large cast with their own background reasons for taking part.

So that was the groundwork that was laid down in my mind for the series, but I still so far had only really seen Captain Falcon and a few screenshots in old magazines at this point. Coming up was the next Super Smash Bros game, Melee, which was the first game I’d seen where I really thought it looked incredible, looking to me at the time like an actual movie like Toy Story. I’d only seen screenshots at this point, but a magazine I got contained a small mini CD with trailers for games on it. I don’t really remember what others were on there, but Super Smash Bros Melee was the big one and it showed off lots of very quick shots of the game in action (a lot of it being from the intro but there was also gameplay mixed in as well) all with the Mute City theme in the background. Not having played any F-Zero games then I thought this was an amazing theme and the main theme for Melee as a whole. I only realised having gotten the game later it was in fact for the Mute City stage and from F-Zero. Now, with how I liked Episode 1 Racer and its vast array of characters, I was of course really interested to see the trophies there were for a couple of F-Zero racers, along with one of all the vehicles together. It reminded me a lot of Episode 1 Racer reading their bios and so I got more curious about the series. I didn’t really try it however since I was mostly sticking to Gamecube at this time and F-Zero X was on N64, however, when a new game was announced I was very much looking forward to it. The game came out and, of course I didn’t get it. I can’t remember very clearly, but it was only after some time I finally decided to get the game and I loved it, F-Zero GX was tons of fun, being really challenging and also a lot of fun to play in multiplayer.  I didn’t manage to beat the story mode back then as I remember years later some of the cutscenes at a certain point being brand new to me, but I believe I did beat all the Grand Prix races (at what difficulty I don’t know.)

Around this time, was the first time where, inspired by a youtube channel I’ve mentioned in a previous post called Crappycapturedevice that went over the history of things in Super Smash Bros Melee, I started to want to play the original games of each character in Super Smash Bros rather than just reading about them. Again, I’d really enjoyed F-Zero GX, but my initial idea at the time was to try and stick with the more retro games for characters, partially as I’d gained a fascination for sprites at the time, so I wanted to where possible go for a sprite-based game rather than 3D ones. This led to me getting a lot of GBA games and at that point there was an F-Zero game with Captain Falcon on GBA, so I naturally decided to get it. Because of my stringent measures of trying to solely go for sprite-based games, my plan to play a game from each series in Smash at that point failed pretty quickly, but regardless I loved F-Zero GP Legend. There was the story of course which I enjoyed playing through, but despite its simplicity being clearly more based on the original SNES game than the later 3D ones, there was a lot of content in there, with all the racers from GX (barring ones exclusive to that game) being playable with a couple of new ones as well. Also, whilst I do like the soundtrack for GX, this was the first game I played that had a lot of the tracks I’d heard in Super Smash Bros, such as the classic Mute City and Big Blue versions. It was a somewhat challenging game, but as it was handheld it was one I found very easy to just keep retrying, meaning eventually I’d manage to power through it.

Beyond this, any long time Nintendo fan knows how things have gone for this series, there was one more game, F-Zero Climax which was never released outside of Japan, being a sequel to GP Legend and that’s pretty much it. Captain Falcon still appears in Super Smash Bros and F-Zero has had big references as the theme of a minigame in Nintendo Land on the Wii U and having two courses based on it in Mario Kart 8, but beyond that, the series has yet to have any sort of new entry. I don’t believe there’s that much of a demand for a new game, even if there is a lot of noise from fans who want to see a new entry in the series and to be clear, I myself would love to see it. I also however don’t think Nintendo are ones to shy away from series entirely just because they’re not a hugely demanded best seller. Over the years, Punch-out got a sequel seemingly out of nowhere on the Wii, Kid Icarus got a sequel on the 3DS which was a pretty huge reinvention of the series and Metroid, despite how vocal that fanbase are about it being ‘ignored’ have gotten a remake of a Game Boy game (which was practically a brand new game given just how different it was) as well as Metroid Prime 4 being in development. My main point is, I’ve learnt over the years, if Nintendo want to make an F-Zero sequel, they will make it, regardless of if “Fans are crying out for it!” or “The reality is the series isn’t a best seller even if there’s people yelling for it, so it’s not worth their time.” Here’s hoping for the Switch we might finally see the franchise make a great return, I’d love to see what they could do with it.

My Smash Playthrough.

I played this game somewhat differently to most others and there’s a key reason why. This game has eight characters who each get their own story to play through, however to start with only one character, Rick Wheeler is available. By beating the second stage of his story Captain Falcon’s story mode will be unlocked. Since I am planning on getting to other characters later down the line, such as Samurai Goroh for his assist trophy who has a story in this game, I decided to focus solely on Captain Falcon’s story for this run. It is not long overall and as the Blue Falcon is fairly easy to control it is one of the easier story modes to complete, however there were a couple of missions that gave me some trouble. The first two missions are fairly simple with you just having to overtake your opponent before reaching the goal. The next mission is actually the same as Rick Wheeler’s second mission, as it is an event where Captain Falcon and Wheeler’s stories overlap. This is an aspect of the game I like and it reminds me of an aspect of some other games like Sonic Adventure I really enjoyed, with you unlocking a new character’s story and getting to see what led them to the part in the previous character’s story where they met them. The third mission is probably the first challenge as such in Captain Falcon’s story, with you having to race Samurai Goroh who believes Falcon has poisoned him, with no ability to boost this time. I’d like to note that I believe the courses in this story mode whilst based on courses from the Grand Prix are unique to this, often being long tracks that have to be travelled down once rather than tracks that need to be gone around in laps.

These next stages from what I remember were the ones I had more trouble with. First is a race with Blood Falcon which isn’t too difficult, however there are some irritating jumps, and mistiming them can lead to a crash and instant loss. I believe it took me a couple of attempts to beat, especially as Blood Falcon is pretty fast and you need to boost as wisely as you can to keep up with him whilst avoiding crashing. Next up comes a point in the story where there’s an optional mission or the final mission. On your first playthrough only one will be open to you, but provided you manage to get enough money you can unlock the alternate mission. The original final mission is of course a race with Black Shadow on the Lightning stage. This stage isn’t too difficult, it has a jump that will lead to a giant fall if taken, but otherwise it’s more like a standard race in the GP mode. It’s been too long now to remember it in detail, but I believe I had quite a hard time with it, replaying it now however I found it fairly easy. The alternate mission is more irritating because it requires you to help Jody Summers beat Blood Falcon, so the objective isn’t to win the race, but to come second behind Jody. Once this mission is beaten Captain Falcon’s story is complete and you get the credits, which are the same for all stories. These credits aren’t particularly memorable, just images of the racers from cutscenes slowly drift by over a space background. The music’s nice enough for it. That’s pretty much it for Captain Falcon’s story, I liked having a side mode with the standard overdramatic story, with that wonderful plot of every conflict being solved with a race. I also enjoyed the cutscenes since, as a fan of the Ace Attorney series I like seeing various characters with talking sprites. It provides some scenarios that are different from the Grand Prix mode and unique challenges which aren’t overly easy. Of course, as this playthrough was to represent a fighter rather than just an assist trophy or background character, I realised just doing the story alone wasn’t really going to cut it, so the next challenge was of course beating the Grand Prix mode.

There are a lot of courses in the Grand Prix, and given I played this so long ago now, I can’t really go into detail over a lot of them. I love the game, but admittedly other than a couple of features you might see more often in one stage, for this a lot of the stages are fairly similar. There’ll be a few aspects specific to some courses, for example mines being more common I believe on Fire Field and Lightning having a fair few more jumps. With that said the basic setup of the tracks, having barriers on the sides which cause damage when touched and repair tracks are fairly uniform in most cases, except for Illusion, a track unique to this game which has no barriers so therefore falling off the track is an instant loss. Needless to say, whilst I do not have specific memories of playing these tracks, I do remember having a lot of frustration and many crashes. One thing about this game which is good for me however, is that it’s one of the games where I feel I can play it whilst listening to other things without really missing out. It was frustrating losing a fair few times, but listening to videos or podcasts as I played really helped me stick with it and eventually finally beat the game. Despite the frustration, it was still a lot of fun and I’m glad I’ve chosen to hold off beating the whole story first time as I look forward to revisiting it later when I get to other racers on my list.

Before I conclude, I would like to also say the music is great, a lot of classic versions of the track themes are here and the only real let down is that it’s GBA quality, but if you’re fine with that they’re still nice enough to listen to. When it comes to how it ranks with the rest of the series, it obviously is inferior to F-Zero X and F-Zero GX, which both provide a lot more variety in their tracks due to the capabilities of the platforms they’re on. However, this game in my opinion does a great job of improving upon the original SNES game and is available in handheld form, so overall I’d say it’s a fun game that packs quite a fair bit of content and still provides a challenge.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Captain Falcon in Smash.

Now, Captain Falcon is unique in Super Smash Bros as in fact none of his moves, attacks or anything else beyond his look are from his base game. The reason for this is in the game, Captain Falcon is solely ever playable in his Blue Falcon, therefore things like the Falcon Punch or Falcon Kick were entirely invented for Super Smash Bros, which is why I decided to include Blue Falcon when it came to Captain Falcon’s crossovers with other characters, as it is essentially the actual ‘character’ you play as when it comes down to it. What’s interesting is it is often believed that Captain Falcon’s moves were actually based on the original concept for Super Smash Bros, a game known as Dragon King: The Fighting Game. This was an early concept for Super Smash Bros and involved generic fighters who proportionally matched Captain Falcon, which possibly is what led to this belief. When it comes to aspects of Captain Falcon which may reference his original game, the first is that his attacks often have Falcon in the name, which matches with his vehicles such as the Blue Falcon and Falcon Flyer. The second is that he had the fastest running speed until Sonic joined the roster in Brawl, which is most likely a reference to him being from a racing game. In Brawl, with the introduction of Final Smashes, Captain Falcon was finally able to use the Blue Falcon in battle, with him calling it to him. If the Blue Falcon hits an opponent, they’re thrown to part of the track in Port Town, which Captain Falcon then drives his racer along before smashing at top speed into them. The Blue Falcon appears to match its design from F-Zero GX in all appearances of the Final Smash. The Blue Falcon also appeared in Captain Falcon’s entrance in the original Super Smash Bros, with him jumping out of it before starting a match where it matched its design from F-Zero X. Finally, in Super Smash Bros Melee, it appeared in stages looking like it’s N64 model, but it’s appearance in the opening cutscene for Melee has it looking like a higher definition version of the classic design from the very first game. Honestly, I’m surprised looking at this how much I was able to say about Captain Falcon when it comes to his translation to Smash as so much of it was basically invented. Needless to say, overall in order to play GP Legend in a way that’s closest to his portrayal in Super Smash Bros, you really don’t have to do anything as he’ll be in his Blue Falcon regardless.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to mutecity.org F-Zero Wiki.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Miiverse before it shut down.