S3E12: F-Zero and F-Zero 99 -or- Crashing Out!

Chico D Mar is at the starting line for F-Zero (SNES, 1990) and F-Zero 99 (Switch, 2023) as he joins Mike and Jaymo on The Old SwitchAroo’s epic quest to research and review every retro game in Nintendo Switch Online’s Nintendo Classics catalog!

In this episode, we appreciate the character design from Takaya Imamura and the comic book artwork from Valiant Comics, including both the box art and an in-manual comic drawn by Arthur Nichols. We also learn how Captain Falcon was originally intended to be a mascot for the Super Famicom and how the music from F-Zero was so good that it led to a 1992 jazz album of the same name featuring musicians like blues, jazz, and rock guitarist Robben Ford and saxophonist Marc Russo.

Thanks for listening, and a very special thanks to Kristal Fields of The Lazy Circles for our catchy new theme song! Subscribe to The Old SwitchAroo to get more retro goodness delivered straight to your feed! You can also join the fun on https://www.theoldswitcharoo.com⁠⁠⁠, where you'll find access to our Discord, voicemail, and so much more!

Game on, everyone.

(0:00) Intro

(1:48) Welcoming Chico

(6:05) F-Zero

(47:48) Mini-Game Minute: Science Faction

(54:06) F-Zero 99

(1:23:48) NintenDO or NintenDON’T

Chico’s comic is at https://wetfrontier.com/ (and check out this episode's cover art, also by Chico)

F-Zero manual: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/common/pdf/CLV-P-SAABE.pdf

Captain Falcon was Originally the SNES' Mascot and Other Super Nintendo Facts You Didn't Know by Nadia Oxford | VG247: https://www.vg247.com/captain-falcon-was-originally-the-snes-mascot-and-other-super-nintendo-facts-you-didnt-know

The F-Zero Press Conference by IGN Staff | IGN: https://web.archive.org/web/20070214011100/http://cube.ign.com/articles/427/427647p1.html