Zero Racers

Zero Racers is a futuristic racing game in which players compete in a high-speed racing tournament. Like in F-Zero (1990), Zero Racers features four available vehicles, each with differing stats & performances.

The objective is to finish the race against other vehicles while avoiding course hazards that damage the player's vehicle. Machines have a power meter which serves as their durability; decreasing on collisions with the track or other vehicles occur. Energy is replenished by driving over pit areas placed along the home straight. Unlike the original F-Zero, the vehicles race in 3D tunnels. Game Informer likened it to the Death Star run from the 1977 film Star Wars.

Zero Racers was developed and published by Nintendo. It was co-produced by Gunpei Yokoi and its executive producer, Hiroshi Yamauchi. Kazunobu Shimizu was a director, and was co-programmed by Hikonori Suzuki and Kouichi Kawashima. It was graphic designed by Eiko Takahashi and Reiko Kajigaya, while the music was composed by Ryoji Yoshitomi and Kozue Ishikawa.

It was revealed in a preview by Nintendo Power in their July 1996 issue under the name G-Zero, and planned for a late 1996 launch. Nintendo Power published an in-depth article in its August issue under the name Zero Racers. It was also previewed later in September 1996 issue of the British magazine Nintendo Magazine System. And in October 1996 issue of the Mexican magazine, Club Nintendo. False reports suggested it had been displayed at E3 1996.

In 1998, Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote of their disappointment at Zero Racers' cancellation, saying it might have been "one of the few VB games actually worth checking out". After its release, Nile Bowie of Nintendo Life said Zero Racers was the most enjoyable Virtual Boy game he had played, and suggested it could have been the Virtual Boy "killer app" had Nintendo released it in 1996. He praised the integration of the F-Zero gameplay into the Virtual Boy's stereoscopic display, saying the sparse presentation served the sense of momentum and created the sense of "playing inside the targeting display of an '80s science-fiction cockpit".

The title music was reused in a 1998 promotional demo for the Game Boy Color.