Nintendo Offered Criterion the Chance to Make F-Zero for Wii U
Nintendo fans haven’t seen an F-Zero game for a very long time. In fact, the last entry in the franchise was F-Zero Climax for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, although smaller minigames have been present in other titles since then. Well it appears as if Nintendo were ready to bring back the series for the launch of the Wii U, with the company approaching UK based Criterion Games about the project.
“The objective was to show off a playable vertical slice of the game at E3 which would give fans a taste of what the full release would entail,” a source explained. “A quick turnaround was essential, but sadly Criterion was hard at work on bringing Need for Speed: Most Wanted to multiple platforms and therefore couldn’t spare the resource at the time.”
This is somewhat surprising considering that Shigeru Miyamoto has previously spoken about how he is reluctant to bring the series back when Nintendo is unable to offer anything new within the game. Unless the company was able to be innovative with the game the legendary designer could see no reason to create a new game.
Criterion Games is best known for creating the Burnout series of games. They were acquired by Electronic Arts in 2004 and have since concentrated on working on the Need for Speed franchise, giving them plenty of experience in creating racing games.
Since the news broke about the possibility of Criterion working on an F-Zero game for the Wii U, former studio head Alex Ward has explained how the developer was also asked to work on various other games throughout its history, including Mad Max, Forza, a Command and Conquer first-person shooter and a Gone in 60 Seconds game. He went on to say that these projects were turned down as Criterion preferred to work on their own property and ideas.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Nintendo have allowed non-first party developers to work on their intellectual property. Recently, the Japanese publisher has also recently handed development duties for Star Fox Zero to Platinum Games, the studio responsible for Bayonetta, MadWorld and The Wonderful 101.