Famicom Grand Prix (series)

Famicom Grand Prix
First installment	Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race (1987)
Latest installment	Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally (1988)
Franchise	Super Mario

The Famicom Grand Prix series is a short, Japan-only racing game series of the Super Mario franchise released solely on the Family Computer Disk System. It spans two games, both of which are quite different from each other in gameplay and content despite the shared genre and branding. Both games were subject to a tournament shortly after release. The two games may be based off a previous, much more basic racing game on the Family Computer simply called F1 Race, which had no relation to Super Mario until its Game Boy port added cameos of several characters.

List of games

Title
Cover, original release, and system	Synopsis
Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race
October 30, 1987 FDS	Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race is a top-down competitive racing game which features Mario using any of 24 purchaseable formula 1 cars to race around ten circuits against opponents from around the world. The goal is to earn dollars to buy better cars and win the four race levels to unlock even further advanced cars for payment. Each of the cars has a limited amount of tire quality, gas capacity, and body durability, which can be restocked with a pit stop. The game also features a time trial mode with six circuits of its own.
Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally
April 14, 1988 FDS	Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally is a forward-camera time-based racing game featuring Mario as a driver and Luigi as a navigator racing through three lengthy branching courses going through various environments each, going through hills, jumps, and different times of day. Here, the aim is to get to the checkpoints on time while avoiding objects on and alongside the road, with the opponents merely serving as obstacles. The number of playable vehicles has been reduced to three, but they are much more physically and functionally different from each other than the previous games' are, including a buggy, van, and monster truck with their own strengths and weaknesses. One again, damage must be repaired, though due to a lack of pits Mario and Luigi must stop alongside the road to repair it themselves.

Legacy

The top image is a screenshot from F1 Race. The middle two are from this series' games. The bottom two are from their derivatives, F-Zero and Super Mario Kart for the SNES.

The two games would provide the backbone for later vehicular racing games produced in-house at Nintendo. Two notable examples were on the Disk System's successor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or Super Famicom) through use of its "Mode 7" graphics layer. The first, F-Zero, was inspired by complaints from Nintendo of America that the cars in 3D Hot Rally looked too "cute," so the game was given a space-themed aesthetic to appeal to mature audiences. The gameplay is a mixture of the two games, having the circuits and limited resources (in this case, antigravity power) of the former game and the camera angle and physics of the latter. Another successor on the same system, this one within the Super Mario franchise, is Super Mario Kart. This one has a similar mix of traits, but instead plays up the levity by removing the limited resources and changing the vehicles to go-karts, with a cast entirely of Super Mario characters racing each other with the help of comedic items. Both of these games would go on to spawn their own respective series. While the Famicom Grand Prix series itself has ended in favor of the Mario Kart series, the Monster vehicle from the second game makes sporadic appearances in the franchise, such as a miniaturized version called the Tiny Titan appearing in Mario Kart Wii.