Notice that xLunaiire tends to spin at every jump as this gives free invincibility frames since jumps restore your spin to full; a great habit in the chance someone tries to hit you.

I was thinking this meta might be self-limiting, since multiple Golden Foxes doing this would be fighting neck-and-neck. But then I remembered that getting a kill fully refills your health, so that Golden Fox mob will nearly always have one survivor.

As a fire stingray player, the amount of power recovered blew my mind

the first time i saw golden fox's ungodly recovery, literally an entire bar every lap, i knew it was busted. you can just boost non-stop more or less.

Meanwhile, Golden Fox was the worst ship in the original F-ZERO.

I never thought I would ever see an F-Zero meta discussion vid in 2023, but here we are! I’m liking this gaming industry timeline.

3:33 "Where will this lead the game? Will races come down to the final stretch, where ten Golden Foxes all fight to survive on their last ounce of energy?" Fox is always gonna be in our Final Destination. _Working as Nintended._

this is super smash bros melee all over again

This is what It felt like to use golden fox the first few days, but players are getting better at catching up with the skyway. also players as a whole are getting better.

Golden Fox is going to naturally be balanced when Queen cup and especially King cup release imo. The knight league tracks are relatively easy compared to the other 2, Fire Field and Death Wind 2 alone should literally natural select them out of the running lol

I've been a Golden Fox user since the very start. I hope that it doesn't get nerfed too hard.

I just use the Blue Falcon in 99 because it's the one I used the most as a kid. Favorite color is blue, Captain Falcon is awesome, and so on but I remember also liking how the Golden Fox felt when I was experimenting to get across the jump on White Land II that always killed me. I didn't know until 99 that you can hold up and down to finesse your jump height and landing.

These maps lend themselves well to GF play. Wait till Queen and King courses come in; other machines will have their chance to shine in top play

the phrase "f-zero meta" hits real weird

I haven't perfected it, but I suspect that the counter is chasing a golden fox leader with wild goose. On the first lap or two if you race a perfect line behind them, you can keep up with them even with their ridiculous boost. You'll burn through basically all your energy, but here's the thing: So will they. So once they're exhausted and right at the edge of the recharge bar, hit them. You'll regain all your energy for KOing a human driver. High risk. But high reward.

I actually wanna bring up that despite this, the game is still balanced. If a Blue Falcon player manages to score any KO's, it now has the leniency of boost like the Golden Fox, making it just a faster Golden Fox. I still think it dominates most tracks, but given Falcon's better grip and speed, it likely can squeeze out a couple wins while the others are left in the dust.

time for wild goose mains to hunt and destroy golden fox machines

I think most have realized this, but I have to repeat it: NEVER EVER TURN TO AVOID BUMPERS On the original F-Zero they were erratic, both moving on straights and slowing down on corners, but on this game they go on a fixed speed AND on a straight line, meaning that turning is only good for avoiding them in corners, never on the straights Player bumpers are different, of course, but CPU bumpers are straight garbage and full of brainrot. Turning to avoid them means you get a faceful of barrier and a very likely crash out

I thought that was Golden Fox's game plan from day 1, boost and recover to glory. Once you have multiple Foxes up front they start to collide and cannot boost as much giving other ships a chance. However, if you can separate and keep clean lines the #1 spot rarely gets challenged. Players are getting better at using the Skyway, so I think that is giving the Fox a challenge. In fact, I used to see like 7 Golden Foxes in the top 10, now I only see a few, like 3 max.

TBH I’m not surprised, but I do find it oddly refreshing that the vehicle most suited to new players is also one that’s so strong in the right hands. Like, I initially started off driving the Fox because the recovery was more forgiving towards my newbie mistakes. Recently, I switched to the Falcon and I’ve had a good time with it, but even before seeing this video, I’d been considering going back to the Fox because I feel like I’ve gotten an even better grip on the gameplay. It’s neat!

It's kind of odd to see how this video has already aged in the past 3 weeks. It's crazy to think how quickly the community has learned to play the game. I think that Golden Fox is very dominant in standard, single races, but the Goose is far better for grand prix's simply because it scales so much better with K.O.'s. It's not hard to beat xLunaiiire in the final 2 races of a prix using the Goose if you have sufficient K.O.'s these days, and that's even with xLunaiiire pushing the Fox to its absolute limit. I think the big problem today is that so many players know exactly when to time the skyway and how to farm K.O.'s off players and bumpers in the first two races that it makes the recovery of the fox negligible in the final 2-3 races of a prix. The energy bar scales via a percentage value, not a fixed increase for each vehicle. Because the Goose has 6 boosts in one bar, it scales the strongest from getting a bunch of K.O.'s. Granted enough K.O.'s, the extended fuel tank can outmatch the recovery speed of the Fox, especially in later tracks where the boost recovery pad is shorter. The Goose is also the best suited for farming K.O.'s, since it takes the least damage from player interactions and can comfortably sit in rear places without taking damage. If you can time 2 good Skyways, which are very easy to generate when running a bit from the front, you can jump back into the top 7 places during the 3rd and 4th lap using the extended energy bar. Once you've got your bar extended, it's just frontrunning from then on over the rest of the races in the prix. All that said, the Fox is the most consistent racer. The fact that it's biggest strength is tied up in the boost pad means that you aren't relying on as much RNG to give you the edge in the later races is great if your goal is to rack up leaderboard points rather than wins. I think that the fox has a very good average performance for every race, but will never set any records. And yes, I have beaten xLunaiiire repeatedly with the Goose back when he mained Golden Fox for Grand Prix's. Since then, he tends to run Fox and Stingray for prix's, and to very good effect! I'd say he is among the best Stingray players out there and is very, very difficult to beat. I think he has since made a blend of older 4-lap frontrunning techniques with the Fox and combined them with getting a few K.O.'s here and there in the early rounds. You don't tend to see him frontrunning as much in the first two laps on the first race when he's using the fox, since he's trying to extend the boost meter. He knows that with a well placed Skyway or two, he can get right back into the top 5 and finish in first on the final lap anyway. My chances of winning seemingly disappear whenever I see his name in the lobby.

I just ran into this guy in a knight league a few hours after watching this!! He got first in every leg lmao. He was rank S18, and according the leaderboard that was his 101st prix win. I, on the other hand, was just trying to unlock the decal for blue falcon. I made it to silence, but that was the race that i discovered you die instantly if you jump and land outside of the track 😂

Definitely going to try this still haven't got win but consistently getting top tens.

One thing to note is if a golden fox cannot get a lead and falls back, the low top speed hurts it a ton, but at least it can recover a ton of hp. Queen and king cups have more obstacles to worry about so golden fox might balance out if it cannot boost enough to get an early lead and has to conserve hp and not be able to boost, it will drop behind. So far in the easier knights cup i can see it being a top pick for sure.

Just a reminder: In the F-Zero anime, the Golden Fox canonically has an S-class booster.

I definitely felt like I noticed a shift from Wild Goose to Golden Fox since launch. I'd imagine when more of the harder tracks get added it will become harder for Golden Foxes to front-run so consistently.

And I was just looking at this ship yesterday due to it's acceleration, which I thought was useful when you're being bumped continuously. Didn't even know what "Recovery" meant 😂

"youve landed some first place finishes" ... looks at my level 23 with no wins record.

Good for them. I'm sticking with Wild Goose at A rank and climbing. When I unlock all the WG skins, then I'll race with other cars to complete the sets.

Title wise, this couldn't be better since 90% of the time you just end up exploding 2 meters from the energy strip, since you get bodied by bumpers or others when you have taken one too many hits earlier when you ended up in 10-30 range LMAO. Golden Fox truly is a glass cannon, though super fun to drive. Was a hardcore sting ray until I saw the potential for this day 2

I will always be an advocate for the Fire Stingray (Since I won a Grand Prix with it), but have also noticed how much harder it is to win. The Golden Fox with a few KO's under its belt can dominate lobbies. I've also noticed that taking the Skyway can be more beneficial than staying in the front sometimes? Maybe it's just me, but the final lap of Mute City gets me KO'ed more often than others, due to the explosive bumpers on the final turn. There's definitely a lot more to learn, and more-so with the upcoming tracks. Neat video btw!

It just recovers sooooo much energy.

And i thought i had figured out the meta game of the fire stingray Stay at around position 50 and farm for sky way In laps 2 and 3 kill as much enemies as you can Just boost the heck out of lap 4

I suspected that since it picked up speed immediately, it'd be the best at cornering. And with most tracks have a massive amount of corners, I knew it had to be a strong contender.

Man, even in his own franchise, Falcon can't compete with a Fox.

I'll be interested to see how the Fox does on Death Wind II. On the original SNES game it was literally impossible to take first versus the AI (on Master difficulty).

A very haunting and echoing 'Fayyaaah!' gets heard.

Didn't know you were still around great video 👍

Kinda makes me happy. When I was young, Golden Fox was almost immediately my favorite after reading up on it in Nintendo Power. It looked neat, it was golden, and accelerated like a bat out of hell. Unfortunately, it was also fragile and didn't corner well, so it was considered the worst. The Stingray was what most people went with since it had the highest top speed, great cornering, and also the second most sturdy. I'm glad to see the Fox is a top choice in 99. Feel vindicated in a way lol.

I honestly hate how the Golden Fox controls really. The Firesting Ray always has been my go to vehicle since I learned about F-Zero speedrunning because of its amazing top speed and tight handling. But wait till the Queen and King leagues come out. We'll see how long the Foxes last.

¡WOW!, i remember Golden Fox used to be the HARD MODE, and the Fire Stingray the meta of the very first F-zero. Maybe that was because it wasn't an online game back then.

I generally switch between the Blue Falcon and the Wild Goose. Not that great of a player but it still just fun to race away at each couse. Best I've placed in is 12th place.

I've gotten a grand prix win with all four machines, and I'd definitely have to agree that golden fox is the most consistent. On most of the tracks the other vehicles don't have enough power meter to consistently boost out of corners that force them to lose their max speed (especially after making a mistake or getting bumped at any point in the race), or at least are forced to play extraordinarily risky in order to drive multiple laps without dropping speed. Even on tracks where the fire stingray and others can attain max speed from start to finish of the entire race (death wind I), golden fox still keeps up if not outpaces them with the more frequent boosts from my experience (not to mention the burst of speed the fox gets often really helps in overtaking 1st without them being able to block the fox behind them, while they usually have to creep up behind the fox allowing for it to block its path and knock down their speed when they bump each other). I would say however that with a solid KO or two the fire stingray has the meter necessary to fly across all of the tracks no problem once attaining 1st (I'd say the KO power increase benefits the other machines more than the fox, but it's hard to say how a stingray with 2 KOs would compare to a fox with 2, fox might still be better at holding the lead, especially with how the fox is given 1st from the start while the stingray needs to fight to get there)

There is a stingray called Dotman who beat Lunaire multiple times

In the original F-Zero I only played Fire Stingray, every other car was bad compared to that, but online against 98 people I've noticed, that Golden Fox can lead much easier, bumping doesn't affect its speed as much as of Fire Stingray. Will be interesting to watch how the meta changes with patches.

This video, this player. This was the origin of the golden fox hell.

Golden Fox was always my favorite machine. Watching this run reminds me of what a good run on master difficulty looks like using Fire Stingray. It’s only good if you can get in front and maintain top speed perfectly, and its dash zone behavior seems nerfed. Will be interesting to see if it ever makes a comeback.

not sure I recall Golden Fox ever being under represented. 9 out of 10 races I do the top 5 are mostly Golden Foxes, and it's been that way from the start.

I feel like it doesn’t excel as much in Grand Prix due to extended energy meters carrying over between races. A Fire Stingray that can safely boost a similar amount means Golden Fox’s advantages are far fewer. I’m curious if it will excel as much on future tracks. Boosting might be much harder to abuse when harder turns become more prevalent.

I did not expect 20XX to come for F-Zero, but here we are

I've met xLunaiire in the game, and I got bodied by them on Sand Ocean despite maining GF myself. I do have almost the same boost pattern on Mute City as they do, but I'm trying to conserve a bit of health by keeping one extra boost just in case. And there were times where I was right to keep that boost, since there were times the extra health saved me from being killed by a red bumper.

I've done this myself and I'll always end up hitting a bumper and dying, lol

The energy recovery makes it a good choice for newbies and the acceleration is PHENOMENAL

I started using this the other day, gonna have to try getting good. Maybe if my internet wasnt so crap and I didnt keep getting connection errors

They need to mod It because there never used to be that much variation in recovery between vehicles. He literally gets triple what the pink car gets

When there’s a gang of foxes in the lead beating the hell out of each other, the ability to boost frequently is going to go. It’ll be a mini battle royale but the victor is still going to be left in a dangerous condition.

I use the goose. I hang towards the back or the middle on the first lap on purpose. Get a bunch of gold orbs and rack up a kill or two. Then I use the sky way and save all of my boosts for the last 2 laps. I've been pretty consistent.

You don't get to use the skyway when you're gfoxxing so we'll see how useful it is for the harder cups

That's exactly what i have been doing all the time and i stay in the lead for the entire race, before crashing out because i eventually run into a red bomb car.

These Golden Fox players have been dominating since the first few days. They make it look easy but its definitely the hardest ship to use.

I prefer fire stringray because of its amazing handling, the thing can take a lot of heavy turns without needing to slow down at all. But Golden Fox is also very fun

I be for sure trying the Golden Fox now.

You mentioned that Lunaiiiire says that the golden Fox does well on 5/7 of the available tracks. Can you state which ones that they believe the Golden Fox does not do well on? As if it's both Port Land II and White Land I, I think Meta behind vehicle selection will shake up once Queen & King Cups become way more common.

Its funny, cuz this is exactly how you would play the OG F Zero on the SNES if you wanted fast times and were not a WR speedrunner. Even the spots where he boosts is where you would do it on the SNES along with the fact he strafes to avoid bumpers instead of turning because if you turn you lose top speed.

After seeing this video, streaming for 5 hours and running into the guy, yeah hes CRACKED

I play golden fox, I noticed how strong it is to take first place early and hold it when I first got my win (Death Wind course) But I did not know how strong it was to burn a lot of boost early, I always try to conserve it if I fall behind but I get it now: If I boost to first early and drive consistently, I won't fall behind just like my first win

This is the machine I've mained since launch, and what I thought the whole time! I couldn't believe early tier lists were putting Dr.Steward in last place.

Hey do you think you could make a tip video for general speed-saving techniques in 99 mode? Like maneuvering mosh pits and the best way to control around tight corners (do we let go of gas? Eat a wall hit and recover?) Seems like people always do the final turn on Mute City well and I have no clue how

Never knew the true potential of Dr. Robert Stewart

I chose golden fox as soon as I saw it’s stats. My highest rank right now is a 39th in Big Blue, but I am starting to get better

What in the actual fuck. That energy recovery speed is broken, I had no idea. I’m going to riot.

I’ve been driving the Golden Fox since the SNES and still having decent success in 99.

RIP Fire Stingray 1990-2023

Golden Fox going crazyyyyy

That grand poo bear guy plays like this

I saw him in a few races, his racing line is quite neat in White Land.

I wish the bumpers would appear so kindly out of my path like this.

Ia there an objective reason to spin right before you hit ramp? Or is it just for show?

I need to try this, that was ridiculously fast!

Bro that's crazy. He damn near got his whole bar back. No wonder..

Wild Goose supremacy

Me and my brother both used the golden fox back in 94 and used to beat the whole game. It was bothering me alot on why so many players instead used the golden goose and it suddenly hit me, It was cause of speed runner using it.

It's amazing as soon as I switched to Golden Fox, I won a race. It's the only Black Ship I own

I'd actually love watching 10 Golden foxes destroying each other🦊😂

It's interesting seeing the Golden Fox on the lead, it's more closer to the original plot of F-Zero :D Oh well, it seems that I have to change from my Blue Falcon.

in training (unregulated gameplay) a sting still can beat a fox with relative ease

I see a rework for the Golden Fox, effectively nerfing it but making it a better fit against the others.

I feel like Fox is better at individual races for sure if you get the lines down. However, I have seen a lot of success in GPs as Goose as their durability let’s them fight it out in the pack. And pick up those kills that make it’s boost bar grow enormous. So by the time of the final race even Goose’s have tons of boost to use after getting 3-5 kills. Sort of evens the odds the longer the match goes on.

Golden Fox is my second favorite car, Ive been really successful with it cause of the boost recovery

Just explains why the only time I ever got first place in a race was when I was using golden fox.

So _That's_ how you win with *Fox* in Classic _F-Zero_ ; *Unlimited boosts!*

I just started playing yesterday and loved using the Golden Fox cuz of the recovery

I’ve been seeing Golden Fox topping nearly every race / gp recently. Hopefully the meta changes so it’s more balanced or they do a slight nerf to its recovery to prevent it from just constantly boosting without much worry

I can't imagine how anyone picked anything else than the car with the best acceleration and health recovery in a car fighting game you can die in.

Pea brain: "I pick cars based on what will let me win the meta." Galaxy brain: "I pick this car because it looks cool when I smash into people haha."

I’ve seen all four ships among the top spots when I’ve played

Does it come in pink?

The video shows what happens when one player uses Golden Fox extremely well, but I suspect that if there were two or more such players, using that many boosts would be much more dicey. If the hares all blow each other up, it might be a tortoise that ends up winning the race.

don't mess with dr. stewart!

I maimed him anyways badass theme in GX