High Stakes in Mute City

"After dealing with Goroh, Falcon visits a club to try to relax..."

— Tagline Description of this Chapter.

High Stakes in Mute City is the third chapter of the story mode in F-Zero GX. It is unlocked by spending 25 tickets to purchase it in the F-Zero Shop after completing Goroh: The Vengeful Samurai. In this chapter, Captain Falcon's objective is to simply beat the other eleven racers in a three-lap race around a track consisting of several 90-degree turns.

Synopsis[]

After his stressful encounter with Samurai Goroh in the previous chapter, Captain Falcon travels to Bet & Race Dollars, a bar/lounge/casino, in Mute City to relax. Inside, a disgruntled Silver Neelsen is complaining about the costs of betting on F-Zero races. While moaning, he is bumped into by Mighty Gazelle, and drops his coin, which is picked up by Falcon.

Neelsen goes to retrieve his money, and recognizes Falcon immediately. He begs Falcon to enter the club's upcoming bet race, calling it "an old man's last request", and drags off the protesting Falcon. Neelsen disguises Falcon, and enters him under the pseudonym "Famicom". The club bookmakers are none the wiser, and make "Famicom" the rank outsider to win the bet race.

"Famicom" then races against eleven other veterans of the F-Zero circuit: Super Arrow, Zoda, Dr. Clash, Bio Rex, Beastman, Jack Levin, James McCloud, Baba, Billy, Mr. EAD, and Antonio Guster. After "Famicom" claims victory, Neelsen earns a fortune in return on his bet, while several other racers are seen acting in shock and frustration of their lost bet. As Neelsen hands Falcon his share of the prize money, a news bulletin reports that Black Shadow is wreaking havoc in the Lightning area. Falcon immediately ditches his prize money and disguise, and runs to the Blue Falcon to pursue Black Shadow.

Overview[]

Difficulty Changes[]

The other racers are more skilled, just like in a regular Grand Prix.

Dialogue[]

Before Mission[]

Silver Neelsen: "What a scam! Bets of two million space credits? Huh! What can I do with this one coin?"
Silver Neelsen: "You're the famous Falcon? Please, I beg of you. Enter the BET race."
Captain Falcon: "What-? Wait a -!"
Silver Neelsen: "Please. Consider it an old man's last request."
Captain Falcon: "Just calm down, old man!"
Announcer: "We will shortly be closing registration for the next race."
Silver Neelsen: "The next race is going to start!"
Captain Falcon: "Hey, where do you think you're taking me? Wait!"
Bio Rex: "(Burp!)"
Silver Neelsen: "Just perfect!"

After Mission Clear[]

Silver Neelsen: "Here this is your share. Take it."
Newscaster: "Once again, Black Shadow is running riot in the Lightning area. All citizens are advised to evacuate immediately. We repeat. All citizens are advised to evacuate immediately..."

Bulletin Board[]

The race board in the cutscene displays the following information:

07R Mute City - Galaxy Cap

Entry No.	Name	Odds	Name of Machine
No.001	BEAST MAN	8.1*	HYPER SPEEDER
No.002	THE SKULL	32.6	SONIC PHANTOM
No.003	FAMICOM	2560.5	BLUE FALCON
No.004	SUPER ARROW	6.3**	KING METEOR
No.005	BABA	12.4	IRON TIGER

*Formerly 9.2
**Formerly 4.5

Within a few seconds in the next scene, the race board shifts information to display the following:

07R Mute City - Galaxy Cap

Entry No.	Name	Odds	REM???	Name of Machine
No.006	JAMES McCLOUD	??.?		LITTLE WYVERN
No.007	JACK LEVIN	??.?		ASTRO ROBIN
No.008	DRAQ	??.?		MIGHTY TYPHOON
No.009	ROGER BUSTER	?.?	X	MIGHTY HURRICANE
No.010	GOMAR & SHIOH	120.5		TWIN NORITTA

Although there is twelve racers competing, the race board only displays ten names total during the opening cutscene. Despite The Skull, Gomar & Shioh, Draq, and Roger Buster's names being displayed on the bulletin board, they weren't shown competing in the Bet Race. The Skull is the only one of these characters to also not make any appearance within the Chapter's cutscenes at all. Billy, Antonio Guster, Dr. Clash, Bio Rex, Mr. EAD and Zoda are the only participants shown in the "start your engines" scene but their names were not displayed on the race board (or at the very least not shown on the race board on-screen).

If all of the above race board information is taken into account, that would make the Bet Race contain 16 characters instead of 12. There is a possibility that the number of participating racers may have been changed during development.

Oddly, the two MIGHTY words shown on the race board do not appear to line up.

Trivia[]

Captain Falcon's pseudonym, "Famicom", is a reference to the Family Computer console, the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System, often referred to as Famicom for short.
Captain Falcon was shown without his pauldron while he was wearing his Famicom costume. When he yanked the cape off, however, the pauldron suddenly reappeared on his shoulder. Also, his head model in-race does not contain the green and purple eye coloring on the mask seen on the costume during cutscenes.
Although the Famicom mask features a green and purple highlight around the eye area, there are no such colors on the mask within the head model in-game.
Mrs. Arrow, Dr. Stewart and PJ make a cameo appearance within this chapter's cutscenes. These are the only three racers to not have any significance to this Chapter's plot.
- The above three plus Mighty Gazelle were the only four racers inside the building that did not participate in the Bet Race (though given Dr. Stewart's and PJ's reactions in the cutscene, it is possible some of these Pilots still made wagers or entered a separate Bet Race).
Here's the vid for the intro music here:

F-Zero GX AX Music Story Mode Chapter 3 - High Stakes in Mute City