Samurai Goroh

Samurai Goroh (Japanese:サムライ ゴロー, Samurai Gorō), is a rival racer to Captain Falcon in the F-Zero series of futuristic Nintendo racing games. He has featured as a collectible trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and more recently he has appeared as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Character description
Samurai Goroh was introduced under this name in the first F-Zero for SNES, alongside three other playable racers including Captain Falcon. His F-Zero machine, the Fire Stingray, had both the fastest top speed and the heaviest weight of the four original racers, with a strong body and tight cornering ability adding to its pros; its main con is its crucial lack of acceleration. These general traits are carried over to the pilot and machine's incarnations in subsequent F-Zero games. Samurai Goroh himself was not visibly depicted in the game, however, for it was only his machine that was displayed on screen, and it was only starting with F-Zero X that he is first seen in person. Regardless, Samurai Goroh and his Fire Stingray remain a racing staple in any F-Zero game's roster of racers.

Goroh himself is age 44 and 45 in his appearances in F-Zero X and F-Zero GX, respectively. He is a very portly man, both muscular and obese, and yet he is very athletic, able to perform multiple successive backflips in spite of his mass, for example. While sources note his homeworld to be unknown, he is stated to be of Japanese-American ethnicity. He is boastful and intends to establish himself as a big figure in the media, but he is by no means a bad person, but he harbors considerable hatred toward Captain Falcon for trying to and succeeding in doing everything he does but better. Both men were employed in the Internova Police Force in the past, with his role set as tracking down and capturing criminal suspects with another would-be racer named Antonio Guster. But Goroh and Guster were pardoned from the force after they used unnecessarily extreme measures to bring in some suspects. Goroh became a bounty hunter afterwards and felt equally bitter towards Guster as he does Falcon, believing it was Guster's fault they were exonerated.

In F-Zero GX, Goroh has become both a bounty hunter and leader of a group of interstellar thieves, and Goroh considers himself as renowned and talented at bounty hunting as Captain Falcon and intends to establish that as fact. Falcon nontheless beats Goroh out to the most profitable projects and hogs the resulting glory for himself, leaving Goroh consistently bitter and jealous. He makes it his life goal, then, to never stop trying to defeat his rival, so he will enter every F-Zero tournament that Falcon enters in hopes of getting that lucky break. In the game's story mode, Goroh forces Falcon to agree to a two-way race where the winner is awarded the loser's racing machine; Falcon, of course, ends up driving away victoriously with the Fire Stingray while Goroh swears that he will be at the next Grand Prix.

While Samurai Goroh is one of the more prolific side characters in the F-Zero franchise, he has barely made appearances in other media. An alternate-reality take on him features in the F-Zero GX anime series that was short-lived in America, where he was depicted as essentially the same type of character, but he provides as his motto "steal, but never kill". Goroh and his vehicle have also made cameos in second and third games in the Super Smash Bros. series; while in Melee they were merely a collectible figurine together and the vehicle is among the many racers seen in the F-Zero stages, in Brawl Goroh (now in his F-Zero GX incarnation) has a more interactive role as one of the various secondary characters that can be summoned with the new Assist trophy item. His appearance in this role has been both pleasing to F-Zero fans and disappointing to those who hoped for him to be a main playable fighter like Captain Falcon.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
Samurai Goroh appears in Super Smash Bros. Melee ' s opening FMV in a heated two-way race with Captain Falcon ramming their respective racing machines into each other on the Mute City track, but the Blue Falcon is able to send the Fire Stingray flying off the track and crashing into the camera. Samurai Goroh also appears as a collectible trophy along with his racing machine, the Fire Stingray, which is also seen in the two F-Zero-themed stages in the game.

As a trophy
Samurai Goroh features as a collectible trophy, unlocked as one of the 100+ trophies that can be collected randomly during normal play, such as in the Trophy Lottery and throughout the various Single-player Regular Matches. It depicts both Goroh and his racing machine, the Fire Stingray. It reads as follows:


 * Samurai Goroh
 * A rival bounty hunter, Samurai Goroh has crossed paths with Captain Falcon in many a dark corner of the universe. He also goes head-to-head with Falcon in F-Zero races, so the threads of their fates seem to be deeply intertwined. Samurai Goroh is famous for his katana, and his signature T-shirt is instantly recognizable. (F-Zero, 8/91)

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Samurai Goroh makes his gameplay debut as a computer-controlled Assist character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as one of the many secondary Nintendo characters that can appear from the Assist Trophy item in battle. Just like Pokémon are released from Pokéballs, Goroh can appear when an Assist Trophy is used. When released, he uses his katana to slash at opponents.

As a trophy
''A man who presents himself as a bounty hunter much like Captain Falcon but is also the boss of a notorious bandit group. He tries to collect criminal bounties but always fails to beat Captain Falcon to the collar. He considers himself Falcon's archrival and always tries to beat him in F-Zero races. His machine, the Fire Stingray (#05), has a high top speed.''


 * F-Zero (1993)
 * F-Zero GX (2003)