Switch Online Exclusive F-Zero 99 Adds Queen League & Five Additional Tracks

There’s something incredibly Nintendo in 2023 about the idea of 33 year old tracks being drip fed in order to artificially create a live service game.

@nessisonett yea, it's why we love em. Fzero99 rocks!

I must be of the minority..... but i see why nintendo dont make many fzeros..... they are preety boring after 1 race..

F-Zero 99 + 5 tracks!

Guess what?
Free, free, free till it hurts!
And it will... 😉

@nessisonett Usually I'd agree with this, especially as someone who hates how they drip feed virtual console titles. But for F-Zero 99, I understand why; they want to see how the first batch of tracks fares.

Loving the game. Doesn’t feel like a “drip feed”. The nature of these types of games is to provide live events to keep people excited and engaged with it. That’s fine with me when there are no ads or microtransactions.

Besides I suck enough at the current tracks that I’m not even ready (started just this week).

@KnightsTemplar classic F-Zero has got nothing on modern F-Zero.

Also in a live service game you play the same track over and over with a low percentage of winning or making progress

Different experiences

At first I thought this was just the full Super NES game with the always online battle royale feature tacked in but now we still had to wait for more tracks? Like didn't y'all already finish those tracks like in 1991 Nintendo? Why force us to wait for them? I understand if y'all are adding new tracks but these tracks are just old tracks, just put them in and start working on the new tracks already.

The skill check jump that is White Land 2 will be glorious.

What!!!!! More tracks is coming!!! İ know Mute City, White Land and Port Town very well. That other too İ do not remember but İ must heard it a lot in the game.

@nessisonett

I mean I think 5 new tracks in like...3 weeks is both perfectly reasonable for a (technically) free game and also obviously better than every attempt at drip feeding content in a Nintendo sports game.

The more the merrier! I can only imagine how chaotic things are going to get when we reach the hardest tracks.

@nessisonett I think that's just a complaint for the sake of complaining imo especially when it seems reasonably spaced out compared to other services as it looks like it would be every 2 weeks, and the game would have the entire original game's tracks in mid October (I assume 2 weeks from now as well) it's not like players would be waiting too long...

Jack, Queen, King….”AND DONT FORGET THE JOKER!!!!”

These are great additions but I’d like it if we got some gba additions as well, maybe even some new racers that way.

@Serpenterror Pretty sure this is an entirely new game, not a port of the SNES version. As in, they built the tracks again for this game. I think if you've played the game you would realise they aren't just reusing assets from the 33-year-old SNES game.

@Serpenterror They're all finished and in the game already. It's just Nintendo wanting to gradually unlock the tracks as people get used to it. I don't think that's necessarily a bad idea personally.
Also it's not a port of the SNES game and it's literally impossible to make the original game work with 99 players like that. Actually, porting the game from SNES to Switch even implies to just reimplement everything because the game's source code was highly SNES specific that it would just be better to redo the game entirely in a new engine to fit their needs. All the tracks have been actually done to be a slight bit bigger to accomodate for 99 players.

I tried a Knight League grand prix once. Was ranked out in the fourth race. I will be obliterated in Queen League 💀

Oooh Red Canyon! I love it's theme song, so I'm looking forward to that one!

Since I'll seemingly never win a race, I don't think I have to worry about coming across White Land II.

I'm simultaneously excited and dreading new courses, the more difficult ones in particular.

I've gotten a good hang of the current courses, so I'll have to practice up a lot on the new ones once they drop. I'm still obsessing with this game and starting to rack up wins since I switched to the Golden Fox

Bring it on!!!
I am still loving this game!

Hope they can add the "BS F-Zero" tracks too!

@KnightsTemplar I see you have not played X or GX

Ooh, super pumped for this. I hope they make a 30 player online f zero in the future

@nessisonett
I can get where you’re coming from, but to me, this feels more like a new smash bros fighter coming to smash or a new crossover character coming to a popular game (probably Fortnite). yes, not as exciting but since F-Zero fans haven’t gotten a game in 20 years, I feel like this is a good way to keep people engaged.

Also, not everyone has seen these tracks before (including myself) and this will be an entirely new experience for most people, and even people who’ve played the snes game, this is still a new experience with 99 players.

@KnightsTemplar
There are few games that I will player over and over again without getting bored that have quite simple gameplay loops.

F-Zero 99 is one of those games. I wasn’t even an F-Zero fan until a few weeks ago when i played X on nso. Now I want a GX remaster as much as… well as much as captain falcon would.

I totally understand though the game isn’t for everyone.

I'm rubbish at this game but I'm still have fun with it.

It's a nice game to dip in and out of quickly 👍🏻

@nessisonett not at all. I played F-Zero to death back in the SNES era and the game is available on the Switch Online SNES app, but I bet many people playing F-Zero 99 have never played the original. In this case, It makes sense to make tracks available in a slower pace not to overwhelm people. Tracks like Mute City 1 and Big Blue are simple and can easily be played by beginners, whereas many others won't be enjoyed by them. It was actually a smart move to separate pro tracks from easier tracks. What I am curious about the future of F-Zero 99 is If we're getting brand new tracks and modes to see this game go beyond the original.

I'm loving the new tracks. I think Mute City II and Port Town I are my favorites so far. I've also already raced on some tracks from the final cup in Pro Tracks like Death Wind II and Port Town II.

These tracks are super fun to play but my internet has been running about as well as Starfield would if it was on switch so no play, I’ll have to try eastward instead cause of the game trial

Does it still burn the car sprite into the screen though?

One thing I hope they add is the dual layer parallax Mode 7 the GBA titles had, that gave the city tracks a layer of depth. Since this game is made in a 3D engine, just elevating the track from the "background" under it, like the Skyway already is, would look pretty slick.

@axelhander I thought the same. I think it's incredible how in the GBA games tracks rotate independently from the city/landscape below. Too bad it's absent here in F-Zero 99. Graphically the game has retained something from the GBA games that was one big improvement over the SNES original: the same hovercraft sprite zooms in and out as you approach or distance yourself. Notice how in F-Zero and also Mario Kart from SNES the car model/sprite changes as they zoom in/out.

It so wierd playing this game, then jumping on mk8 right after. MK8 feels so slow 😅

It's encouraging for the franchise that Nintendo want to keep engagement up by staggering additional tracks.

@DennisNOR I remember having that exact feeling back in the day on SNES!

I'm soooooo bad at this, but I'm having a great time! Glad we're getting the extra tracks!

@GrailUK
it probably keeps more players looking for games on a set track instead of divided between a bunch of tracks, which would make it more difficult to have 99 players at any given time.

@KnightsTemplar That's what I thought up until F-ZERO99. I'm pretty much hooked. Just imagine what a fully fledged release could do with customizable craft, private rooms with custom rules, modifiers like gravity, etc...

I started replaying the OG SNES F-ZERO and frankly, I enjoy it now. Must be the age or something.

@KnightsTemplar I hate to agree because of the hate I’m going to get, but even something like fast racing rx and how awesome it plays and looks, I end up bored after 2-3 races. yes, a new modern fzero done right might be what fans of genre want, but will it really sell is the question. I think fzero99 is a test to see if people really want a new fzero.

Just to clarify, you don't need to update the game to get the tracks. I learned that this morning😀😀

I finally got 1st in a Grand Prix Knight League. Kinda feels like a fluke somehow, but also insanely satisfying.

@DennisNOR back in the GameCube days, if my friend and I were struggling in Mario Kart Double Dash grand prix, we would play F-Zero GX against each other for an hour and then go back to MKDD. For some reason the switch from high speed to slow made it easier for us, maybe it made us more confident I don't know haha

@Ryan_Again good effort. I've got 2nd twice now, once but 1 point. You need a lot of luck as well as skill to win tho.

It's a fun game, and doesn't cost me anything extra. Happy to see them keep supporting it.

Happy to see more support for the game! I'm not huge into F-Zero but I think it's definitely a staple series that needs more love and attention.

F-Zero 99 is really fun, some of the most I've had with any of the "99" games, but it is seriously irritating that you can't do the special modes (Team Battle, Pro Tracks, Mini Prix, Grand Prix) at any time like in Tetris 99 or Pac-Man 99. That especially makes it so much more frustrating when I lose a Mini Prix or Grand Prix, because those usually last for only a few minutes so you are pretty much guaranteed to not be able to immediately try them again after doing them once. And now not only that, but with the addition of the Queen League Grand Prix you can't choose which League you want to do, either. Seriously, why did they have to do it like this?

This game is brutal. Granted I’ve only had a handful of goes but I blow up more often than not

@timp29 My tips:

• Use one of the lower two Vehicles.
• Let go of the gas when taking a corner and push it back in when you're going out of it.

Really helped me! It's been a slow climb, but I reached #50 today! (And I suuuuuuck at racing games, so that's a big win!)

Pathetic. Just re-release GX, already.