It has been over 20 years since the last game in the franchise was released, and Nintendo has finally graced F-Zero fans with more than a crumb of re-released content—announcing F-Zero 99 during the Sept. 14 Nintendo Direct.
Keeping in line with the other 99 titles released on the Nintendo Switch, F-Zero 99 takes the classic gameplay from the franchise’s original 1990 release and enhances it for a battle royale experience.
With updated visuals and gameplay features, players will pick their racing machine from a lineup of classic pilots to challenge dangerous tracks in lobbies filled to the brim with 99 competitors. It maintains the series’ focus on speed and balancing your position on the track to compliment it.
Running into players or obstacles will lower your Power Meter just like in the main games, however, if you run out of meter you are eliminated from the race with no respawns. That meter can also be used for a speed boost too, so risk it all to win in true F-Zero fashion.
There is a new mechanic called “Super Sparks” that drop on the track when machines collide. Collecting enough of them will let you jump up onto a special, secondary track above the other racers called the “Skyway,” which will let you cruise ahead of the competition and into better positioning.
You can use complete goals while playing to unlock different cosmetics for your machines too.
This is the first release for the series since Sega partnered with Nintendo for F-Zero GX on the GameCube in July 2003. It is available as a free download exclusively for active Nintendo Switch Online subscribers and is live right now.
This isn’t the F-Zero GX remaster or new title I, and many others, were hoping for, but at least it is a return to the franchise after fans have seen nothing but old re-releases for over a decade. I have dumped hundreds of hours into Tetris 99 and will be doing the same in F-Zero 99—catch me piloting Fire Stingray and bombing out of rounds early.
