I’ve been playing more #FZero99 (just made it to A- rank, best finish is 6th so far).
The game is excellent in some ways - the old Mode7 graphics look goddamned beautiful on a big modern HD screen, and they’ve done a brilliant job adapting the classic assets into new ways, like the new spin-attack. The game has a simple and clean design that adds only a little to the classic game - it handles like the original (which is similar to MarioKart without weapons), but now boost burns health and collisions drop coins that you can use to “superboost” which is a short-term access to an elevated faster track.
It feels very random, but in a fun way - like, if Fall Guys was too chaotic for you don’t pick this up. Getting into top ranks in a race seems to depend on a lucky melee kill (which gets you enough health to abuse the booster), or pummeling a fortunately-placed Gold Bumper or two (which quickly give you enough coins for the superboost). Both of those are available on a pretty random basis. The occasional lag-spike adds even more to the randomness of play. But still, I’m enjoying it.
The big flaw imho is lack of variety.
I’m so sick of Mute City and Big Blue, after only a few days playing. The main game currently only has a 4 track rotation with 2 voting options, and voters always take the easier option. It’s a problem that the original SNES F-Zero only had 15 tracks, and they’re trying to keep it to Knight (Easy) League for now except for the “expert tracks” mode which is just Port Town 2 and White Land 1. They’re obviously going to bring in the other leagues over time, but that’s still only 15 tracks and some of those are hard-mode-remakes of older ones.
There’s also only 4 cars to choose from - there’s the speedy one, the brawler (important in these crowded courses), the fast-recharger (remember that health is boost) and the all-arounder. So good options to match your playstyle, but still: only 4.
F-Zero was a SNES launch-title that smashed it out of the park with music and gameplay and graphics and style, but it was obviously made under a deadline and so it doesn’t have an amazing amount of content, and you really feel that playing F-Zero 99.
It’s just too repetitive. I loved the OG, but I’d sacrifice nostalgia for some new, unfamiliar courses.
But yeah, if you’ve got access to Nintendo Switch Online, I’d definitely give it a try. You can’t beat the price: Free is my favourite flavour. It’s easy to pick up, the tutorial is pretty quick, and it’s fun. And it’s a Nintendo “99” nostalgia game, which means it’s certainly going to be time-limited. Play it while you can.
You should try the special events when they rotate. I feel it makes the game a little less repetitive.
Grands prix are pretty “casual” for something big, and they often pretty fun. The pro tracks I always do to get better at them.
Team battles are meh but they’re still cool
Yeah, I feel the same about the events. But there’s only 2 “pro” tracks (White Land and Port Town 2), and I think they’ve dropped the frequencies of the full Grand Prix now with the Miniprix (which also include White Land and Port Town 2 as their final race)… which means I still haven’t played on Silence (I tend to be a bit too aggressive and end up blowing up on the 3rd or 4th track on Grand Prix).
That’s still a total rotation of 6 tracks (I’m not counting Silence because it’s hard to get there), and most of the time you’re playing on only 2 of them.
I really hope they add all tracks soon, maybe even some new ones
This game has serious potential. It they end it prematurely Nintendo has gone even more mad.
I too, have never reached Silence because sand ocean always causes me to crash :p
I mean even without inventing new F-Zero content, there are other Mode-7-style F-Zero games (that nobody played, but still they exist). It wouldn’t ruin my nostalgia to play tracks from BS F-Zero GP2 or the GBA F-Zero games. But yeah, you can’t tell me splatting some tiles down for new tracks would be that hard… I’m sure this is a game where you could even procedurally generate the tracks pretty well and eliminate the “memorization” aspect. I’d love that as an “event mode”.