Review: F-Zero 99
by William Hernandez
Well, would you look at that. F-Zero actually got a new game. Is it what fans of the franchise expected or wanted? Probably neither of those things, but I can assure you that this is a game that had a lot of thought and love put into it. A battle royale racing game doesn't exactly sound all too interesting when you think of both genres in an abstract sense, but adding F-Zero-esque features into the mix does a lot more for the player experience than you would think. Given that it is free so long as you have Nintendo Switch Online, everyone should be trying this out for themselves. Trust me. Everything about this game just works.
Enjoyability: 15/16
A good battle royale makes every match feel worth it. Part of the fun is going to come from what the game has to offer, but it mainly is going to come down to how satisfying proper execution feels for players. If coming out on top is too easy or not rewarding enough, then players have little reason to come back for more. F-Zero 99 effortlessly keeps players engaged and it's all about the introductory learning curve. The game's not easy and the chaos of a full lobby is going to feel overwhelming at first. Winning is the ultimate goal, but early on the stakes are going to feel different. First, the priority will be to stop crashing out. Then, the priority will be to manage better times. Then, the priority will be to actually learn the tracks. Races pass by fairly quick and so your progress is going to feel palpable. At some point, you will develop the skills needed to win a race and that'll keep you going for a good while. The little victories you'll find in every race will add up and honestly don't be surprised if you find yourself saying "just one more" before you finally stop for the day. It's just that fun. The game is very addicting; though, mileage may vary.
Gameplay: 16/16
Even if you've not gotten the chance to play an F-Zero game before, the controls are fairly intuitive and simple enough that you'll be at the very least decent after an hour of playing. Knowing how to properly control your machine is only half the battle, though. The biggest difficulty in the game mainly comes from the multiplayer aspect of things. You're going to be facing 98 other players (at least, to start) who all want to win just as bad as you. That means you're going to get bumped aside, Spin Attack'd, and, at times, simply just get outraced. On top of all that, if you're doing well, you're going to see a lot of fodder cars on the track whose sole purpose are to serve as an obstacle for you to race around. Or maybe even blow you up. Now, that'd be a tough way to lose...The new mechanic available to use in this game is the Skyway which is something you charge up by collecting Super Sparks that other cars will drop. Initially, this might not seem like too much of a game-changer aside from giving you more breathing room, but it can actually add a lot of strategy to your races. It's effectively a comeback mechanic, yes, but saving it for specific sections will effectively allow you to skip your weakest areas on a track. It's not supposed to drop you off on a turn either so you can potentially get more run out of it if you time it perfectly on a given map. You can get the Skyway multiple times a race and it can totally make a difference in regards to your results. Doing well will ultimately come down to how well you can make your turns and maintain your position, but mastering the other mechanics can make you that much bigger of a threat. It's hard to feel like you're making any progress when playing a battle royale, but trust me when I tell you that it is very apparent in F-Zero 99. There's plenty of depth here in the gameplay to actually improve in a meaningful way and, like always, practice makes perfect.
Atmosphere: 6/6
This isn't a very important element of the game, but something about the complete, utter chaos of F-Zero 99 just feels like it would fit nowhere better than in the world of F-Zero. It just seems like a very believable evolution of entertainment for the world. The maps hold up very well decades after their original appearance and it does feel unfortunate that the series has not gotten a truly modern revision. The music is as great as ever and playing through 99 makes it very apparent that they're catchy tunes. Lots of the songs just get stuck in your head. It's hard to describe, but the cyberpunk aspect of the F-Zero universe just feels fully realized by everything about this game including the main menu. Players might not even think too much about this part of the experience, but it is absolutely an area of strength.
Design: 4/6
F-Zero 99 doesn't exactly change much between its few gamemodes. The special modes do feel distinct enough from the standard 99 mode, but only in minor ways. There are special pro courses available which test your fundementals to the extreme and there's also team battles which challenge your ability to effectively attack others. They're fun in their own way, but unfortunately the game doesn't exactly give you much incentive to play them. They could use some more depth or more rewards which is only going to happen if the game gets actual support so we'll have to see how that goes. Getting more tickets just doesn't feel impactful enough. The modes that do feel like an adequate evolution of the standard gamemode are the Mini Prix and Grand Prix which are multi-race tournaments. You can't just solely play these modes because they cost tickets (which take a decent while to farm) and so, they do feel like a step-up in terms of relevance and status. The stakes are high and even just qualifying for the last race feels like a good enough accomplishment to start. It's especially fun with friends as it gives you an extra push to perform even better. That's actually one talking point that needs addressing. There's no way to create parties or invite friends in this game which is a real shame. You can unoficially queue up together by joining a race at the same time (likely works even better if you live within the same timezone), but that's the only real way to do so. It's not the worst thing because you'll join up together about 50% of the time by trying the aforementioned technique, but it would be nice if that were addressed in the future. Could maybe work for a new gamemode, I don't know. We'll see.
Direction: 13/16
So how long is this game going to maintain player interest? That's not exactly something I can really answer just yet. I think it has a great foundation set. As has been stated before, the learning curve is plenty rewarding. The map variety is pretty okay so far, but it definitely is going to need updating in the future. I do think that in the long term the "pro" tracks will need to be available in the standard 99 mode. Only having a selection of about 4-5 standard tracks isn't going to cut it after enough time. But for now, it works. Players have a set amount of courses to get acclimated to the game and it makes sense to have a different tier of difficulty to "filter" out drivers in a way. It creates a sense of actual progression and it gives even more weight to Grand Prix as it requires you to actually be able to overcome the harder maps and actually perform well on a consistent level. F-Zero 99 wants you to improve and expects you to get better. Will you actually be able to win a race? That's all up to you, but the game's going to let you brag about it as much as you want once you finally get there. And if you like collecting, there's actually a lot of collectibles in the game that have various different conditions for unlocking. The bulk of them are machine-specific so, yeah....gonna take quite a long time. But for players who just want some customization options, you'll be able to get a good amount of different color and decal options just from doing basic objectives like doing X amount of races. Not a bad source of motivation honestly. Overall, I do think this game will need to add more content to maintain longevity, but it's in a pretty nice place where it's at now so let's enjoy it for what is. All I'm going to say is that the BS F-Zero Grand Prix are right there if Nintendo needs inspiration for new machines and tracks...
