Nintendo likes to keep you guessing with new titles appearing out of nowhere and so it was finally F-Zero’s turn. I’d been waiting a long while for this franchise to be revived although admittedly I didn’t picture it in this context. It’s a pretty fun title to be sure but at the same time it’s not exactly the next big thing. It’s worth a quick play. You’ll have some fun here but the limitations quickly start to show themselves as this game becomes repetitive very quickly. I don’t think it lends itself as well to the format as say Mario or Tetris does. Both of those were basically built for the genre!

When you start the game you have to play through 4 tutorial races which feels like a bit much to me because the gameplay isn’t exactly hard to grasp. You’re driving through the course and just have to watch out for the other racers. You do a race where it’s just you, then with 10 people, then with 50 people, and then with 100. So a bit excessive but maybe they really thought people would be a little unsure of what to do afterwards. I won’t fault them for it but I would have definitely lessened this.

Once you finish that there are 3 modes to play from here. Quick race, special race, and grand prix. Grand prix is only active at some points which is 3-5 races in a row against opponents and boosting up your score. The special race can cost you a flag and you get points too. For now I don’t see much incentive to play those instead of normal race but I wouldn’t be surprised if you unlock more collectibles that way. I ended up unlocking 2-3 through level ups but you can check the requirements for each collectible in the shop. Some are about boosting a lot, racing a lot, just playing a lot, etc. Getting all of them should take you a very long time. I saw one that doesn’t unlock until you reach level 90 which is serious stuff.

I do like the collectibles though because it gives you a reason to keep on playing past the initial hour or two. If these weren’t there then there would seriously be no incentive to keep on playing. At the end of the day it will be based on how much you like the gameplay but even then, it’s very limited so that can’t be enough to keep you satisfied forever. Put it this way, there are around 5-6 courses right now. Sure they will probably add more as the game goes on but that means you will be playing on the same maps over and over again very quickly. In my brief time I already played on the same stage 4-5 times and I didn’t play all that long.

Also with the pure craziness of 100 racers on screen at the same time, you can expect a whole lot of bumping and shoving so you are very rarely able to race without interruption. It is fun at first of course since that’s the whole novelty factor but very quickly you will be wishing that you could just race and have fun on your own. That feeling of getting past everyone and just having the skies to yourself? Not going to happen for any period of time in this game since all of the cars are the same speed. Even if you make it to first temporarily, someone will get a super boost and speed away on the road above you.

Your skill is still rewarded of course as saving time around the corners and maximizing your boosts is crucial. You can expect RNG to hurt you sometimes but not enough where it matters. I was averaging spots in the top 40 and I imagine experienced F Zero players will probably be able to reach top 20 consistently. It’s all about learning the ins and outs of the game after all. The controls may be simple to learn but mastering them will be another story.

I am curious to see how long this game lasts. I can’t picture it having the huge success of titles like Fortnite or Among Us but hopefully it does well enough for Nintendo to keep on going for a while. Then we can get the AAA F-Zero game that I’ve been waiting for. So I’m rooting for this title even if I probably won’t be lasting too long on this one. It’s a fun game and the graphics are nice and retro. If I was more hooked on the gameplay then I’d probably be all in but I feel like the most addicting gameplay styles come in later on. For example picture Booksquirm 99 from Mario Party? That would be so much fun.

Overall, F-Zero 99 is a fun game and it’s cool that Nintendo just suddenly dropped it on everyone. That said, I still want a true F-Zero sequel to replace the old one so this better not take that place. There’s so much you could do with a futuristic racer like this after all and I need to see the end result of that. Jump into F-Zero 99 while you can because these 99 games tend to just vanish after a while. If you have the Switch Online there’s no reason not to jump into this free adventure.

Overall 6/10