During last week’s Nintendo Direct, F-Zero 99 was given a surprise release, offering a battle royale take on the original SNES game. The announcement wasn’t the new F-Zero that fans had in mind, but the game has quickly become a favorite among Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. If a new leak is to be believed, Nintendo already has more content in mind for the game, including an Arcade Mode and a Survival Mode. This information comes from dataminer @OatmealDome, who speculates that Arcade Mode will force players to keep passing through gates to keep a timer refreshed.
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The Tweets from @OatmealDome can be found embedded below.
As with any leak or datamine, readers should take this with a grain of salt pending an announcement. @OatmealDome tends to be a reliable source, but plans are constantly changing in the video game industry, and just because the information was present in a datamine, it doesn’t mean it will actually make it into the game. It’s possible these ideas were scrapped by Nintendo prior to release. Hopefully these modes actually will be added, but until we get news from Nintendo, fans will just have to wait and see.
F-Zero: Nintendo’s Missing Franchise
The F-Zero series began life on the Super Nintendo, back in 1990. The series saw multiple successful iterations in the years that followed, with entries on the N64, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. Captain Falcon would go on to appear in the Super Smash Bros. franchise, and F-Zero would even spawn an anime series that was localized by 4Kids. Despite finding a lot of early success, F-Zero would disappear for nearly two decades, with no new games released between 2005 and 2022. Thankfully, F-Zero 99 has finally ended that drought, and those new to the series can play the original game and F-Zero X through Nintendo Switch Online’s SNES and N64 apps.
Why Has it Been so Long Between F-Zero Games?
Nintendo has never addressed exactly why F-Zero has been missing, but there has been a lot of speculation over the years. In 2021, former Nintendo designer Takaya Imamura told IGN that “without a grand new idea, it’s hard to bring [F-Zero] back.” Speaking to Gamesbeat last year, former Nintendo of America president Reggie File-Aime seemed to agree with that notion. However, Fils-Aime also guessed that “somewhere in the Kyotodevelopment centers, somedeveloper is playing around with an idea thatmight be applied toF-Zero.” It looks like he may have been right, as Nintendo has now applied the battle royale concept to F-Zero. It remains to be seen whether F-Zero 99 will be the game needed to get the series back on track, but it certainly seems to be a hit so far.
What do you think of F-Zero 99 so far? Are you happy to see the series return? Share your thoughtswith me directly onTwitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
