Since the game was officially released after Nintendo’s September 2023 Direct, F-Zero 99 has been receiving updates with additional content and various bug fixes. Updates have been slow and incremental, but thanks to all the post-launch support, the game now has a lot of content that it didn’t have when it originally launched.
Well, Nintendo decided to release another update for the game tonight. With this update, F-Zero 99 is now at version 1.4.0. As for what the update does, there’s a lot. Added Queen League Festival, as well as Star Rivals and emotes. You can see the official patch notes in full below.
New additions
- Added Queen League Festival. All songs included in Queen League (MUTE CITY II/PORT TOWN I/RED CANYON I/WHITE LAND I/WHITE LAND II) will appear as festival tracks. During these events, Gem Sparks can be collected on the festival tracks.
- Added customization items that can only be obtained during the time the Queen League Festival is a live event. You can check the acquisition status by pressing the L key on the main menu.
- The Festival Queen League event will be held for a limited time only. You can see how much time is left in the event by pressing the L key on the main menu.
- Regular Queen League and Grand Prix Queen League tracks cannot be played when the Festival Queen League event is active (except in Private Lobby and Training modes). Also, timed challenges will not be available.
- Added event ranking card to weekly ranking based on collected Gem Sparks. A player who is ranked 999 or higher when the event ends can receive a special badge.
- Added Star Rivals. They will occasionally appear on the festival tracks during Festival Queen League events.
- Star Rivals will appear in F-ZERO 99 and Festival Queen League modes. They will not appear in private lobby races.
- The star rivals are the four characters Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh, Dr. Stewart and Pico from the SNES version of F-ZERO.
- When you defeat a star rival in a race where he is chosen as your rival, you will receive a special badge that can be used to customize pilot cards.
- Added emotes that can be sent at certain locations during a race. A face icon will appear in the upper right corner of the screen when the emote can be sent. At that time, hold the R button and press the A, B, X or Y button to select the emote you want to send.
- Emotes can be sent from the pilot card screen before the start of the race, during the camera intro at the starting point and during race observation.
- Emotes sent by other players watching will appear in the lower left corner of the screen.
- You can enable or disable SHOW EMOTIONS in the options in the main menu.
- The Team Battle rules have been changed. The previous two-team system has been changed to a five-team system, and the number of players per team is now 10. Also, in Team Battle, all teammates share one Team Super Meter. When the Team Super Meter is full, all teammates can ride the Team Skyway together.
- Super Boost is activated by each teammate pressing the boost button within the time limit.
- The number of players who can participate in Team Battle is 50.
- Available team colors are blue, yellow, green, pink and white.
- Gray Bumpers, Red Bumpers, and Gold Bumpers now also appear in Team Battle. Gold bumpers that appear in Team Battle are now knockable.
- Added three weekend events:
- Weekend event: Lucky Weekend
- Lucky Ranks will reset every four hours. You can earn bonus points and EXP when you play F-ZERO 99 or Pro Tracks modes during the event.
- Weekend Event: Machine-Shuffle Mini Prix Weekend
- At the beginning of the race, one type of machine is randomly selected and all players compete for the Mini Prix with that machine.
- Weekend event: Team Battle Weekend
- Team battles will be held frequently. You can earn bonus points and EXP in team fights during the event.
The weekend events are planned to take place on consecutive weekends following the end of the Festival Queen League period.
- Weekend event: Lucky Weekend
- Added Boost Boost and Spin effects used to customize the machine, as well as backgrounds, badges and borders used to customize the Pilot card. They can be unlocked when certain conditions are met.
- The new enhanced colors and Spin effects can be obtained mainly through time-limited challenges that start after the end of the Festival Queen League.
- New wallpapers can primarily be obtained through Lucky Ranks.
- You can access your new customization items through the workshop in the main menu.
Other adjustments and changes
- Increased how much the skill score of a player with S-S50 skill increases when defeating an opponent.
- Added a variation of the bumper spawn pattern.
- Due to a change in the Team Battle rules, the conditions for obtaining the Team Battle badge have been changed to “Finish in the top 3 teams in Team Battle 20 times” (and 50 and 99 times after that).
- The number of times you placed first in previous teamfights will remain recorded, and after applying this update, the number of times you placed first through third will be added.
- The double knockout badge has been changed to a hidden badge.
- Lucky Ranks reset time has been changed to 5:00 PM (PDT).
Other problems
- Fixed issues for a more enjoyable gaming experience.
