ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มิ.ย. 2024
- Join me as we dive deep into the world of F-Zero 99, the beloved racing game that burst onto the scene and took the online racing stage by storm. In this video, we'll explore the current state of the game and examine the pressing issues that have plagued it. From dwindling player counts to technical aspects that need a revamp, we'll leave no stone unturned.
But fear not, fellow racers! It's not all doom and gloom. Throughout the video, I'll propose potential solutions to these problems, offering insights into how F-Zero 99 can rise from its current struggles and reclaim its former glory. Whether it's implementing new features, adjusting balance issues, or some tinkering under the hood, there could be some hope for this game after all.
So buckle up and join the discussion. Let's explore whether F-Zero 99 is on life support or if there's a bright future ahead. Together, we'll dissect the game's challenges and brainstorm ways to breathe new life into this adrenaline-fueled racing experience. Don't miss out on this crucial conversation for fans of F-Zero everywhere!
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - Part 1: State of the Game
01:45 - Part 2: Diagnosis
04:44 - Part 3: Fixing the Problem
07:40 - Part 4: The Future of F-zero 99 - เกม
I'm still having a fantastic time with it and meeting new friends. It's like playing guitar, you can have dreams of being the best sure, but at the end of the day, you play guitar because you were built for speed. Its an itch that can never be scratched, you either got it or you don't.
I'm glad you're still having fun with it! Not a lot of people can have that sort of outlook on things. I can do it in short bursts... but there's always plenty of other games I find more interesting than FZ99 right now.
@@heyniles oh yeah I still need my comfort games, but I won't be satisfied until I stand on top of that mountain. I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was.
@@ThrashCommander I feel that on a personal level and this game gives me that feeling also, always striving for first!
@@theronin942 always gotta get that fast feeling
I love racing against the Elites or what I like to call it "The Tough Nuts"
I think they should add the X Cup that generates a random circuit layout so Elite racers can´t exactly exploit the circuits like the normal ones... Maybe the 4 ships from the SatellaView broadcasts games and the recently remaked Forest and Metal Fort tracks
Just add the GBA F-Zero characters and tracks and then we're gold.
exactly.
Too bad this game seems abandoned already.
@@inthefade The new S20+ ranks are ridiculous. I get rivals that are all S4, beat them, and get about 3 pixels of progress. If I crash out, I lose like 30% of my progress, making me have to grind for about 45 minutes to get back what I lost. We need a better ranking system. Also, if gba tracks are too much to ask for, Nintendo should add the Satellaview tracks.
Or the BS F-Zero GP2 courses and vehicles
The lack of skill-based matchmaking makes sense in the context of 99 players where you want all sorts of skill levels and unpredictability. It doesn't work when it's 80-90% bots.
Keep it alive F-ZERO 99 cant die 😦
I play every day dude. 🙂
Same😅
Every day on my free time
I recently got this game like 2 weeks ago and play almost every day and I got my friend hooked on it and we play often.
I play most nights still
I think this goes to show that F-Zero doesn’t need 99 players. It needs at most thirty. If Nintendo improves their network infrastructure, an F-Zero X or GX style racer with online multiplayer would be a ton of fun.
I agree - even if the game uses bots to make the action seem more frenzied, a smaller lobby would give them better matchmaking options and better server response.
@@heynilesAnd a 3D game would have inherently more interesting tracks, which I think would help the longevity of the game. Like, X and GX’s tracks don’t get old, even when you’re grinding them over and over to get better and beat them all on Master.
@@Brawler_1337 Even if they wanted to keep the retro SNES asthetic, they could probably find a way to convert the tracks to that style and still keep them interesting.
I think Nintendo coming out and SPECIFICALLY stating that there would be no new tracks was a HUGE mistake.
I just hope an indie dev takes this a a model for a new racing game in this exact style.
99 players is really too much...GPs with full lobbies are very chaotic and most times not as much fun as lobbies with 30-50 players. It would also make it easier to fill lobbiers quicker and with no or barely bots.
I still play it and I now have 71 wins and 3 Grand Prix wins
Satellaview tracks and vehicles would be very, very cool.
As a longtime fan of the fastest, most punishing racing franchise in history of Nintendo, this is something i absolutely dreaded that would happen.
I still play it but the player base has really dwindled. I'm basically racing the same people every time I log on.
At release, it was fairly common to have the same rival in a couple of races in a row; now, you can be side by side with a rival for an hour or more.
@@heyniles Yeah, my highest finish was 2nd, that's only happened once, and the guy who finished 1st blew everyone else completely away. I finished 2nd and he still finished the race a good 5 seconds before I did. A casual player is never going to win a race when there aren't very many casuals left; and 90% of the player base are people who have become obsessed and don't play any games at all anymore except F-Zero 99.
@@MattyIcecubes Well F-Zero ain't Mario Kart...a true racing game (not a fun racer) is based on skill and it just makes sense for the better players to win. It took me a few weeks to win for the first time and the months after I only won rarely...but I improved and had better and better results, winning more often and even finally also winning GPs. Yes, they could base the lobbies on ranking levels, but if you don't want to improve, you shouldn't expect to win. It's not Mario Kart where 1st place can be bombarded by 10 items until the 10th comes through the field with a bullet bill being the one who wins...guess what's more fair.
@@Ray_2112 well you said everything I was gonna say 😂
This isn't the kind of game that was going to be the biggest, hottest megatrend of 2023 - 2024 and its foolish to treat it like that was ever a possibility. It was new and it was free - for big name streamers and content creators, that's a recipe for easy money and as soon as they get tired of it, their fans are gonna get tired of it, too. The big reason there is because it's *difficult*. SNES F-Zero is the easiest in the franchise and even then, it isn't going to hold your hand. There's a steep learning curve and most of the instant gratification gamers are not going to be down with it. Five to ten races in they better have gotten 1st or they're going back to something that they're "good" at, or at least something that makes them feel like they're good at it. In that way, I think it's fair to say that F-Zero will never know widespread mainstream popularity and I think it's something longtime F-Zero fans are okay with.
I don't know if I'm the legendary middle class player that you said there was none of - I have about 8 wins under my belt but I also main Blue Falcon, the objectively worst machine in the game. I've gotten free wins in classic with Stingray, have a 99 win with every machine, and I imagine that I could really get into Golden Fox and stack that 99+ on top of my name if I wanted to, so maybe I'm in the upper echelon? I have no clue. There's really well known names out there and it's fun to race against them. Knowing that they're going to take the gold in the GP or whatever isn't really discouraging as much as it is something to strive to beat, to me at least.
What does discourage me *is* that the Blue Falcon is so painfully average that it ends up being below average. I really hate how my skill as a player is all that I have with the machine, and no amount of driving skill, track knowledge, tricks, etc are gonna outdo the boost spam Golden Fox or the raw speed of the Stingray, I can only hope that my opponents encounter some problem or get too experimental and die. This is a real "my brother in Christ, YOU chose to lose with the Blue Falcon" moment, but it's my only gripe with the game. I can play the same 15 tracks for forever, but it does get old to lose to the characters rather than the players.
I understand the desire for more vehicles - I'd love to see 16 bit renditions of the other 26 cars from F-Zero X... But the aforementioned balance is already on the razor's edge. If they do what needs to be done and lower the health regen on the Fox it would go from best to worst with no in between. I don't think they can raise the health on the Falcon because then it would be too good and call into question what the Wild Goose is for, and likely be able to sustain boosts and overtake the Stingray. I think there are other "secret" stats that they could adjust, like spin recharge rate, damage done, spin invincibility duration, spark gain rate... Maybe even other mechanics I'm overlooking... But I feel like they wanted it to be simplistic to understand and they just would never bother with these things that you'd just have to "know" rather than quantify on the little stats card for each machine.
Like I already said, me personally? 15 tracks is fine. I wish that at this point they would stop treating Silence, WLII and Fire Field like holy grounds only available to GP top 20 and put a wide version of them into rotation on Pro Tracks - which itself needs to be a separate mode that always runs just like standard 99. I like the ??? tracks, I don't think there's anything wrong with them being mashup tracks and in fact I think that's sick - especially that they came with mashup music as well. What people call the "mirror" tracks have enough different about them as well and I appreciate the point of view of the people who call them Mute City V and Big Blue III. I totally understand why they made the ??? tracks appear the way that they did, to encourage players to stumble upon them in their 99s and draw people back into the game, but it's clumsy. They happen once or twice an hour depending on presumably RNG coming from the server and it's bad design to make players rely on an external website to keep track of when the track is going to show up. I've seen them as much as 45 mintues apart from one another, and that's long enough for players to get sick of waiting, or end up joining a GP and missing out entirely... It's such a Nintendo thing to do, really... Regardless, like many people, I truly want to see them add the Satellaview tracks. It's such a perfect opportunity to give some official love to those tracks. I imagined that after a few months, they were going to announce a physical version of this game like they did with Tetris 99 that brought DLC with it for those tracks, but it hasn't happened yet, obviously. There's still plenty of time to drop that kind of content for it, though.
Overall, nah. The game doesn't feel dead or even dying - it's about where a half a year old multiplayer game ends up, especially with few content updates. There's a thriving Discord server for this game that gets new faces almost daily. The weekend sessions I play tend to have large populations of human players (sometimes even 99 actual humans) in a grand prix lobby, which makes sense. F-Zero is a franchise that either due to difficulty or just the time since a new entry, tends to appeal to people of a certain age... With jobs. Again, if the game were easier and had more keys to jingle, I'm sure it would be full of children all day every day, but I doubt their skill level would be much higher than that of the 60% bot lobbies people complain about. I'm glad that it's still live and I hope it'll stay that way for a while to come. As an aside, a lot of people view this as a market test for a new F-Zero game, so from the standpoint of a fan of F-Zero being worried that 99 dying is a grim outlook for a new game, I'll just say that I'd bet all of the market research they wanted was done within the first week. They just need to sell you the game, they don't care if you play it afterwards. Neither here nor there, but just a thought.
I agree with a large portion of what you said about the current state of the game. The problem I have with Nintendo is that there are ways to prevent the game from getting stale and dying out, instead of just shrugging their shoulders and saying "oh well, that was a good run." It's as if they are settling for less when they don't have to.
The question now is, will it end up where Mario 99 went or go the distance like Tetris 99 🤔
Mario 35 was unfortunately doomed from the start... Classic Nintendo move.
I think the recent balance changes have helped breathe a lot of life into F Zero 99. At this point, I think this game will survive the remainder of the Switch's life... The question becomes whether or not we'll see it on the next console. I hope yes, since it's probably the most fun + fair competitive multiplayer Nintendo has ever produced and I'm enjoying it greatly.
Problem is, just updating the game wouldn't be enough. They would also have to advertise these updates, so people would hear about it. And for a game, that probably doesn't really earn them money, that doesn't seem likely.
You know, sometimes I think Nintendo's overuse of SNES F-Zero is a really bad thing for the series. When you were talking about the tracks, this is why. 15 Tracks from OG F-Zero, or 15 tracks in any racing game WILL NOT CUT IT today. Sure, they made attempts with the ??? tracks, but they're frankly too rare, and being fusions of two SNES tracks only does so much. (Fire City is probably the best of them because it turns OG Mute City on its head).
Also: too many Mute City I's. I know Mute City II at least has a roundabout but the general track layout is super similar, as is III. Not only that but the entire track selection in general largely favors Golden Fox. It's possible for others to do well with other machines, but it's' literally like racing Fat Sharks. Everything comes much easier to Golden Fox, despite being challenging to use (on account of low durability). The decision to say these tracks are "final" is just foolish. Everyone knows this game needs tracks. Tradition Park, Cactus Circuit, OG Silence II, Nightmare Fear, demakes of places such as Serial Gaps or Dangerous Steps. Come on: *something*. There is always a place for OG F-Zero but a large reason people gravitate to later games is because the variety of content is vastly superior. It's not even close. Imagine people experiencing some of that content in F-Zero 99?
Team Battle mode, we can say is probably dead too. I don't know many people who actively play that mode. And even if they do, what exactly do you do in it but race as hard as you can? Players are expected to fight each other, but that mode has the least amount of players most of the time, with bots mainly dominating the space. Even then, the pro players populate the are (As I am rank 1*, I count) and many tend to treat a Team Battle race like well...a race with less bumpers.
A running theme here is that there just isn't enough to keep the newcomers who played this game. There isn't enough reason for other players either because every race begins and ends the same for a huge amount of players.
Additionally, the ranking system...all I can mainly say is that it's heavily flawed. The issue of the player population plays into this, and with recent sessions, I've gone from S*20 to S*21, then demoted to S*19, back to S*20 and demoted again and so forth. It is overly punishing if you can't literally win, and I am far from a novice. I've literally mastered the series as far back as 1999, both in Mode 7 and 3D. My best performances are consistently within top 10 but 3/10 times (I think) I end up losing progress to my rank because the status quo doesn't really change. Once again, I have to make it known: "novice" is the last word I should ever be associated with, and I am literally struggling to make headway. Heck, I think a lot of players feel...*frozen in place* because of how things are with matchmaking. As for the level number, yeah, it only really contributes to how many hours you put in. Well, they did make it possible to exceed Level 99. We now have a player like Misa becoming Level 3***. Someone who has surpassed Level 99 multiple times.
This game needs some serious updates *soon*. It would just be so cruel for Nintendo to give up on F-Zero 99 so soon, just when they were finally seeming to do something nice to F-Zero fans for once.
Well said!
The game started out so promising, but it's a shame where it's headed right now.
Curious, what's your thoughts on the Mirror League tracks? I've had a chance to try them out and like them for the most part. It helps that they made actual changes to the tracks instead of just flipping them and calling it a day.
@@WhiplashPuppet I think the new elements are a great start - the placement of obstacles shows that there was thought put into how to make these tracks challenging in their own unique way.
I'm just hoping that Nintendo doesn't think that this deserves a pat on the back and a "job well done" type of thing - it's a start. A game like this needs additions and changes every few months to stay interesting.
I'd come back if they added the machines from F-Zero 2. Finally got to try them for the 1st time playing that BS F-Zero Deluxe hack and I can say, with confidence, that the LunaBomber would turn the games meta on it's head.
1:36 I respectfully disagree.
If they invented 50 more tracks instead of the same tracks from 1990 SNES version, it would be much better too. We need new tracks, and not just a few new tracks, but A LOT!!!
You hit on a lot of great points here. I'd like to see more events to least give me a reason to come back. I've also accepted I'll likely never get a #1, even If I still play at least once a week.
Events like the frozen tracks can be effective, as long as they are fairly regular and varied enough. It would keep things fresh on a rotating basis.
It depends if you try to improve...try to get better in practice mode and get better control about the vehicle you chose. I didn't win at the beginning as well for weeks, but got better with time. Also watching just one or two videos from pro players like MengskGX really helps giving you tips and improving strategies like where to best use a skyway or how to best play with each vehicle.
I still enjoy because it's all about defeating rivals than trying to get a victory. It's not like I do marathon runs with it or anything, but long enough to get a bounty chance and a few more races to grind an achievement but that's all.
However, recently i did partake a private lobby race with a few diehards and that ended up being the most fun.
Great points you bring to the table.
I discover this game only a week or 2 ago. I'm a racing game fan and player, original f-zero included. Had 8h of gameplay and only 1 win with Foxx (Mute City). Its a fact that who is still playing, is engaged to try be the best and become the top 3 on the week rank imo. I really enjoy this game, but my goal is to collecting everything only. After that i'm out probably.
I still think that Nintendo gauged their metrics for a new F-Zero game or at least a new F-Zero styled game, and now we're in the awkward "The game did its' job, but for some reason there's still some people playing it" phase
Which shouldn't even happen, because F-Zero 99 always flares up with the GPs and FZD organized events, so while there is a shortage of players you can, at least once a week, still find a full lobby on the favourite modes (GPs and 99)
Also, we F-Zero fans are so insufferable that whenever Nintendo releases an update for the game the entire internet flocks to the damn thing to know what the heck we're blabbering about 24/7 😂
RIP Super Mario Bros. 35
4EVA
i likwd it
if Nintendo really wanted to keep this game alive, they could also, as solution 4, bring in the (Broadcast Satellite) BS-1 and BS-2 tracks, vehicles and music. That would certainly bring players back, since most people must have never played (or even heard of) these Sattelaview games
Honestly I stopped playing due to the skill ceiling becoming so high so fast that I stopped being able to crack top 30
Exactly! That's what I meant by the game not having a middle class. I started to be happy with just getting into the top 10, but even that loses it's excitement after a little bit.
My highest finish is 2nd, and that's only happened once. I've pretty much accepted the fact that a casual player such as me is never ever going to win a race when I'm paired up against masters with 99+ wins who play the game 8+ hours per day, every day.
@@heyniles I agree with everything you said in the video, but I don't think those players that come in when the clock on the lobby reaches zero are bots, I think they merge lobbies.
I think the Ranking system needs a total re-haul. Like reward KOing racers especially higher skill ones, crossing the finish line with no boost left etc.
@@master_ricky_craftsman8086 What I hate is how if I beat all 4 of my rivals in a race my skill level will go up a little sliver, but if I get beat by all 4 of them it takes away a crapload.
You nailed it on pretty much everything. I took a month off and now I'm back. But the big thing is, we need more tracks and machines. I just don't think Nintendo gives a shit unfortunately.
A game with so much potential yet so many bad design decisions that it made me go back to other F-Zero's after the initial novelty of online mode in an F-Zero gave way to how badly it is designed in actuality.
lol. Funny finding you here.
@@mr.bp-dcbg hey!
As someone who has played hundreds hours on these 99 games (mainly T99), I can say that once the population dwindles, the game is just not the same.
The last mayor update (v1.2.0) had nice things but I feel it lacked in unlocks (e.g. new badges for star levels to mention one). With Nintendo themselves mentioning there will be no new tracks (you can argue whether or not mystery tracks are new or just copy+paste part of old ones) there is little point to play, specially if you can't even enjoy the game offline. Sure private lobbies was something requested long time ago (since release), but they took too long to implement it that it kinda goes to waste...
A new mode for the elite will not help at all, Tetris 99 has Invictus and is the least played mode of all 3 main ones. I wished that the regular 99 mode would rotate with -at least- Classical mode & that the Pro Tracks would include the Mystery ones (sure Mini Prix have them programmed -just not released- but won't help much once they do). Everyone is tired of seeing Mute City I and Big Blue winning most of the time...
The elite players are never going to compete in an elite league unless they have to. As long as they keep allowing them to play with low level opponents, they're going to keep going that route because they win almost every race.
This^^^
@@MattyIcecubesas an elite player i can say this is not true , there's no challenge on beating low level players , in fact a lot of "Ultra elite" players did create a discord server so we can play each other, just the mediocre good players do what you're saying really
@@MattyIcecubes That's not really true. There are some of the elite players who stream and they ALWAYS want more challenge and join the 959 GPs right at the start which are the most difficult. F-Zero pros love challenge and have already been asking for a mode like that...most of them also wish for more balanced lobbies depending on the skill level. But what can they do except join the normal races if there is no alternative? You can't blame them for being good at the game and if you watch them, you know they can also win elite lobbies.
I'm one of those elusive mid-tier players, around 10 wins... It's just sort of a game that I can play when I'm not really doing anything, like if I'm waiting for something or before bed. My biggest complaint is just that I want more tracks. Without any new content, they can add the final levels from the grand prix to the pro course line up, and put the ??? courses mixed into the standard lineup instead of having them show up once an hour. I think there is one I STILL haven't played yet.
Of course them dropping the courses from the unreleased BS F-zero and or the GBA tracks would be amazing too but just... c'mon let me play the content that is already IN THE GAME.
Exactly. I hate not being able to play Silence, WL 2, Fire Field and the ??? tracks in Pro Tracks. But even better would be brand new content. I feel like a couple modders could make good new tracks in a week, so I don't see any reason for Nintendo to drag their feet on this except that they don't want people playing this "free" game. They see it as taking away from regular sales, and just wanted to give us some crumbs to justify the Nintendo Online price to people like me, who wouldn't have paid for it otherwise.
It is a sad state of affairs, but it makes me hope that some indie devs are looking at this game and wanting to copy the format.
Making the secret tracks "secret" was really a stupid idea. I agree, the game needs more tracks and that in the usual modes, not just by accident or at the end of a GP. We play Mute City wayyyyyy too often.
I Still play this game.
I have 59 wins
3 titles
1x Mini Prix
1x Knight League
1x King League
Favorite racing ship is Blue Falcon
Favorite Mode is the Retro Mode.
I agree 100% in this vídeo. This game needs a lot of improvements to feel more enjoyable and playable, especially New tracks.
I think being able to customize your cars colors would be so fun. Like a pixel chart of your car and you can customize it with some pixel art!
Might result in some iffy designs, but it will definitely bring some more personal touches to the gameplay
Oh shoot I’d also love a custom track mode, maybe something like Mario maker so you can share your tracks and people have the option to ride them out(?)
More player interaction would be nice too, like maybe before a race starts we have the option to send out little emotes above our cars or something, or be able to type something out
That would be interesting! You would need a ROBUST moderation system, though.
i saw a [BIG SHOT] at the start of the video
Do your comments about netcode apply to a game like Splatoon as well?
I would think that Splatoon would run smoother than a game like F Zero 99 simply because of the amount of players and information to track.
I pretty much stopped playing on a daily basis because of 1. The lack of new updates obviously, 2. The Mute City tracks are always being picked, and 3. There's just so many high-end players playing Foxes that it's difficult to win unless you yourself are playing a Fox, or they crash out and you get lucky. In order to maintain like a S23+ rank, you pretty much always need to be in a Fox in order to keep your rank up at a constant rate, unless you have VERY good skill with the other machines and the skyway. You could increase it every once in a while in any other machine, but I feel as though it's not as efficient.
Same reasons for me too. People find the optimum way of winning and then that just forces everyone to do the same if they want to progress, game becomes boring and stale.
I love this game .. but it needs updates.
Some nights I'll play for an hour and it will be 40 min of mute city.. come on..
As far as I am concerned, I have played F-Zero 99 pretty hardcore in the first month, then my interest slowly dwindled. Coupled with the frustrations of the blue bumper system (it's like it was implemented for the sole purpose of making people want to stop playing the game >_
F-Zero and WipEout crossover when? Two titans of AG racing meet and collaberate. It would hopefully revive both series
Now THIS would be interesting! Either that, or other types of crossovers would be cool!
@@heyniles maybe add WipEout's deep combat and technical circuits to F-Zero's grippy physics and come up with some teams that take name and design cues both from F-Zero's cartoony bubbly look and WipEout's sleek realistic aesthetics
Have to appreciate the thought put into this, and although I agree with the suggestions, some assumptions are dicey. Specifically: Fortnite sees great success without skill based matchmaking, so how could we determine if that is really a core issue?
Are you sure about that?
gametree.me/blog/guide-to-fortnite-matchmaking
Thank you for the compliment, I appreciate it. I put a lot of effort into making these videos as informative as I can manage.
@@heyniles lol the more you know
Dang, that's a bummer. I was going to check this game out. Guess I was too slow.
The newest update has helped a little bit - check out my latest Fzero 99 video for more info on the changes.
I'm also working on updating the vehicle comparisons video, I'm hoping to have that out soon!
I still play this game but mainly Private Matches. (Yes I am a big weeb who does that don’t judge me 😭)
Nintendo added it for a reason. 🙂 Enjoy!
I can still consistently get top 20. I think if they add an update with the gameboy tracks/vehicles that would be great.
They would need to repurpose some of the tracks from other versions, but it's totally doable.
Also about the lower player count, it really depends on the time of day and hour. People get on and fill up the Grand Prix mode when it starts every half hour.
I partially view this game as a test run for interest in the series. They can learn a few things from 99. Collecting cosmetics for the machines is cool. The rival system is cool. Voting on tracks, not so great. Skill based matchmaking to separate the human TAS bots from everyone else would be nice, but hard to apply to a 99 game.
I just played it today. Cool its still updated
I've seen people questioning whether the game is dead since like December or even before, but meanwhile there's still quite a lot of people enjoying it and playing it every day. There was another resurgance when they added the ??? tracks, and while I do think they'll need to do more with it to keep people interested long-term, there have still been a substantial number of people who have stuck with it this whole time. I think it's only natural that it would be noticeably less busy after this time. Every game has cycles of initial hype followed by a time where they stabilize out to a smaller but more enduring playerbase.
The only time I think it would be fair to truly call it dead would be if (a) Nintendo releases a big update for it and barely anyone cares anymore or bothers to play it, (b) Nintendo stops supporting it and most of its long-time players start leaving, or (c) Nintendo keeps updating it, but not enough to make a difference, and the long-time players don't care anymore. If anything, we might be on track to that last case, but there's still a lot that could happen and a lot of people who still consider this their favorite iteration of the game.
From Nintendo's track record, I'm worried that B is exactly what will happen with this game.
I play it quite a bit everyday, and it is probably going to be my most played Switch game this year. I didn’t expect it to be as fun as it has.
Personally, I think it’s not dead, but I have noticed fluctuations. There have been a number of races that have had a decent number of player racers, especially when tournaments become active, and more true on the weekends. I recently took part in a race where it seemed like all 99 were definitely players.
However, you did bring of valid criticisms of Nintendo’s handling. I did think some of the ways racers bouncing off the walls didn’t always look good. If Nintendo did fix it, I think the game would be better, but I definitely still enjoy what we have. I can only hope Nintendo will finally produce a remaster/remake of GX, so people can really show support for the franchise.
I agree with everything you said in this video, except for Nintendo leaving Tetris 99 out to dry. They consistently do weekend events to unlock new skins, and the lobbies always quickly fill up to 99. People love Tetris!
Honestly, I was going off of what I had heard from some people who play it. It might be the specific opinion of those I talked to that the game has lost their interest.
I consider myself an average-good player but the player base is SO polarized that being good is just not enough. Right now, out of 10 races, 7 of them I place in top 15 and 3 of them between top 10 and top 5 and still it feels that I’m so far away of winning a 99 race, not to mention a GP.
Me too, but I still see myself progressing.
Being top 15 or better isn't bad at all. This is not Mario Kart where you have unfair items that help you win by luck or also only 12 (!) players overall. There are always better players in every game and you can always improve. But don't see yourself ranking in top 10 as being "not good enough" - you beat all the other 20-80 other players already! If you want easier GPs, try join the later ones. The first ones are always the hardest because the pro players always join at the start.
I just started playing this 2 weeks ago.
I can win Classic events. Those are great. I wish they were more laps and also had a multi race league event. I also want to play Fire Field in classic darn it.
Have not won a 99....I come in top 5 a lot tho lol
It's funny seeing my name up there at level like 35 with the level 35+2 stars people lol
I sadly had to drop it because i wanted to play other stuff and my NSO subscription ended & i got no time anymore
I hear very similar things from lots of other people - they found something more fun to play.
We still get new content and I still get matches
I’ll play it to play with friends, that’s it, don’t feel like going random not unless I’m paired up with friends, which they should add. For now I’ve been having a blast with f zero maximum velocity online. Plus there’s f zero x. So if this game goes away oh well. Im sure gp legend will release on nso in the future
Check out my newest video, just posted this morning - there's a new update that came through yesterday!
I'll have more info on it when I can pull it apart this weekend.
The Juice finds your lack of faith disturbing.
But you're not wrong for the most part. I was bored until I joined Discord, now it's got new life. Nothing like causing chaos and killing people you know...which I'm not good at because I've never done it before... ever.
I've seen you races! Also lmao 😅😅😅
I might be crazy, but think about community made maps and regular releases after community voting. Or community made racers to implement. Custom lobby GrandPrix with friends. All these things we could never have on SNES, that would be a reason to NOT just play the game on my SNES and enjoy it like for the last 30 years. The possibilities with todays tech on 8/16/32bit games could be so amazing.
I'm still enjoying it, but they haven't released enough content to keep it fun.
I contributed to F-Zero 99's declive... Seriously, I am technically a middle player. I can easily beat new players... But there's always a far better player around, all of them Level 99 with +99 wins (I've even noticed some bots, they somehow cheat keeping the 1st place no matter what you do, winning perfect Grand Prix every time). I'm taking an undefined rest from the game for now, as my last 30 plays resulted in Crash Out or Rank Out (the formers due to blue bumpers at the final lap... What's the point of that?! I was a Lucky Bumper at the final lap and spawned right over the FINISH line!!).
I don't think it's fair to say that you "contributed" to the decline; as a player and consumer, you are under no obligation to continue playing a game that is no longer fun for you. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case for most players at this point.
There are no bots winning GPs...they're just good players that are hard to beat. The bots are usually the bad ones that are no competition and on the lower places. Blue bumpers are a pain though, I agree. They can ruin even races of pro players and were not a good idea imo with all the grey and red bumpers already around. F-Zero is a skill-based game unlike Mario Kart where you can just get lucky with the badly ballanced item system. I guess the solution would be to have lobbies based on ranks, but even then some players will be better than others.
maybe a hot take but i feel like classic mode should become the main game mode in f-zero 99. if there's only gonna be twenty actual players in your lobby, you'll might as well just race without bots
At first the classic mode was boring to me since only sitngray wins there, but as time goes by I realize that if you are really good with the other ships you can win just as well, which makes the classic mode reward much more. driving skill than mode 99 which is based more on luck
Still playing! Basically the only thing i play on the switch now
I stopped after I got the top100 sticker, during the king update. I came back for the winter event and now I play only 5 games per day. I just want to complete the workshop thing again. But yeah, the game is almost dead by now.
Fzero has always been unfair that’s what people love about it
People say they’re tired of “easy games “
They need fzero gx remake with competitve league ranks and esports events that would be cool
Same thing with Pac-Man 99 and Mario 35, and to a lesser extent Tetris 99, all of them dwindle eventually.
Having been more involved in the community than Pac Man or Tetris, I think I can safely say that SMB35 wasn't dwindling when Nintendo shut down the servers. In fact, it's a sizeable chunk of gamers out there (me included) who STILL hope they will see it in each Nintendo Direct.
Tetris 99 isn't dwindling at all, you can still boot it up and find a full lobby within 10 seconds
6:01 Nintendo doesn’t have the resources the other studios have
They’re quirky and they do their best to
The online player count peaks at Grand prix times. Outside of that its gonna be low. Honestly there is no point to grinding regular 99 races besides XP. And the super elite players are waaayyy to good to even compete leaving the casual playerbase to suffer. Combined with nintendo terrible online netcode and the death was destined to come eventually.
F-Zero GX Remastered would be complete different thing.
But yeah it would cost more than a happy meal for Nintendo.
Bullshit. Switch cannot handle it, since you cannot use the GPU-accelleration of it. F-Zero GX runs completely on the processor like many Gamecube-games do (no GPU being used as they all run on sofware-rendering only).
Switch has a laughable processor. And even PS5/Xbox One Series S/X would have severe issues in getting 60 fps in a possible F-Zero GX! hahaha!
@@user-in3br2qs8x I talk about a remastered and not Remake.
Look at Metroid Prime Remastered. It runs in 60fps without framedrops. With new textures etc.
I’m a bit late, but here’s my two cents on it. F-Zero 99 is dying, but it’s okay. The game had a good run, we all played it to death, and Nintendo definitely saw the player numbers so that should mean we get a brand new F-Zero game in the future.
Call it wishful thinking, but I’m hopeful. Also the mystery tracks should not have been on a stupid random timer that I need to look up a third-party site so I can play it. Wish we could also practice them but nah, just the base SNES courses and none of the frozen, classic or mystery tracks. In spite of that, FZ99 ended up being one of my most played games last year!
Not sure, Nintendo made always new excuses why we don't get a new F-Zero game.
@@BansheeNT-D And with F-Zero 99 failing to attract new players, Nintendo is on the brink of abandoning the IP again just like did after climax.
I still play for a few hours a day 😅 but yeah...the content starts to feel lacking.
Ive never won a race. Yet i can consistently get top 25. Top 10 I'm usually crash out. Im not doing much with the game except stacking tickets for when i do decide to stream.
Nintendo is pretty much making the same mistakes all the other companies are making when dealing with the old games. They need to be creative and not use it as a crutch. If they're not going to create new tracks give the playerbase the option to.
Exactly. There are ways to bring back nostalgia and keep the vibe of the old games, yet still find ways to keep it fresh.
2:31 it's me, hi, I'm the problem it's me
Thanks for the cameo!
So, serious question: would you welcome some sort of matchmaking system like I described? Or do you think it's not necessary, or overkill, etc?
I stopped because I realized I'm terrible at this game lol
Hopefully the long rumored GX Remaster is real.
Still playing it
I stopped playing after my fifty seventh Grand Prix win. Got bored. It's not as fun and satisfying anymore.
Got a 1000+ wins as Fox and after that it felt repetitive and the Fox meta was annoying for sure most races became predictable once you saw certain names. Progression is dead as well, I feel no need to become 2 or 3 stars
I also agree with the SBMM I usually don’t agree with it unless it is explicitly told to the player base it exists, can’t beat someone that plays a perfect bowling game (in this case, a racing game) with the exception of blue bumpers throwing people off here
How about trying the other three vehicles?
im sad and depressed now
Go play F-Zero 99 instead ;)
Yo me acabo de enterar que salió este juego 😢
As usual many Nintendo games need to go to PC or ideally other consoles
yes
Us Tetris fans kept Tetris 99 strong. Y'all Fzero fans dont have the numbers.
Sadly true
Honesty I have no issues with FZero 99s current state. I absolutely love it. I still play regularly and I think they have done a decent job updating it and keeping it fun. All I think they need to do is add new tracks here and there and maybe some new achievements.
The game seems pretty nice to come back to every once in a while. I mainly play it if im really chilling and just want some quick races in. And ive always been a big Fzero fan so for me its not a every day thing to come back to. But when I do it is fun! I feel like they were on the right track but again missed with exciting the fans. They should've DEFINITELY went the Fzero X route if they wanted to make any kind of revive to a fzero classic. Even if they couldnt do 99 players, 30 would've still been a good amount in a lobby. It already had a wide variety of ships including tracks and had some of the nicest racing and combat that would've for sure added a mix to races. Make the boost marker a lil bigger and handling a lil easier for wilder ships with a balanced ranking system and your set. I'd be on there almost everyday! But still I will continue to say this and probably forever. Just make a new Fzero!!!!!!
I think you're looking at it wrong. F-Zero 99 was a cultural event not a gaming franchise. The new features were not solid mechanics, they were gimmicks.
I like going bzoooooooooom :3
U can’t base a game’s playerbase off streamers alone
U have to look at silent majority not vocal minority
I agree, but it's pretty clear from how many races start half full that the palyer base is shrinking
I guess I'm on the higher skill level in the player base, 5 months later I'm still having a blast with this game. To me, the races aren't predictable when I'm playing against other strong players. It's hard for me to beat some of the best, but when I do occasionally, it's probably one of the best feelings I've experienced when playing a game. It's like beating a really hard boss in a different game for me. It's moments like that which keep me coming back for more. I do agree however, that newcomers and casual players get ostracized with all of this, which I believe was bound to happen considering the game was meant to be difficult
Sorry, I went back to playing F-Zero on my SNES emulator. I also feel like the game is too easy to master, as the physics are a lot less punishing than they are on the SNES. It has to be that way, otherwise everyone would be pinballing at 200 kmh, but it makes it so that you get back up to top speed very quickly. The result is that I often find myself within tenths or less of a second next to other players on the podium since the game is so forgiving. If the game amplified the mistakes we made, the spread would be far greater on average.
3:07 The biggest problem here is that you have players from across the globe and the game is trying to render them as if it were in real time with no large server ping. I'm sure you've raced with Che'LeGuam in the past, and if you ever have, you'll notice that his server ping is quite high. Players who are in other continents just can't have proper player interactions with you because of the inevitable server ping due to the undersea cables. Often times I spin half a second early to account for server ping, and it works to hit opponents into the wall far more often. Once you play with certain master players enough, you can recognize how bad their ping is and adjust your spin timing and positioning to account for it. The problem is, there are only so many master players who frequent the lobbies these days.
5:07 All I can think of is the number of seal clubbers who will create another account on their Switch if that happened lol.
... If I ever make a racing game, it will be F-Zero with guns and water vapor diamonds when you start to break supersonic. C:
But don't worry, the women will be properly clothed.
I don't blame you at all.
Nah the way this game is designed making it bots doesn’t make sense
For me, and probably some of the older generations that still play, played it on the line of nostalgia and it gamed with the idea of the "what if" for us. Once we got our fill, we moved on.
As somebody who 100% the game, I feel ya.
Not fun anymore? F-Zero 99 from the time that I started playing was never as fun as I was hoping that it would be.
I'm sorry to hear that 🙁 What let you down the most?
@@heyniles I remember back when F-Zero X released on N64 and how I thought 30 vehicles on the track at the same time was exhilarating. Add what I thought back then were perfect controls to that and F-Zero X is probably my favorite racing video game of all time. So I went into F-Zero 99 thinking that even more vehicles would add to the fun, and it was the total opposite for me. The game is just more frustrating because of it.
Now I also have not played F-Zero X in what seems like decades, but I do not remember the controls or the traction of the vehicles being so darn slippery. I was having the hardest time adjusting to the steering in this game. Maybe it is just me being a lot older and losing the patience that it takes to master them. These are my two issues with the game. Maybe all of this nonstop Mario Kart over the years with no true F-Zero sequel has made me soft.
@@Skill4Reel the steering is somewhat consistent with the original game - every car except the Stingray was slippery. The controls do feel a little quicker response-wise, but otherwise it's close.
@@heyniles I should probably revisit F-Zero X today to see what I think about it now. However isn't F-Zero 99 a modern rework of the original F-Zero on SNES?
I haven't played F-Zero 99 in a while but I have been itching to give it another shot.
@@Skill4Reel it is modeled after the original SNES game, yes.
Looks like its time to update this video.
Already working on it!
I saw somewhere on reddit that an insider told that F-ZERO 99 is a test to analyze consumer's reaction over it to look if a brand new F-ZERO is worth to produce it. So if we all look the stats numbers of streamers and F-ZERO 99 video contents, it's not looking good. One time I was playing Mute City 1, 4 times in a row with the same tryhard players (Mengsk, Misa and the other jobless people). The game concept itself is just badly optimized. The energy and motivation in maintaining this game is very low. Also financially, there is literally nothing to obtain from Nintendo's perspective because after all, it is basically a FREE game. It's a lazy copy paste recycle F-ZERO original game from SNES and making it online. That's all, nothing innovative. Tbh, I really don't expect a new F-ZERO game which they put a cross since 2003, (we talk about 21 years ago!!)
The silly thing is that there would be monetization options if they added new/premium skins or other cosmetic things.
separate lobbies would not help and there are plenty of other racers that don't perform matchmaking, like Mario Kart. if you hit a player into a rail, and then they appear next to you, it's because you missed that player. maybe they spun too- sure it's a lag issue, but it's only an issue with the feedback not the actual combat.
The races you joined with 35 players are sad, yes, but you get two or three times as many players when you play the Grand Prix
@@bitzero000 I noticed the same problem in both Mini Prix and Grand Prix entries. It is MUCH better post-update (but now the issue is lobbies are flooded with 2 and 3 star racers).
I feel MK is a whole different animal than FZ99: the items add a major randomness factor to the races, and the smaller lobbies create less chances for large gaps in skill/experience to occur during matchmaking.
And the lag issue is the issue, not the combat - it makes in-race positioning and combat strategy basically pointless if you can't be sure where another racer actually is, compared to where you see them as being.
I feel MK is a whole different animal than FZ99: the items add a major randomness factor to the races, and the smaller lobbies create less chances for large gaps in skill/experience to occur during matchmaking.
And the lag issue is the issue, not the combat - it makes in-race positioning and combat strategy basically pointless if you can't be sure where another racer actually is, compared to where you see them as being.
it’s starting to be stale being one of the best foxes in the game we need new tracks that’s exactly what we need
new stuff
I think every player would benefit from at least one of the ideas in this video. If only Nintendo would stop being so stubborn.
99 racers is perfect for F-ZERO imho.
If they can't fetch enough players for common lobbies, perhaps give smarter A.I. to the bots that learn from the players while some struggle and others dominate.
...or Nintendo might have to resort to multi-platform releases with cross-play. It seems like F-ZERO appeals to Xbox PlayStation fans imo. Though I doubt Nintendo would do that.
I actually prefer lobbies with 30-50...99 is way too chaotic and much imo.
I don't agree with some of your points...first of all, it's still definitely fun, way more so that I innitially expected. I'm surprised again and again how often I want to play it despite the low amount of tracks. THAT'S something that needs improvement imo, more tracks, maybe the Satellaview tracks or new ones, or just more secret tracks since they mix things up nicely. They just should include them in the usual rotation of tracks and not make them secret and easy to miss which is really stupid. The replay value of a racing game IS to play it over and over again, it's the same with every racing game, also Mario Kart doesn't give you anything new after a while.
The online connection, yes, there are those mentioned problems, but it's not as bad as you make it seem. I had way more frustrating moments in Mario Kart 8 online than in F-Zero, and apparently that's not a problem for all those a lot more MK players. There are even bad balancing issues with especially the items which can ruin a good player's race all the time. I much more prefer it in F-Zero where skill matters...yes, it may be tough for newcomers to win, took me a while at the beginning too (it wasn't really THAT much easier back then either) but they recently made it so that new players are in seperate lobbies together, so that makes it better for those. But I have to say, the game is not about winning all the time, it's about racing and that's a lot of fun by itself, at least to me. I win occasionally here and there, more with Fox than with Goose for obvious reasons, but I always have fun. If I rank low, it's usually to me playing badly and messing up, not because I get bombarded by 10 items in a row stealing my first place.
I think there is a lot of potential in this game and I'm really surprised how much those little changes from the original made it really interesting and new again. Getting new skins isn't really that exciting imo, especially since 3D models or the other stuff you mentioned wouldn't really fit the look or world of F-Zero. They should add more content, definitely, more tracks, more vehicles would be nice too, but that's about it imo. The rest is pretty good already and I don't think full lobbies of 100 players are necessarily better...it's often pure chaos having THAT many racers on a screen, sure, sub 30 isn't optimal either, but it's not rare that it's between 30-50 which is very enjoyable imo and not TOO crowded. Mario Kart lobbies also only have 12 players, of course those fill up quicker. It was obvious from the start that F-Zero wouldn't get a player base as big as MK and since probably most players are adults, it makes sense that they rather play on weekends than every day. I hope Nintendo continues to update the game, what we have so far is a really good start imo and building upon it would make it a great remake/re-imagening of the SNES original. It's been a couple of months so far, other games like this exist for years already and are far bigger now than at the beginning. Give it some time and we'll see. But to expect that it will make F-Zero less niche is just unrealistic thinking, let's be honest.
Yall seriously need to realize that these kinds of videos literally kill these games. I wonder how many people watch a video like this and then don't download and try the game because yall said it was dead.
Seriously, this type of video is hurting games.
They called me a madman for saying this game wasn’t what the fans wanted last year, now it’s happening.
Great video analyzing what’s been leading to the decline.
I find it is polarised, but not THAT polarised. I'm regularly getting top-10 and top-3, but I rarely win. I'm a middle-class player.
IMO it is just a matter of making new content. More races and less of this randomised "secret course" crap. Just give us more content. Filter out the best players from the new players with new harder races. Just make new content.
Nerf fox
F-Zero has jus been successfully killed by Nintendo!
Who´s next? "Professor Layton" will be Ninendo´s next dead IP. Then Pokemon will follow!
I can comfirm I’m an ultra elite player and I dominate!
F-ZERO is a game for forging yourself originally.
I can keep racing to 1st because I am really facing different challenges on every moments.
But racing game is a piece of lack players.
Not really lot of people enjoy Racing because racing is bored in fact
Racing is techniques and psychology and technical things.
F-ZERO 99 including lucky more without technical because no need to customize machines for the tracks.
Just focus your machines advantages then grab the first place.
This thing really not so many people could enjoy it.
Even though Mario Cart, GT, Forza are same.
In fact, F-ZERO series is old man things.
99 can let new age know this old thing with new game rules, I think this is a good evolution for F-ZERO.
If Nintendo bring GX style directly.
There will dead more faster because no one can see what is going on in over thousands km/h