I managed to go through the tutorial and play five matches. In the first one on Mute City I came close to top 10, just to explode into bits close to the finish line. Then the other final matches were all in the top 30, with a 15 place and just one 40ish. I think I did ok, but it was fun. Just don't know how did all that mess could get in terms of strategy/gameplay, but we will see.

You forgot the theme track in Mario Kart 8.

Edit: sorry, this was said already.

I finally hit #1.

It took me like 150 races (I say that, it might have been 75 but it might have been 300… I don’t know! :D), but I finally figured it out. It’s really using your boosts effectively, collecting sparks, and KOing opponents who get over-zealous with trying to boost into the top 30, and then destroying them to increase your power bar… and getting more boosts.

When near the front, there are a lot of red cars you have to dodge. It’s not difficult most of the time.

General Directs are pointless these days. A few interesting trailers, but otherwise just a poor method of announcing games. This game is crazy fun. The fact loads of people reacted badly to a free F-Zero game that is arguably the best in the franchise is a failure of the Direct.

I agree. I'm not sure what else they could've shown to make it look more appealing but I almost didn't even check it out because it didn't get me interested. I'm glad I did check it out though. I played for like 5 hours today... guess Sea of Stars will have to wait lol.

Directs are literally the most effective way to market games. They get massive viewership and create huge hype. Many games wouldn't get nearly as much attention if they were just announced with a random trailer. Why else would everyone copy this concept.

Basically every direct gets a whole bunch of first party announcements. This one had more remakes and remasters than original games from Nintendo, but that doesn't render the whole thing pointless and ineffective. The F-Zero 99 trailer just showed gameplay like any other trailer. A game that looks like this can't really be made much better looking in a trailer.

Many people reacting negatively to it is because it's not a fully new game, online only and they set themselves up for disappointment with the leak expecting a GX remaster or a fully new game.

This is on the other hand is a reimagening of the original. So they're salty.

Ok, I like it, but I wanted more. Maybe if enough of us play it Nintendo will be encouraged to make a new one.

I agree. But you’re confused. I’m not talking about all styles of Directs, merely these newer styles of General Directs. They’re sterile, bland, and don’t achieve any of the hype you’re claiming they should. If anything, they do much the opposite by making many cool games look uninteresting.

The Mario RPG trailer was fine, but this Direct likely did little to nothing to increase the hype of that game. Games like F-Zero 99, Hundred Heroes, and other really awesome games were either ignored or got negative attention - showing mediocre looking clips and not highlighting the strengths of those games is a poor way to market them. And explaining reasons why these games failed in the General Direct only explains that they shouldn’t have been in the General Direct in the first place, that other kinds of Direct or release strategies would have worked better.

Anyway. How are people doing with this game?

How well do you generally do on the Gran Prix races?
To answer that for myself, my first Gran Prix or two I bombed out within the first three races, but the last 7 or 8 I’ve finished in the top 20 - normally about 12-17. Also, I’m at about level 20 now and recently just got my badge for 99 “99 races” complete - which is exactly a lot lower than I though - I summed I was already up in the hundreds.

But anyway, I love this game, and I encourage everyone to try it out, even if you’ve never enjoyed an F-Zero game before.

Also, in terms of future 99 games, the two I want to see are Super Mario Kart - since they’ve moved into the 16-bit games, but also Star Fox… and maybe if Switch 2 allows for N64 type games, Lylat Wars.

I would love a WarioWare 99. Just everyone doing the same microgames and they keep speeding up until only one remains. That would be cool. Could work with Mario Party as well I guess.