F-Zero 99 -- Ace League Grand Prix: Everything's Coming up Aces
Okay, fine, maybe more like sub-20s, because you don't actually need to WIN to get rewarded...
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I have been more than a little remiss in my regular YouTube maintenance... although my workflow is ironing itself out fairly favorably, so I can't really use THAT as an excuse.
Maybe the algorithm and I are just destined to feud for one reason or another.
(I fell off the wagon before even trying to start one, but October is my favorite month for curating and celebrating a spooky... or at least gothic "horror" vibe, so maybe uploading ANYTHING will get me in gear before much more of the month slips away.)
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Ace League
Now THIS is exciting. Way more exciting than "these will be the final tracks added to the game"... which was itself a bit misleading, since they definitely added event variants and Mirror alternates and a few very strange original mashup ??? doodads.
But the white whale for many a retro F-Zero fan has long since been the broadcast-exclusive Satellaview content that never made it in full out of its original context.
Didn't stop some truly intrepid enthusiasts from rebuilding them all but pixel-perfect from the ground up based on what grainy footage of a simpler time was circulating since.
Thus, THIS is... almost as good! (Now "all" we need is a league composed entirely of Forest and Metal Fort tracks? :P)
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Race #1: Mute City IV
Breaking ground as the first "IV" in the game's pedigree... ... ... um... yep... this is definitely still Mute City.
It's honestly "less impressive" in the massive hindsight of 2024 and reworking of the game into a new engine that only LOOKS super retro, because these boost plates and jump ramps being used in this fashion was way more innovative when it was a marvel they even worked this way. Like some kind of official rom-hack... except beamed from Nintendo to your home?!
(A lot of Satellaview content feels like that, I'd say.)
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Race #2: Sand Storm I
Not Sand Ocean, but a full on new categorization!
As such, it's interesting that it takes on Sand Ocean's background music, seeing as how it actually originally sounded like Fire Field. Which is... also weird, since it's not THAT Fire Field-like, beyond the prominent mines and damage zones.
It feels more like a meaner-designed Red Canyon with a couple elements that are inspired by a couple bits of the kitchen sink they threw into the original game's finale.
Still, since Sand Ocean would have only the one track that uses its theme, I'm good with this alteration to set expectations a bit more "accurately."
The actual sandstorm to obscure players' vision is also new and neat and fun!
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Race #3: Big Blue II
Another oddity of its time, since Big Blue was only just Big Blue, here's a "sequel" track where no additional numbering differential was ever "intended."
This one feels a lot less "Big" and only a little more "Blue"... so it's a weird adjustment back down after the relative difficulty spike of the treachery on show in Sand Storm.
What it also means is that there's a lot less lenience in Grand Prix mode for keeping players from elimination, since there's only 40 slots ripe for promotion.
The jump sections are at least somewhat inspired and offer a fair stretch to flex your personal skill in utilizing them to set yourself apart from the pack.
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Race #4: Sand Storm II
Where there's a "I"... there's naturally forecast another storm.
THIS one, incidentally, originally showcased the return of the Death Wind constant... er... wind... mechanic. Which. Um. I'm not sad not to have to contend with. You can take that to the bank.
Therefore, I'm also not sad that it no longer has Death Wind's theme music backing.
All that's left of the original creative vision is the Fire Field-inspired central magnet bar fork. And then that vision gets obscured partway through the race, which I think is more than a fair trade.
Finishing Top 20 is difficult enough anyway, given that there's not much room for error and a LOT of places where you're invited to make them. And that's even BEFORE considering the other drivers.
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Race #5: Silence II
Another new sequel without an original indicator that there would ever be one.
Hot take: with 99 other drivers "defusing" most of them for you after the first lap, land mines are pretty ineffective... and the jump section lets you do some fancy advanced shenanigans, but the course itself is MUCH less treacherous than the original Silence from an actual design standpoint.
So I'm going to say the original Silence is WAY more interesting. (And potentially infuriating.)
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And your reward this time around is... a total reskin of your vehicle... into its "equivalent" from F-Zero 2. As a "decal"... and no color variations. But the way the interface trips over itself in that department tells me that it's very likely that these guys will get a fresh coat of paint in the upcoming year of F-Zero 99 support that I didn't expect.