F-Zero 99 -- Classic Mini Grand Prix: Oops, All Finals!
What complete nonsense is this?! Too many videos all at once! Ruining the near-zero average!
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(You should definitely complain to the proper authorities about it.)
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This one's a bit of an anomaly in that... I wasn't really planning on having an extra video from the session... where I wasn't really confident I'd have anything to show in the first place for another half-cocked blind stab at the Ace League. (Practice is for chumps?! ...or people with... like... free time, I suppose.)
Well, we'll see about that! The weirdly-seeded not-so-RNG (it's apparently entirely deterministic according to a regular algorithm down to the minute you choose to start seeking) powers that be have a bit of an awkward sense of irony after all.
I spent actual weeks trying to finally coax Fire Field into showing itself in one of these, since there's no "proper" Grand Prix structure set up... which... in theory, I'm all good for, because the punchline of "you can only play the final race if you make it that far in GP" is... not actually one I'm super fond of. But being (theoretically) at the mercy of a peculiar selection algorithm with the mere HOPE that you find the more elusive tracks... doesn't actually feel all that great either.
So imagine my surprise when "oh, there's a Mini GP in session, let's just have a look at it, shall we?" results in... THIS track set. Neat. Shouldn't be nerve-wracking at all.
At least I'd long since already acquired Fire Field, so there wasn't ACTUALLY any stress here.
Maybe.
Still neat.
Very much not simple.
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Honestly, having to maintain rank throughout these things is the real stressor, because USUALLY if you reach one, you just finish wherever you may in the top 20 you already successfully infiltrated.
Silence in particular takes on a whole different tone when subjected to this... on top of the whole "you get one boost per lap after the first" element... AND the retro physics to boot.
White Land II, I will forever malign as "not really GP finale track material"... particularly without the absolutely murderous quality of its signature jump. If we could swap it out with Death Wind II, that'd make this Mini GP truly murderous instead... but sadly, they "wasted" it so early on in the King League, so it could only be subbed out for Fire Field, so... I guess this'll have to do.
Fire Field. Is Fire Field. I love it. But it hates everyone. Pretty much equally. I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, maybe besides the part where you can actually rank out after all the trouble of tangling with it in the first place... but that's how it was in the olden days, so you can't really complain TOO much... besides the obvious bit about not getting to actually eat your cake too.
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So... the only REAL star of this show is... the happenstance of this set list. Surely not the driving skill or the sparkling personality of its participants. Nope.