Nintendo’s battle royale F-Zero 99 has been around the block for a few months now, but it’s still seeing steady updates. As of the 1.2.0 update that went live on January 24, F-Zero 99 now includes an easier way to play with friends alongside a little surprise for more dedicated players.
The big feature of this update is the Private Lobby. This feature works exactly the way it sounds; any player who has completed the tutorial can now create or join their own private room right from the main menu. Simply select a game mode, enter a passcode, and you’re in.
Your room will auto-populate with CPU players once the countdown timer ends, so you don’t actually need 99 people to make this feature work. Heck, if you just want to race by yourself against bots, you can do that here.
But what are the secret tracks in F-Zero 99?
The much more enigmatic addition via this patch is the addition of “secret tracks.” So far, it appears that tracks titled “???” will randomly appear as you play online, complete with glitched-looking level icons. The tracks themselves seem to be mash-ups of existing tracks, with similarly mashed-up music to accompany them. Completing one of these will give you the “???” badge.
If you play enough, you should see one of these courses pop up sooner than later. As of writing, we’re still learning more about how what each of these easter egg tracks looks like.
Additionally, update 1.2.0 also increases the max level cap to 399 (with numbers over 100 being marked with stars), and a new maximum skill rating of S50. Also, most importantly, the patch notes for this update state that Nintendo has “Fixed issues to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.” Thanks for looking out for the pleasantness of my gaming experience, it means a lot!
F-Zero 99 is available now as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service.
