F-Zero 99 datamine shows deadly Survival Mode and more tracks coming in hidden update roadmap

F-Zero 99 launched less than a week ago, but datamines have already confirmed a hidden roadmap with multiple new modes, tracks, and other content that is coming soon—including a Survival Mode that could really turn the racer into a battle royale. 

As of its release on Sept. 14, there are seven courses available in the game, all pulled from the Knight League in the original 1991 F-Zero title that F-Zero 99 is remastering with its new format. Nintendo officially confirmed that courses for the Queen League will drop later this month and King League courses are on the way in mid-October—meaning we should see the subsequent Mute City maps and others in the coming weeks since every circuit from the SNES game is in the files. 

On top of those confirmed courses, some datamined material shows that F-Zero 99 could bring over courses from BS F-Zero 2 Grand Prix, the Satellaview-exclusive sequel to the original F-Zero title, for the first time. This bit is currently just a rumor based on placeholder names in the game’s files, however, and is not confirmed like some of the other courses. 

As for the “leaked” game modes, Survival Mode appears to have a unique map shape that is a flat square with a large circle in the middle and could end up turning F-Zero 99 into more of a combat racer than the classic Death Race everyone is currently playing. No additional information on what could be included for this mode has been shared. 

Arcade Mode is the other thing that dataminers were able to pull, and this mode sounds like it will have players racing around existing tracks while passing through “time gates” to up the time remaining on their race timer. This likely means once your personal timer expires, your car explodes and you are eliminated.

While seven tracks, Team Battle, and various Grand Prix approaches are enough to keep F-Zero 99 feeling fresh right now, infusions of content starting later this month should keep the hype around the battle royale racer going—regardless of when or what from this datamine actually makes it in.