Tetris 99 - F-Zero 99 Cup

I suppose I should’ve seen this one coming…the 41st Maximus Cup for Tetris 99 is themed on its relative in the Switch library, F-Zero 99. You may have seen a few videos of mine about it—even if you hadn’t watched them yourself, you may have spotted some in whatever means you use to find and access my videos. Taken heavily from the original F-Zero, F-Zero 99 has you race against up to 98 other players while avoiding elimination.

Well, the old and the new are mixed together here too, with a background set in Port Town that’s packed from front to back with F-Zero vehicles. (This doesn’t correspond to either Port Town I or I.). The playfield has the four available vehicles in their default paint schemes right below the Hold box. From top to bottom, they are the Blue Falcon (piloted by Captain Falcon), Golden Fox (piloted by Dr. Stewart), Wild Goose (piloted by Pico), and Fire Stingray (piloted by Samurai Goroh). Minos have a basic gradient look to them that isn’t tied to anything in particular. Badges take the form of the Skyway icon: full badges are colored gold, while incomplete badges are colored gray. KOed opponents use the icon displayed onscreen when you KO an opponent in F-Zero 99: red ones are opponents you’ve KOed, while gray ones are the other ones. Your target reticule is a flame icon, used to denote rivals in F-Zero 99.

When a match begins, the countdown uses the same sounds as in an F-Zero 99 race, and then the Mute City theme plays. When 50 players remain, it plays the sound when you complete a lap and shifts to Big Blue’s theme. When 10 players remain, it plays the sound for the final lap and uses the White Land II theme. (Why it doesn’t use Fire Field, the last course in F-Zero, I don’t know.) Shifting a block left or right plays the sound when you move around a menu in F-Zero 99, while rotating a Tetrimino plays the sound when you pick up a Super Spark. Any line clear will be accompanied by the wooshing dound when you boost. A single line clear plays a shortened version of the sound when you start the next lap, a double plays the sound when you complete your Skyway gauge, a triple plays the sound when you get on the Skyway, and a Tetris clear plays a sound I recognize but can’t remember where it turns up. T-Spins don't have any special sound. KOing a player in this Maximus Cup plays the same sound as when you make a KO in F-Zero 99. Placing 1st will play the jingle when you finish a Grand Prix followed by the accompanying music that plays when you place on the podium (1st to 3rd place). Placing 2nd or lower will play the jingle when you complete a Lucky Bumper run, followed by the default music for post-race data.

For the fast-forward music I play after I’ve been eliminated but before all the final standings are decided, I went with the final lap part of “Paper Engine,” the music for Outer Space: Meteor Storm from F-Zero GX. It would be neat if they made a modern version of F-Zero GX with online play added.

Oh yeah, and the Tetris 99 match icon, the one you select to begin a standard Tetris 99 match during this Maximus Cup, has artwork taken from the comic book that accompanied certain versions of F-Zero. I thought that was pretty neat, so I included it in the video.

00:11 Match #1
Skin: Special Theme 33 (F-Zero 99)
Mode: Normal
I played this not long after the event began, shortly after midnight on June 28th, 2024 (that is, immediately superseding 11:59 PM on June 27th, 2024), so I had expected there to be some top players. As it turns out, while 49 of the players were eliminated pretty quickly, after that, things slowed down a bunch. Probably not coincidentially, I got some KOs on that first leg but failed to get any until near the end afterwards.

08:24 - Match #2
Skin: Special Theme 33 (F-Zero 99)
Mode: Normal
I decided to play a little later to see how things would go. Seems the monsters were still awake, but I was able survive some close calls before getting any badges, then taking out opponents with more badges than me. Nevertheless though, if I get even 2 KOs in a match, it means I’m above average for the entire room overall.

17:51 Match #3
Skin: Special Theme 33 (F-Zero 99)
Mode: Invictus
Here is an Invictus match. Because this was done within the first two hours of the Maximus Cup, I discovered the population is unusually low, with only 9 other participants. Computer players fill the rest. You’ll see that I suddenly went from 6th to 1st here, which I’ve never seen before. I also noticed, looking at the stats at the end, that the last human player had been eliminated at 7th. Is this what this game does? If there’s only one organic player left, they’re just put into 1st to get it over with?