Surrounded by Foxes - F-ZERO 99

Sometimes if I have the time to play early in a day, I get the opportunity to play against some really great pilots from Japan. This was quite an entertaining GP, featuring some very good Foxes. MCIII - Got a really lucky KO at the start of lap 2 - seems like I managed to KO a burning Fox in the pit. This KO would certainly help me out for the rest of the GP. Anything top 10 on Mute City is good in my Stingray-book, so 5th with a KO was more than fine. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ DWII - As I had the extra KO, I went for an early boosting strategy just for the heck of it. Sometimes I only go for 2 boosts when trying this strat, but this time I opted to try out the rare 3-boost strategy, as I wanted to try and keep up with the Foxes infront. In hindsight, it probably is more optimal to go for only 2 boosts and trying to get a skyway or something. Regardless, it's really hard to challenge good Foxes on this track. I had very low energy throughout the rest of the laps, so much so that I couldn't even boost on the last lap, despite having an extra KO. 6th place and best non-Fox is still acceptable I suppose. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ PTII - I knew I had to do well here if I wanted to still challenge for a top placement in the GP. This of course being a much better track for the Stingray, I knew I'd have a shot. I thought I blew that shot though on lap 2 when I hit a red bumper late into the lap... Since I had kinda low energy already, I opted to release the gas over the pit, to squeeze in a little more energy. Since there are two jumps directly after the pit, I feel as if this is a valid strat to do sometimes if needed. Lap 3 was also a little rough, so I did the same strat entering the last lap. I managed to finally reach 1st place on last lap, and as I heard the explosions behind me and saw I was getting a bit of a lead, I just tried to get myself over the finish line in one piece. Before I crossed it though, I did try to foolishly go for a grey bumper KO, but may have just given a freebie to my rival behind with that mistake of an attempt. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ RCII - The top Fox was one of the victims on PTII, so I suddenly found myself in a tied 1st place position going into the next track. I had a very conservative beginning to this one, but gradually was able to move up in the positions. Entering lap 4, I found myself in a solid third place position, but miles away from my rival Foxes, and with really no chance at catching up... l still had a good chance of winning it all though as we entered Fire Field. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ FF - This time I didn't try any silly experiments with the dash plate in the beginning, and instead just took it nice and easy on lap 1 while collecting sparks on the way. As usual I slow down in the pit and await the golden snail to get the last remaining sparks for the skyway. But this time I missed the dash plate because a Goose hit me from the behind... Since then I've learned to incorporate a spin attack before the dash plate, to guarantee that won't happen. I could have probably boosted here to catch up to the golden snail quicker, but opted to still remain cool. As it turned out, I didn't even need to hit the snail to get enough sparks. I saw that I was really far behind, so I used the skyway before the chicane, and suddenly I was up to third place. Still had one of my rivals in front of me, but FS definitely has the advantage here compared to the other ships, so I was able to pass them, and then despite some shaky plays in the last laps, I was able to go up to 1st place and secure the overall win in the end. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Timestamps 0:00 King League intro 1:32 Mute City II 4:52 Death Wind II 8:18 Port Town II 12:04 Red Canyon II 15:19 Fire Field Played on January 6th, 2024.