New F-Zero 99 Datamine Suggests Mario Vs. Donkey Kong Event Could Be Incoming

Image: Nintendo

It's been a little over a year since F-Zero 99 shadow-dropped onto Switch and, after receiving a bumper update earlier this month, it looks like Nintendo still has some event ideas up its sleeve.

While digging through the files of the recent 1.5.0 update, dataminer 'LuigiBlood' uncovered references to a Mario vs. Donkey Kong Festival Event — something that might appear a little late, but could just as easily tie in with the platformer's first anniversary in February 2025.

According to the summary of LuigiBlood's findings (shared on Tumblr), the event reference is just text and hasn't been localised outside of English, meaning we have very little to go off as far as details are concerned. That said, the datamine suggests the event will include a Mini Mario League and additional Star Rivals named Mario, Mini Mario, Donkey Kong and Toad.

Judging by previous 99 events, we'd expect the MvD Festival to be a limited-time affair where we'd likely see themed tracks, music and emotes — just watch out for any carelessly misplaced bananas.

Honestly, we wouldn't be at all surprised to see F-Zero 99 updates continue into 2025 (if this event is indeed set for the Mario vs. Donkey Kong anniversary). Nintendo has put up some stellar support for this one over the past year, with consistent course additions, new Rivals, emotes and more. It might not be the brand-new F-Zero entry we're still dreaming of (and trust us, we're still dreaming of it), but it's a darn good bit of fun while we wait.

And if it's even more Boost Power you're after, a pair of GBA F-Zero titles are coming on the Nintendo Switch Online library on 11th October.