Nintendo celebrates anniversary with surprise free download you can nab now

A classic title featured on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion service is celebrating its 20th anniversary tomorrow, and one of the original members of staff who worked on it has shared something special on Twitter for fans to download.

As previously revealed last week, two F-Zero Game Boy Advance games landed on the Nintendo Switch this weekend: F-ZERO CLIMAX and F-Zero: GP Legend. Both of these titles can be downloaded free of charge for any Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion members.

Coincidentally, F-ZERO CLIMAX will be celebrating its 20th birthday tomorrow, which is why one of the game’s original developers has created a brand new course for fans of the game to download.

As originally spotted by NintendoLife’s Liam Doolan, F-ZERO CLIMAX’s supervisor and character designer Takaya Imamura posted a code on Twitter for a brand-new track that be downloaded and played using the in-game track editor.

In his Tweet (which was originally written in Japanese and has been translated using Google Translate), Imamura explained that the new track was created as a way to mark the game’s upcoming birthday.

“The recently released [F-ZERO CLIMAX] will celebrate its 20th anniversary on October 21st! To commemorate this, we have created a course, so we will be releasing the password!”

Not sure who the “we” in that Tweet refers to, but at the very least it’s safe to assume that Imamura himself worked on the new track.

The track editing system was featured in the original version of F-ZERO CLIMAX when it first dropped on October 21st for the Game Boy Advance back in 2004.

Tracks were supposed to be shared using a GBA Link Cable, but you could also input a lengthy password to access the custom-made tracks instead.

Of course, you can’t plug a Link Cable into a Nintendo Switch, so unfortunately you’re going to have to settle for the latter method (which will require you to input a 344-character long code, so have fun with that).