Back and better than ever!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/71314/fast-fusion-switch-2-review
Since a quiet first appearance on WiiWare as Fast Racing League before making a name for itself on the Wii U eShop, the Fast series has become something of a beloved tradition for Nintendo faithful. After presenting one of the most visually impressive games on the Wii U in Fast Racing Neo, Shin’en’s futuristic racer became a popular launch title on the Switch in Fast RMX. Now carrying forward that launch day standard, we have Fast Fusion. And it is without a doubt, the best game in the series.
Fast Fusion, like the rest of the series, is a sci-fi racer that takes inspiration from classics like F-Zero and Wipeout. You’ll race your way around complex and harrowing courses, often with no barrier between you and the abyss below. Since its inception the key hook of the series has been swapping between two different color phases in order to activate boost pads and gain additional speed. You’ll also pick up small boost charges which fill a boost meter in the lower left corner of the screen which can be used at will. New to Fast Fusion is the addition of a jump button. This allows you to launch yourself off the track at will. It may be crucial for making a jump but it can also be used to access shortcuts or take risky jumps over obstacles to grab additional boost charges. It has a surprisingly significant effect on the feel of the game and provides you with a lot more freedom in how you tackle each course. These courses are, in turn, much more dynamically designed to take advantage of this, constantly tempting you to take a risk. I found this also helped a lot when it came to replaying courses. As I improved there was always some jump to be learned and mastered.
As you race around each course, picking up boost charges, each charge will also add a credit to your account. These credits can then be spent on purchasing additional tracks, vehicles, and (as the title suggests) fusions. Fusing vehicles allows you to combine the stats of multiple vehicles together to form an entirely new vehicle in both stats and appearance. To be clear, you aren’t averaging out the stats between the two, rather you are adding on. As a result there really are no bad fusions, and the ability to disassemble any fusion and try something else means that all you're risking is a few credits.
In addition to the main championship mode you also get the expected time trial and multiplayer modes. Multiplayer consists of splitscreen for up to four people and game share for two. There is no online multiplayer mode. Some prior games in the series have included online multiplayer, but in all fairness the servers were rarely populated enough to maintain viable online play longterm. Finally there is Superhero mode which ties the boost meter to your vehicle's health, in a similar manner to F-Zero. This mode can be played with any of the courses unlocked in championship mode.
The Fast series, and Shin’en in general, are known for presenting very technically impressive visuals, and Fast Fusion is no exception. What's interesting is just how many options Shin’en has provided when it comes to the presentation of Fast Fusion. When playing docked you can choose from four different graphics modes. These range from a performance mode, targeting lower resolution in exchange for a flawless 60fps, all the way up to a 30fps ultra quality mode that outputs in 4K. The modes in between, balanced and quality, both target 60fps and largely swap out differences in how shadows are rendered. I generally tended to play in these two modes, and the majority of the footage shown in this review is from the quality mode. In handheld mode you get two options, a 60fps performance mode and a 30fps quality mode. I will note that in every mode the game is making use of an upscaling solution to improve its perceived resolution. I found that, especially at high speeds, this upscaler had trouble resolving a perfectly clean image. It only really started to stand out at the lower resolution performance modes but even on the ultra quality mode when docked, it was still easy to spot artifacts of the upscaler in places. But that's really the only critique I can offer on the visual front.
Fast Fusion is the deepest and most mechanically interesting game in Shin’en’s Fast series, and one I’ll be going back to on a regular basis. The level design is the best it's ever been and when combined with the fusion system, makes for some great replayability. While I have some minor critiques of the image scaling implementation, the technical package overall is excellent. The Switch 2 has certainly come out of the gate as a racing powerhouse but don’t let Mario Kart World take all your attention. Fast Fusion is another great entry in this sci-fi racing series.
Topic: Fast Fusion (Switch 2) Review (Read 312 times)
