Fast Fusion

Nintendo's old super charming F-Zero (Super Nintendo) started a trend that gave birth to Wipeout, Extreme G, Rollcage and everything in between, which ultimately also resulted in various small charming knitting tracks, of which the Fast series signed by German Shin'en is one of these. Fast Fusion is an exclusive launch title for Nintendo Switch 2 and the continuation of the very popular Fast Racing Neo (Wii U) and Fast RMX (Switch). It's straightforward, simple, straightforward hover racing a'la Wipeout, without power-ups or weapons but with an easy-to-understand nitro system where you collect boosts in a small gauge by picking up special coins, and then activate a speed boost using R1.

Needless to say, Fast Fusion would never have existed had it not been for Wipeout. It's clear that the German developers played more Wipeout 2097 than should be considered healthy, borrowing parts of the design, game mechanics, graphical effects and everything in between - to ultimately offer an experience that really doesn't feel very original, but fast and challenging.

Piloting hovercrafts is a breeze in Fast Fusion, you never have to air-drift or use the brakes in this game, which is a must in both Wipeout and F-Zero. What counts here, is full throttle - just. Accelerate, turn in time and try to push your opponents out of the way if they can't be passed, without contact. The only real novelty here is that the tracks are adorned with illuminated neon arrows in red/blue and to take advantage of the speed boost they provide, you need to make sure you set your hovercraft to the right 'colour' to take advantage of them. The X button changes the colour of the hovercraft and towards the end of the Grand Prix mode, it requires the player to learn this very well, to be able to keep up and bounce between red, blue, red, red, blue, red at a relatively ferocious pace. This reminds me most of Treasure's old top down classic Ikaruga and is thus a nice addition.

The rest is very typical of the genre. Fly fast, press a jump button when there are big holes in the futuristic roads where the races take place and use the nitro boost function at the right time. The game control is good, the glider feels just the right amount of heft and the sense of speed is fantastic, especially a bit into the game when you unlock the fastest racing class that rhymes with the Piranha segment in Wipeout 2097. The graphics flow nicely and for a portable Nintendo game, it's pretty neat, too. Sure, Fast Fusion hardly blows me off my feet as it looks like a pretty early PS4 game on the whole but still, it's markedly more attractive technically than Fast RMX was for Switch, anyway.

On the minus account is the fact that there is no online-based multiplayer, which in 2025 feels almost absurd. I also think that there are far too few tracks here and it's annoying that 99% of the game is locked when you start it for the first time. On top of that, the rubber band AI of the opponents is a bit too annoying and the fact that their 'weight' always trumps my weight and that they can thus push me away regardless of the situation while I can very rarely push them away, is also just frustrating.

Fast Fusion costs £13.49 for Switch 2 and for that minimal amount of money, German Shin'en Multimedia offers a clearly enjoyable Wipeout clone that also includes a very elaborate split screen mode for up to four players, locally. If, like me, you always miss Wipeout and F-Zero, you're right to spend your money on this.