Fast Fusion - Review (Switch 2)

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Shin’en Multimedia’s Fast series have become staples of Nintendo consoles, and often act as technical showpieces of what the respective consoles can do. Fast Fusion is no exception to this, releasing at launch on the Switch 2 Nintendo eShop for just £13.49.

Fast Fusion is a futuristic racing game, where you pilot an anti-grav vehicle through a wide variety of locales. There are forests, deserts, outer space levels, space stations and a load more, there is a good deal of variety here. The three main modes on offer are championship, super hero mode and a time trial mode.

In championship, you first pick a difficulty level, then a championship which consists of three tracks to race through. Your points are tallied up, and at the end of the championship if you have the most points, you are the winner. At the start of the game you only have access to the easiest difficulty and have to unlock the others, and to unlock each championship you must do so by using credits gained from winning races.

Credits can also be used on purchasing vehicles, and this is where Fast Fusions most interesting mechanic comes in. There’s a wide variety of different vehicles to buy, each with their own stats. The stats are speed, acceleration, boost and weight. The interesting part though is that you can pick any two of your unlocked vehicles, and fuse them. This creates a new vehicle of which the name and physical design of the ship becomes a fusion between the two.

It’s a really cool mechanic, and it’s fun to combine different vehicles to see what result you get. It gives you the chance to create the perfect vehicle for you, either by creating something that has the best stats in one area, or something with no weaknesses. There’s a load of flexibility, and I was really excited to use it.

Let’s talk about the racing itself. Your vehicles go hundreds of miles per hour on even the lowest difficulty - reaching thousands at the top level. As you are speeding your way through the tracks, you have to avoid obstacles, and various dynamic events like hurricanes and asteroids hitting the track. If you’re on a level with bad weather, the rain can fog up your view and make things really hectic.

Whilst racing, you collect credits on the track itself which you can use to boost. Careful application of the boost mechanic is key in ensuring you don’t lose speed in the wrong places. You can also jump, which can be used to avoid obstacles, or reach new areas for shortcuts and alternate paths. Combined, this creates a really fast and frantic racing setup that is exhilarating to play. The AI is no slouch either, and will try and ram you off the road, jump on you and do anything to catch up - it’s a challenging game for sure, but the right kind of challenge.

In the super hero mode, you go through each track attempting to get first place with no crashes, however your boost mechanic is also your shield. Use it too much, and you’ll find yourself exposed to being rammed. Time trial tests you with beating the developers times on a track, all to earn a few more credits.

The game offers three display modes, performance, balanced and quality. All of these modes run at 60fps docked, with various tweaks to image quality for all of them. I play on balanced, as it offers the best compromise. Make no mistake though, in any of these modes this is a really great looking game. It’s sleek and clean, and runs completely smooth, even when you are getting battered by hurricanes going hundreds of miles an hour.

The one thing that might disappoint some is there is no online multiplayer to speak of - only couch multiplayer. It’s not something that bothers me personally, but keep that in mind if you tend to only play games online. Fast Fusion is a really great game, it’s really well made, has a good amount of content, and is just a fast, fun racing game. Taking into account this is only £13.49, I think this is a must-buy for any Switch 2 owner.

Rating - 4.5/5