As you may have heard, the Nintendo Switch 2 launched this week. The main attraction at launch is obviously Mario Kart World, but there's another launch title I haven't heard many of my gaming compatriots talk about. So, I want to put the spotlight on a lesser-known racing game for a little bit.
Fast Fusion, from developer Shin'en, has an interesting history. It's the third game in a series that started on Wii U with Fast Racing Neo, got a little more shine with the launch of the original Switch under the name Fast RMX, and is now back to show off what the Switch 2 is capable of with Fast Fusion. Almost nobody I know has ever played these games, but I've loved all three of them.
I'll get into what makes Fusion as fun as it is in a second, but the main thing you should know is that it's just $15. If that isn't enough to sell you, keep reading.
Fast Fusion provides affordable, high-octane thrills
In case the name didn't tip you off already, Fast Fusion is a racing game. Not only that, but it's a futuristic sci-fi arcade racer, the kind of game that was very popular in my childhood, but has fallen well out of favor in the years since. Part of this is because Nintendo refuses to properly revive F-Zero, but hey, the best one of those is on the Switch 2 GameCube app. Baby steps!
Fast Fusion does a pretty good job of carrying on that legacy, though. It's one of the fastest racing games I've ever played, straight up. You constantly feel like you're just on the edge of losing control and careening into the stratosphere, but the vehicle handling is quite tight and responsive, ensuring that any misadventures off the track are usually your fault. Amusingly, you can also perform a pretty high vertical jump at any time, which comes in handy for collecting the items that fill your boost meter sometimes.
A returning feature from previous games in the series is the concept of color-switching. At any time, your car is either blue or orange, and you can change from one to the other with the press of a button. Boost pads on the ground will be (you guessed it) either blue or orange, so you need to be the right color when you drive on one, or else you'll just slow down. It's a really simple little trick that adds a nice layer of strategy to what is otherwise a game about going as fast as possible at all times.
New to Fusion is a, well, fusion mechanic. I admittedly haven't spent a ton of time with this part of the game yet, but you can choose any two vehicles from the game's roster and physically fuse them together to create a new beast with better stats. I don't yet know if this is actually a game-changer or just a neat gimmick, but it's unique, if nothing else.
Fast Fusion has classic split-screen local multiplayer, but unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the only way to play it online is via the new GameShare feature on Switch 2. This is actually pretty cool; as long as one person in a friend group owns the game, they can virtually share it with a few other folks and race each other remotely without anyone needing to download anything or pay any money. It's kind of a magic trick, but I just wish there were traditional online matchmaking, too.
But, also, it's $14.99 at Nintendo, GameStop, and Best Buy. It'd be unfair to expect a gigantic suite of features for that price. All I know is that I really like Fast Fusion and you should try to find some time for it in between sessions of Mario Kart World.
