I received a Nintendo eShop gift card for Christmas, and I used it to buy FAST Racing Neo for Wii U. It’s a futuristic hovercraft racing game like F-Zero or Wipeout. But in FAST Racing Neo, you must frequently toggle between two phases (orange and blue). There will be orange and blue boost pads and jump pads throughout the courses, and your ship must be on the correct phase to use them. If you touch them while on the wrong phase, it will slow you down dramatically. So you’ll need to switch phases effectively, while also evading other ships and avoiding obstacles in a very fast racing environment.
In addition to boost pads, there are also boost orbs that can be collected. These charge up your boost meter, which you can use whenever you wish. Efficient usage of boosting will be crucial in later courses.
Many of the courses have twisting tracks, dangerous jumps, and crazy obstacles. One has pillars of fire that erupt from the track itself, while others may have giant boulders that fall onto to the track or inconveniently-placed pillars in the way. Another has a giant mechanical bird that at first appears to be part of the background, until it starts pecking at passing ships! Some of these obstacles may seem a bit unfair when they first hit you out of nowhere, but you’ll learn to avoid them. Still, some of the later tracks are quite challenging.
Most of the game modes are pretty standard: There is a championship mode, a split-screen multiplayer mode, a time trial mode, and an online mode. But there is also a “hero mode,” in which you must win a cup without exploding your ship (no respawns). I have not unlocked this mode yet, but it sounds like quite the challenge.
After just a couple hours of gameplay so far, I am enjoying FAST Racing Neo. I’m not sure if it’s quite in the same class as F-Zero, but it is a fun, polished game with great graphics. It’s definitely a bargain for just $15 in the Wii U eShop.
Here is a gameplay video showing the Storm Coast course in championship mode:
For those wondering, I also received Xenoblade Chronicles X and Wii Fit U for Christmas. I may have separate blog entries and/or videos of those games at some point in the future.