Nintendo Life: Can you talk about what’s new about Fast Fusion? We’re particularly interested in the new Fusion mechanic.
Manfred Linzner: The Fusion mechanic was the main reason we decided to do a new FAST game, because we only wanted to do another one when we would have something really cool and fresh to add.
Here’s how it works: imagine you have two vehicles that you really like, for example, the fast Cebra Genetics and the heavy Mech Guyva. With Fusion, you can now merge both vehicles into a completely new one that combines their best features. The appearance of your new creation will be a cool mix of the looks of the two vehicles, and you can also save all your creations in the Fusion History for a later rebuild.
It’s really fun to make your dream vehicle and get surprised by the new looks and feels.
What kind of changes have been made to the core gameplay? Will we still be switching between two colours?
We kept the phase switching base gameplay, because this is the DNA of FAST, but added a lot of new stuff.
For instance: Hyperjumps! You can now make Hyperjumps with your vehicle at any time. These are not little hops, but rather you get thrown up about 20m into the air. This allows you to cut corners, take out your opponents, find shortcuts on the tracks, pick up otherwise unreachable collectibles, and a few more secrets.
Of course it’s not super safe to make a 20m jump while driving 700kmh through a dense forest, but it’s totally exciting and takes the game to a whole new level! We promise, this will make your hands sweaty!
Can you run us through the game’s various modes? Will Hero Mode return?
Sure, here we go:
Championship – This is all new. Previously you won cups and unlocked new ones, and now you need to unlock them with credits. You earn them by playing the tracks, where better ranks mean more credits. You also collect credits on the tracks and get them for various actions like boosting through opponents. With the earned credits you can buy new vehicles, new cups, and so on.
Super Hero Mode – This is for the hardcore antigrav players. Some say it’s our little homage to F-Zero! You need to win a race without crashing and you must not run out of energy. Combined with the new Hyperjump mechanic, this will really make your heart pump. Plus, to give everything a new spin, all tracks are played mirrored.
Time Attack – Here you can beat our own best times. Don’t try this with the default roster; you really need to experiment with the new Fusion mechanic to have a chance!
We also have a new Jukebox section where you can use your credits to unlock music from all previous FAST games.
How many courses and vehicles can players expect to see?
We will announce all tracks at a later date. However, we prepared a First-look trailer so you can see some locations for yourselves! By the way, all tracks are brand new. Only two tracks are in known locations, but those are also completely new designs.
For vehicles, you can create hundreds of different ones with the Fusion mechanic.
What kind of experience can we expect from the multiplayer? Will there be GameShare support?
We support Splitscreen and GameShare. Splitscreen will be for up to four players, all running at 60fps. GameShare will be for two players. Only one player needs the game, while the other just needs a Switch 2 to join.
This works locally with anyone nearby or also across the internet with GameChat.
Your website mentions performance of 60fps up to 4K resolution. Can you talk a bit more about that? Will it be possible to modify performance and reach 120fps?
We support five different graphic settings for TV mode, from 1080p/60fps to 1440p/60fps and up to 4k/60fps. We even have a special 30fps/4k ‘Ultra Quality’ mode. We tried to make a good compromise for everyone. Everything runs in HDR which you can enjoy directly in Handheld mode or when your TV supports it.
120fps is not supported, but that was mostly because making a game for launch day isn’t that easy and we had to decide on a few key features. Perhaps this is something we can bring later with a patch.
How has development been for the Switch 2 compared to the original? What has the power of the new console allowed you to do?
In FAST RMX we felt like we hit a border on how good a 60fps game can look, but for Fast Fusion on Nintendo Switch 2 many discarded ideas were now possible to achieve on the new hardware.
We worked especially hard to make the lighting in the game much more dynamic. Now we are much closer to Global Illumination, with real-time reflections, light propagation, and great volumetric effects. This makes the whole world much more alive.
Another thing we were able to improve a lot were the special effects for things like explosions, rain, fog, tornadoes, and so on. We think players will love the new look of the game.
Shin’en games have historically been very well optimised. What sort of file size can we expect for Fast Fusion?
4K textures all over the place and 4K screen modes made our game grow substantially. With a lot of compression and optimisation we were still able to pack it all down to around 3.7GB. Our largest game ever, I guess!
Fast RMX launched on day one for the Switch and became a beloved launch title. How important was it for Fast Fusion to be available on day one for Switch 2?
This was our goal from the beginning of development last year.
Many Switch 2 players will have Mario Kart World and F-Zero GX to enjoy at launch along with dozens of Switch 1 games via backwards compatibility. With more competition on day one, what kind of sales expectations do you have for Fast Fusion?
I think Fast Fusion offers something very different to any other racing game currently available and we hope players will like that.
We will also offer the game at a very nice price, because people have already invested a good amount of money into the new hardware, and they should be able to see what their new system can deliver.
Speaking of F-Zero, what kind of impact has the series had on your development of Fast titles?
Since our childhood it was the main inspiration for sci-fi racing. Besides that, we think both titles play very differently. And especially for Fast Fusion, we also made sure that everyone can have fun with the game without getting stuck along the road.
What are your thoughts on the Switch 2 from what you’ve seen so far? Are you hoping to support it more in the future? Could we expect any performance updates for your existing Switch games?
For us, it’s a great piece of hardware and we have many ideas for it. Therefore, we already have other projects for Switch 2 in planning. Also, Switch 2 updates for our previous games like The Touryst is something we’re discussing.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
A huge thanks to Manfred for providing this early first look at Fast Fusion’s trailer. The game will launch on day one alongside the Switch 2 on 5th June 2025.
