FAST Racing NEO is certainly set to be one of the year's biggest Wii U eShop releases. Shin'en Multimedia has established itself as a leading 'Nindie' developer capable of producing wonderful visuals and strong gameplay, while sci-fi racing is a genre that's been long-neglected on Nintendo hardware. Though Shin'en's game is very different from F-Zero, for example, the absence of high-quality competition for this style of racer could see the eShop release gain a lot of fans.
As we approach the December release this is the first part of a behind-the-scenes series in which we're given some extra glimpses of the game. In this entry the studio's Manfred Linzner talks about his favourite vehicle and gives an insight into some design approaches for the 'Alpine Trust' track.

Most of the other Shin'en guys prefer the heavier vehicles, but I usually go for the lightweights. It depends on the league but for the first league 'ZIRO INDUSTRIES' is just perfect for me.
It only has medium top speed but very high acceleration. The steering controls are pretty direct and agile.
If you know the track well you can have quite some advantage with it by cutting the curves sharply even while having a full boost.

As for my favourite track, I would say 'Alpine Trust'. It's located in a snow covered valley with lots of rocks and mountains along the track. It has limited sight because a heavy snow storm blasts through it. The track is quite twisted and there are a couple of dangerous jumps; icy stalagmites block the road sometimes. Be sure to spare some boost energy to crash them without getting slowed down!

There are always technical challenges when targeting great visuals and 60fps, and every track in FRN was made in a different fashion and needed other techniques.
For 'Alpine Trust' a big contribution was the procedural geometry (see image above). We had the vision of a very dense valley with thick forests along the track and dangerous rocks and mountains that could get in the way when you do jumps. Creating such a location by hand takes a lot of manpower. It also doesn't allow to modify anything later.
So we developed a set of procedural networks that created all this geometry when you load the level. The hardest work was to find the right formulas to create a natural and interesting look. We are pretty happy that we used that technique because otherwise it wouldn't have been possible.
Join us next week for another early look at some FAST Racing NEO details.
Comments 66
Must...have it!
I love racing games, though I've never been a huge, huge fan of futuristic racers specifically, but I'm liking the way this looks!
It will be nice to have another racing game on the Wii U, especially with recent Need for Speed being absent from the console (and sadly, DRM enabled on PC, so pass on that!)
Serious hard graft to get the game this well optimised on the Wii U deserves serious praise. Realy hope this plays as well as it looks.
I remain very optimistic.
@CTMike
I think it's being developed specifically for the Wii U.
@Action51 I realise but with the way Star Fox looks, you gotta be blown away with their wizardry haha
Bad choice of term on my part, perhaps
@CTMike
I think it looks great compared to any Wii U game, not just Star Fox. Of course I think Star Fox looks just fine. Nothing to gripe about anyways, and it's looking better with every snippet we see.
But anyways ya, FAST looks great. I need this game NOW.
@JaxonH
Well...it honestly doesn't look as good as MK8. The vibrant colors and detailed worlds, long draw distances and warm volumetric lighting are hard to beat!
This is the only game that will keep me from marathons of "Xenoblade Chronicles X" and that is saying something!
This looks a great game been looking forward to this one for months
With the recent releases of Animal Crossing, Mario Tennis and Zelda TFH, my devotion for Nintendo is at an all time low. It's odd that my most anticipated game from Nintendo isn't actually from them. It almost feels as if Shin'en is saving Nintendo from itself here. Fast Racing Neo will be the game on the WiiU that will force me to turn off the other console. Nintendo should be relieved, and ashamed of themselves that a small developer can deliver what the WiiU gamers want instead of feeding us watered down projects from franchises that we adore. Day 1 buy as long as the game isn't riddled with bugs.
I just want this game, it will get me to stop playing the Xbone and turn on the Wii U again.
Praying to the PR Gods for a review code. So can't wait for this
I was really happy when I heard this game allows you to race up to 8 people online. That's pretty much sold it to me but think I'll just wait for a review. Looks absolutely awesome.
It is a shame Nintendo never made an F-Zero game for Wii U but this should help make up for it.
I don't like F-Zero style games that much, but I'm going to buy this anyway, just to reward the developer for putting so much work into a Wii U game.
@freaksloan
You know, I really love Tomb Raider. So I've been binging on Rise of the Tomb Raider since it launched, when time allows of course.
Then a little game called Stella Glow released. I wasn't expecting anything incredible- a good game for sure, but nothing more than what Legend of Legacy turned out to be.
Oh man was I wrong. 3DS game of the year. Best SRPG since Jeanne d' Arc on PSP (well, aside from Fire Emblem of course). I slowly phased out Tomb Raider and now I haven't touched it in days.
Amazing how a little 3DS game can suck you in more than what is arguably the best AAA action adventure game I've played in years.
Nintendo really should have asked to publish this game as a full retail release. Seems like it would have been a nice shelf filler and another unique to Wii U experience that would have been more visible to the average public.
Can we get a proper release dsate soon? I need to this game now...
Head-cannon: takes place int he Mass Effect Universe. Similar art-design.
Soo Excited!! we've been needing a high speed racer, I miss the N64 days when we had Extreme-G, Episode 1: Racer, F-Zero X, Wipeout 64 etc...
@shigulicious You don't think recent games like Mario Maker and Yoshi's Woolly World fit those standards? Xenoblade Chronicles X is also a first party Nintendo game. Is that going to be watered down?
@RoomB31: Agreed! Was playing Hydro Thunder Hurricane last night on 360 wishing it was a Wii U release. It would have been great FAST was an F-Zero or Star Wars E1 Racer release, but looks outstanding nonetheless. Day 1.
So excited for this game! Can't wait!
The 720p is admittedly disappointing, but understable given that the game's graphical fidelity is more than impressive, especially for the Wii U.
Honestly can't wait for this game. It looks like it plays as good as it looks, and I've had an urge to scratch my F-Zero itch for a while.
I'll never for the life of me understand HOW Nintendo didn't choose to publish this game at retail...especially now considering their weak Xmas lineup.
@Gerbwmu This, this and this. I've been shouting this since the first footage was revealed. Nintendo's stupidity knows no bounds sometimes.
Been a long time coming, but it's really looking good now!
@freaksloan what's on xbox that's so good? I have such a backlog of games to complete on wiiu!😂
@Action51 That's more a matter of opinion. First off, you can't really compare a cartoon kart racer with a more gritty, futuristic racer in a realistic style.
Secondly, and perhaps most important: on a technical level (also taking into account the much smaller size of this game, making this a far greater achievement) the graphics are far superior, because there are effects in there and technologies used that cannot be found in Mario Kart.
Now that doesn't make this a better game or Mario Kart a worse game, but objectively you can't simply say that Mario Kart looks better or has better graphics than FAST Racing NEO.
Good Lord I just need this game to come out. Counting the seconds...
Who do I need to whack to get this game out NOW?
There's more previews of this game than actual releasing.
Dis not F-0.
Day one. More hyped for this than any upcoming Wii U game.
@Folkloner @Gerbwmu Sigh.. Not that I don't agree with you guys, but you're jumping to rather silly conclusions (and on top of that, Folkloner is using insults on something we don't even know yet [and we might never know] -_- ).
I'm in! See you online soon, people
How is FAST Racing Neo different than F-Zero X/GX. Everything seems to hint that this scratches the same itch as F-Zero, but the beginning of the article says "Though this game is very different from F-Zero..." but then goes into no detail about what "very different" means.
I'm probably gonna buy this, I just hope the music won't be all horrible Eurodance stuff like in that trailer.....nothing can beat those F-Zero tunes, damn it Nintendo!
@CTMike
Star Fox has a lot of things moving on the screen, while racing games have just a few cars at once with very little movement on anything else.
This allows them to easily put out good looking graphics.
@Xenocity Star Fox does, from what I've seen Star Fox Zero does not. It's being crippled by the Gamepad. Regardless, it was merely a AAA comparison- much smaller dev team with a much tighter budget.
Don't get me wrong, I loooove Platinum.
@vincentgoodwin F-Zero doesn't rely on picking up orbs or switching colors of your engine exhaust to be able to make use of the two colors of turbo strips that FAST Racing NEO has. And in the original FAST Racing game you also got to race upside down, not as in the corkscrew track in F-Zero, but actually jumping upwards to the ceiling and sticking to it. Don't know if that's in this version, though.
@CTMike
Star Fox has plenty going on and is not crippled by the gamepad, it just did different things.
Star Fox is not an AAA title, nor is any of Nintendo games, since they don't spend more than a few million on each game.
Star Fox has always been a middle budget Nintendo series, which is probably for the best since only Star Fox 64 sold really well (it was due to the rumble pak pack in).
@Gerbwmu Exactly. This game has been talked about since..... it seems at least the summer of 2013. Seems like this could have been a decent release during any number of the slow periods since then.
Anyway, this looks like an absolute nobrainer of a purchase, tho I hope it's not incredibly hard like Nano Assault Neo. Loved the game but never got past the second level.
I'll pass on this one, F zero bored me completely and while it looks amazing I'll get tired of it in less than a week
Looking awesome the closes we are gonna get too an F-Zero game at the mo.
Maybe we'll get this the second week of December? Good 'ol Bill Trinen said it would launch in "early December" on that Direct, if memory serves. Anyway, I loved the first one and can't wait to try its sequel out.
@IronMan28 Of course a game developed in Germany will launch in the US first
Can't wait! Day one purchase for me!
@ KO-Cub
Yep!
want this right now! Really, its taking soo long to come out, I really thought it would be out by halloween, now we know december, no date,
@Gerbwmu It would have definitely helped Nintendo to publish this after having a subpar year as a publisher... which is too bad 'cause last year Nintendo was pretty awesome. And it probably would have helped out this game.
Might be the only game for me this X-mas.
@Folkloner Honestly I've been happy with Nintendo's out put for the rest of the year. Yoshis Wooly World was a big suprise being quite varied in gameplay and longer than expected, just finished Project Zero, Mario Maker is still getting many hours, there's various eShop titles keeping me busy AND Xenoblade CX is weeks away. A nice variety if titles that have actually kept me away from gaming on PC despite that having some big hitters of late.
@Xenocity Nintendo may not spend as much as so called "AAA" titles but their stuff mostly is a lot more fun than what Activision/EA pit out AND they're but bug ridden. To me a AAA game is something like Mario 3D World or Zelda and Star Fox certainly fits in there considering the time and effort Nintendo puts in there. Any other publisher would have farted it out to meet the deadline, Nintendo would rather it's developers vision comes through.
Just bought FAST: Racing League on the Wii in preparation for this and have enjoyed what I've played so far. Hopefully this can be even better.
@Shiryu I'd really love to hear what you'd do with a remix of this game's soundtrack! I still listen to your WipeOut remixes daily.
@UboaNoticedYou I wish Shin'en would allow the use of custom tracks streaming out of the SD card, I wanted to make a full, original soundtrack to go with this one...
@Goob I don't know how you can say 720p60 is disappointing. It's the Wii U for goodness sake!!!
Pretty much all Nintendo games on it are 720p apart from Smash Bros - but it is a 2D brawler.
Come ooooon! Retail release PLEASE!! I don´t want an external drive only for this game, it´s not worthy.
@Xenocity
Star Fox Zero barely has what I would call "a lot" going on. It has less going on than a typical PS2/PS3 Ace Combat game, yet somehow manages to look nowhere near as good.
sigh F-Zero 25th anniversary gets no acknowledgement of course. At least we're getting this game.......
@Gerbwmu I'd actually like to see this game on physical retail form. Another top end title worth owning and it would be nice to see more retail games for the Wii U before the console is all but forgotten in favor of NX
Just gimme a date.
Sucks that it's download only.
@AVahne Starfox has way more stuff going on the ground and in the air than Ace Combat. It's a much more arcade series. And both series have complete different artstyle. Really stupid to compare them
@liveswired I'm a PC gamer who plays very regularly at 1920x1080, so I can easily notice the difference between 720p and 1080p. The resolution won't make the game any less enjoyable, but it will be something I will immediately notice and possibly be initially distracted by, as much as I hate to admit it. The same thing happened with Splatoon too, even though I love that game to bits.
Still, I'd much rather the game be at 720p60 than 1080p30, so I can't complain too much
@VeeFlamesNL (and on top of that, Folkloner is using insults on something we don't even know yet [and we might never know] -_- )
Genuinely have no clue what you're referring to. We know the game is eShop only because they've already told us that.
I will purchase this game on day one. Also, I will stream it on twitch so hopefully my friends will also get it to play online races. I just want it to be certified and with a solid release date, please...
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