• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

FAST Racing League |OT| Here's your Wii F-Zero/Wipeout

WillyFive

Member
500036-banner.png


hl_productinfo.png
Official Website | Announcement Thread | Developer Interview | 60 FPS MP4 trailer



Developers: Shin'En Multimedia

Genre:
Futuristic Racing

Release Date:
May 27 EU, May 30 US

Cost:
1000 Wii Points​







  • 12 Large Tracks to Unlock
  • 15 Items to Unlock
  • Three Leagues to Unlock
  • 480p Widescreen, 50/60 Hz
  • 1-4 Player Splitscreen
  • 60 FPS (1-2 players) 30 FPS (3-4 players)
  • 23 Audio Tracks, 130 Sound Effects





gameplay_ship.png
 

V_Ben

Banned
I can't believe these guys can do so much on Wiiware. Madness.

Edit: Is that link in your OP for the trailer meant to link us to it? It looks like it should...
 
Doesn't look all that great, namely due to its uninspired track design and underwhelming sense of speed from the videos I've seen. I've still got F-Zero GX, which this surpasses neither in graphics nor seemingly gameplay, so I'll pass.
 

Linkup

Member
lordoftherink said:
Doesn't look all that great, namely due to its uninspired track design and underwhelming sense of speed from the videos I've seen. I've still got F-Zero GX, which this surpasses neither in graphics nor seemingly gameplay, so I'll pass.

True, I'm hoping that's because those are the first three tracks.
 
i don't see much sense of speed either, the 30 minute HD gameplay video i saw looked pretty lousy in terms of racing and track design. the A/I just goes along, you touch orbs to gather boost, which feels very instantaneous and weird. the guy playing it sucked a pile of ass though, he kept fucking up every single landing pulling back on the tail which was bugging the hell out of me.

if i could see some honest gameplay of it, instead of a captain dipshit run, i'll give it a more fair chance. but i didn't see any lean mechanics other then just steering. the A/I cars look very drone like and just move along nicely. it just doesn't look exciting to me.

I want to like this but f-zero gx is 3 dollars.

F-Zero GX will forever spoil me as my favorite arcade racer. so much stuff to do and you have to earn it. the "melee" attack and health/boost setup combined with perfect controls and stupid sense of speed just make me want to do it all over again. carving the corners in first person. no weapon BS, just hardnosed A/I and insanely great tracks
 
Your banner for the trailer should link to the HQ trailer on their website instead. It's like you're looking at a completely different game when you watch footage of it running at 30 frames per second instead of 60.
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
We need more of those OTs *salutes thread author*

That said, where's Art Of Balance's OT? *wink-wink*

caligula13 said:
the game is good but it's just the same graphics from jett rocket.
Shaders and some artwork style has surely been shared. Heck, it's the same engine. Same graphics, though - no. It's difficult to have same graphics in two games from totally different genres.
 

Agent X

Member
I've been looking forward to this game for a while! Just one more day until the North American release.
 

Poyunch

Member
When do you guys think the game will be up? I'm gonna be busy tomorrow so I want to sneak in some game time while I can.
 
lordoftherink said:
Doesn't look all that great, namely due to its uninspired track design and underwhelming sense of speed from the videos I've seen. I've still got F-Zero GX, which this surpasses neither in graphics nor seemingly gameplay, so I'll pass.

I personally hated the GX gameplay with its random buzzing AI and linear nonsense twitch controls with zero physics. Judging from the videos of this it actually looks like this has a decent race in it with physics that reward taking a good racing line.
 
Warm Machine said:
I personally hated the GX gameplay with its random buzzing AI and linear nonsense twitch controls with zero physics. Judging from the videos of this it actually looks like this has a decent race in it with physics that reward taking a good racing line.
If you really believe GX had "zero physics" and did not "reward taking a good racing line" you either did not play much of the game or just were not very good at it. Knowing the physics of the vehicles in GX and how they interacted with other racers as well as how they performed on the various racing surfaces was vital to surviving in the game. You may not have liked them, but they were not "zero." And knowing not just a good driving line but memorizing the courses was just as instrumental to winning in GX as dealing with the AI, which apparently frustrated you, but with practice was not difficult to learn the tendencies of. Winning in a racing game is pointless if there's little difficulty in doing so.

Of course, this thread is about FAST, so sorry if I derailed by bringing up that other game (although the thread title pretty much invited such comparisons.)
 
Linkup said:
True, I'm hoping that's because those are the first three tracks.
The Tracks are okay when you race them; the speed ramps up as you progress the cups. As you said, first three tracks.

Someone should upload a video from the last cup.
 

Celine

Member
quinntendopower said:
i don't see much sense of speed either, the 30 minute HD gameplay video i saw looked pretty lousy in terms of racing and track design. the A/I just goes along, you touch orbs to gather boost, which feels very instantaneous and weird. the guy playing it sucked a pile of ass though, he kept fucking up every single landing pulling back on the tail which was bugging the hell out of me.

if i could see some honest gameplay of it, instead of a captain dipshit run, i'll give it a more fair chance. but i didn't see any lean mechanics other then just steering. the A/I cars look very drone like and just move along nicely. it just doesn't look exciting to me.

I want to like this but f-zero gx is 3 dollars.

F-Zero GX will forever spoil me as my favorite arcade racer. so much stuff to do and you have to earn it. the "melee" attack and health/boost setup combined with perfect controls and stupid sense of speed just make me want to do it all over again. carving the corners in first person. no weapon BS, just hardnosed A/I and insanely great tracks
Well game is kinda boring at the easiest difficulty ( that's what you saw in that video ), it's very easy to win, you just need to not fuck up your lead.
The game start to excite with the latter difficulties.

There is a kind of lean move for step curves ( just press A+B ) but it isn't really needed at all.

Challenge mode is fun.

F-Zero GX could be 3 dollar but I've bought it and enjoyed it 8 years ago and I don't think is really fair to expect 5 guys to code a game that can rival it using just 40MB.
 

dwu8991

Banned
Celine said:
Well game is kinda boring at the easiest difficulty ( that's what you saw in that video ), it's very easy to win, you just need to not fuck up your lead.
The game start to excite with the latter difficulties.

There is a kind of lean move for step curves ( just press A+B ) but it isn't really needed at all.

Challenge mode is fun.

F-Zero GX could be 3 dollar but I've bought it and enjoyed it 8 years ago and I don't think is really fair to expect 5 guys to code a game that can rival it using just 40MB.

I think it's going to be compared to F-Zero GX no matter what, even if it's on wii ware. That's what you get for trying.
 

Effect

Member
I really think Nintendo is stupid for not giving this game special attention. It looks great in terms of graphics and gameplay.
 

WillyFive

Member
Effect said:
I really think Nintendo is stupid for not giving this game special attention. It looks great in terms of graphics and gameplay.

They do that for every game in the service, excluding World of Goo for a little while. They kill their own service.
 

Lijik

Member
Shinen giving Sega a real run for their money with the blue skies in this game. So good.
Gonna have to wait till middle of the month to pick this up. Can't wait!
 
lordoftherink said:
Doesn't look all that great, namely due to its uninspired track design and underwhelming sense of speed from the videos I've seen. I've still got F-Zero GX, which this surpasses neither in graphics nor seemingly gameplay, so I'll pass.

I think you can choose your speed a-la-Mario Kart.
 

OnPoint

Member
Alright, so I spent about 40 or so minutes with this, and I can say that I don't think I really like it for one simple reason: the phasing mechanic is not balanced properly.

I like the idea of switching your color for boost pads. I also like the idea that when they're on the ceiling you need to match your color and flip upside-down. I do NOT like the idea that you can't switch at will if you don't have a power-up to do so.

Granted, it's the only power-up in the game, and you can store several at a time. But if you boost along a straight away and drain your meter (they use the same one, boosting just takes more energy, like four instead of one), you can really screw yourself if you're heading straight toward a wall and need to switch for a jump pad.

Should you need to learn the tracks? Yeah, this will help prevent you from draining your meter completely when critical spots are coming up. But there doesn't seem to be a free-play mode in single player to do so. And if you drop from first to fifth in FAST, there's next to no chance you're coming back to win against the computer because there's next to no variance in how they race -- they're like perfect, pre-recorded ghost laps and boost at what seem to be the perfect points. I found that if I boost into first place right away and race cleanly, the computer can't touch me either and I'll spend the entire match two to five seconds ahead. The game is missing some sort of variable to balance that out.

It's a shame too, because the makings of a truly great racer are here, but these two details are killing it for me so far.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Just bought it on a total whim. I'll capture some video of it later.
 
OnPoint said:
Alright, so I spent about 40 or so minutes with this, and I can say that I don't think I really like it for one simple reason: the phasing mechanic is not balanced properly.

I like the idea of switching your color for boost pads. I also like the idea that when they're on the ceiling you need to match your color and flip upside-down. I do NOT like the idea that you can't switch at will if you don't have a power-up to do so.

Granted, it's the only power-up in the game, and you can store several at a time. But if you boost along a straight away and drain your meter (they use the same one, boosting just takes more energy, like four instead of one), you can really screw yourself if you're heading straight toward a wall and need to switch for a jump pad.

Should you need to learn the tracks? Yeah, this will help prevent you from draining your meter completely when critical spots are coming up. But there doesn't seem to be a free-play mode in single player to do so. And if you drop from first to fifth in FAST, there's next to no chance you're coming back to win against the computer because there's next to no variance in how they race -- they're like perfect, pre-recorded ghost laps and boost at what seem to be the perfect points. I found that if I boost into first place right away and race cleanly, the computer can't touch me either and I'll spend the entire match two to five seconds ahead. The game is missing some sort of variable to balance that out.

It's a shame too, because the makings of a truly great racer are here, but these two details are killing it for me so far.

I disagree about the phasing mechanic. To me it really adds a lot of strategy and skill to the game. It's a true arcade style mechanic that requires multiple playthroughs to learn the tracks by actually racing them. The limit is putting a nice challenge on the player and keeps him aware of the race tracks layouts and the upcoming power points.

I agree about the AI though. They are too consistent in that they almost allways race flawlessly (allthough I've seen some drop off the ledges and explode) A bit of finetuning would have made that aspect a lot better.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
So far, I like the game. I don't love it, but I like it. It's really tough to make a comeback, though, and you have to race practically flawlessly to get first.

Not nearly as much speed as F-Zero, but the tracks are alright so far. For 10 bucks, I really can't complain.
 

Celine

Member
OnPoint said:
Alright, so I spent about 40 or so minutes with this, and I can say that I don't think I really like it for one simple reason: the phasing mechanic is not balanced properly.

I like the idea of switching your color for boost pads. I also like the idea that when they're on the ceiling you need to match your color and flip upside-down. I do NOT like the idea that you can't switch at will if you don't have a power-up to do so.

Granted, it's the only power-up in the game, and you can store several at a time. But if you boost along a straight away and drain your meter (they use the same one, boosting just takes more energy, like four instead of one), you can really screw yourself if you're heading straight toward a wall and need to switch for a jump pad.

Should you need to learn the tracks? Yeah, this will help prevent you from draining your meter completely when critical spots are coming up. But there doesn't seem to be a free-play mode in single player to do so. And if you drop from first to fifth in FAST, there's next to no chance you're coming back to win against the computer because there's next to no variance in how they race -- they're like perfect, pre-recorded ghost laps and boost at what seem to be the perfect points. I found that if I boost into first place right away and race cleanly, the computer can't touch me either and I'll spend the entire match two to five seconds ahead. The game is missing some sort of variable to balance that out.

It's a shame too, because the makings of a truly great racer are here, but these two details are killing it for me so far.
The phase mechanics is balanced and fine ( if you can't remember the track layout just use the boost when you have 6 or more tanks and maximize its effect ).
The conceptual flaw is that when you race against the upper difficulties AI you realize that getting almost all the power orbs you can collect is fundamental ( so you can use the boost and stay ahead ), if you fall behind it's likely that those ahead will gain the orbs instead of you.

In F-Zero term would be like if the health lanes would for a brief period of time cease to work when a car pass on them before you.

If you want to win you not only need to drive well but also collect well and use the boost at the right moment.

Also it's true that rivals seems to drive too fast but I can guarantee you that it isn't uncommon watch a vehicle to crash against an obstacle.
 

OnPoint

Member
I get that the phasing mechanic is supposed to add strategy, but I still think they should have had unlimited shifts, or maybe limit shifts on a five-second timer or something.

But the way the mechanics work is why they should have a free-play mode available to learn the tracks. It's no fun to go through single player and get fifth place every time because I didn't know the track well enough to race flawlessly. More than F-Zero or Wipeout, you NEED to know these tracks and where everything is.

I feel like it would have been better if the tracks were designed in a way that rewarded you for knowing the tracks instead of outright punishing you for not. It makes the game feel inaccessible and less fun.

And Celine, I noticed that about the power orbs too. Being in a pack, and toward the middle for that matter is pretty much a guarantee you're not going to be getting any orbs.
 
I'm liking it so far. I have no issue with the phase mechanics. You just can't switch continuously which adds strategy to how you balance the phasing and boost between laps.

The A.I. is quite hard, however I love the fact that there's no rubber band. You mess up a race, then you get punished for it. The way games should be.
 
Top Bottom