In the twelve years since the fantastic F-Zero GX graced our screens on the Nintendo Gamecube in 2003 before the franchise then seemingly almost vanished into existence without barely an acknowledgement until recently, there have been two titles in the FAST Racing series as in 2011 we were graced with an entirely new anti-gravity racer FAST Racing League which really pushed the boundaries for WiiWare, the Wii console itself and the genre in general. The second comes in the form of FAST Racing NEO which is Shin'en Multimedia's latest evolution for the franchise which takes every single strong element from the first title, fine-tunes them, ditches the few things which weren't as great and adds in a whole host of extra features which fans have wanted from the start; if the first game was considered to be the trial run then this sequel is surely the main race event which will have your craft firing on all cylinders.

For anyone who isn't acquainted with these games - perhaps you missed the first game on WiiWare, heck perhaps you didn't even know WiiWare existed! - the original FAST title centered around piloting your anti-gravity along tracks at high-speed with the main feature being that your ship had two polarities - Black & White - which you would need to phase-switch between at the press of a button. Certain sections of the track would also be the same colour as your two ship polarities, if your colour matched then you'd get boosted along while alligning the opposite colour would make your ship slow to a crawl; there were even boost pads which worked around the same concept which would magnetically stick your ship to the ceiling when the correct phase matched up and when it didn't you'd go off the gap in the track, there were also coloured orbs you could collect which would give you some boost power proving useful at crucial moments in the race.

Gotta go fast! Gotta go fast! Gotta go...

Anyone who played the first title - back in the day! - will want to know exactly what has changed, well one main difference is that the gameplay is that much faster to the point that it's like playing the original in double-speed, for anyone used to the anti-gravity racing genre this will prove very pleasing indeed though if this is your first time playing it might take you a little bit of adjustment. Another key difference is that boost pads no longer magnetically meld you to the track, there are still plenty of gaps to contend with but instead of having to cocern yourself with racing upside down you are now more focused on landing your craft without crashing, there are nicely implemented guiding lines for those trickier jumps which don't detract from the gameplay at all, indeed I would even say that they are an integral addition! Both of the polarity colours have been altered too, now they come in sunset orange plus a blue hue which makes them easier to distinguish between which is especially useful when you have but a split-second within which to make your decision all the while managing twitch reflexes required for the controls; there are multiple options available to you in that department as well.

My first and last play of FAST Racing NEO with the Wii Wheel ended in disaster as quite simply it proved to be not quite accurate enough for my needs, while I had hope the Gamepad motion control option would be better this proved to not be the case, so it was back to the Pro Controller for me which in a way is a shame because I seem to recall the Wii remote motion control being decent enough to use in the first game, sadly not here though, certainly not for me at least. The configuration for the Pro controller couldn't be simpler you have A to accelerate, B to breake, X to switch phase while the left stick steers, the triggers let you lean in for the corners and the select button changes your view; this setup allowed me to develop my own style of play which involed having all fingers placed over the shoulder buttons and the triggers with the R button constantly pressed down so as to get an instant boost when picking up the coloured orbs while the L button gave me the twitch-switching required for gameplay which essentially punishes you for blinking once during a race.

...crash! OK maybe I was going a little too fast that time.

You start out with three ships which are Kamagori by Clone Trech, Bliss by Racing Team, and Ziro by Orav Research but there are seven unloackable ships which include Spaarc, Fulcon, Xisle, Mueller, Willard, Rochdale and Zvil all of which have their own unique stats which will affect the way in which you play, my favourite ship ended up being Mueller as it offered the perfect balance for me though I must admit that even though I have put in a fair few hours into playing this title I wasn't able to unlock all of the ships so it should definitely take some time to unlock them all. Overall the designs of the ships are fairly unique taking cues from at least a couple of other anti-gravity racing games yet still retaining their own charm, there doesn't seem to be any option to select the hue of your craft so this means that there is only a default colour scheme for each ship so this is definitely a bare bones experience in the sense that all the main content is there but there is little in the way of customisation which in a way is a shame as I'm sure it was there in the original; but then again for the amount of content which is there and has been compressed into an impressive file size considering everything is in HD now it's still nothing sort of impressive whichever way you look at it, ultimately there are plenty of decent ships to choose from all of which take some practice to master.

All of the tracks contained in the game are nothing short of spectacular in terms of their refined design which never reaches the ridiculous levels of some racers yet still offers an excellent level of challenge for seasoned gamers and newcomers alike plus they have some great names including Scorpio Circuit, Alpine Trust, Mueller Pacific plus Chuoku City to name but a few which appear in the first cup alone. There are some rather spectacular track features too such as a huge mechanised creature which walks across the track on Kamagori City which threatens to take out your ship if you get too close, in the Desert themed aforementioned Scorpio Circuit you'll be boosting along as Sandworms almost the size of Twinmold - from the Zelda series for reference - leap over you as they lurch out of the sand on one side, straight into the ground on the other as you attempt to keep your focus on the actual racing it can be easy to crash from just taking in the sights or becoming accustomed to the various features of your current racing environment; there's even a great antigravity moment in space which makes you feel as if you're playing the Death Star Trench Run mission from Star Wars Rogue Leader which I'm convinced can't be an accident, but I don't want to spoil everything for you as there are plenty more magical moments to experience in this excellent eShop racing experience.

Purely on a mechanical level FAST Racing NEO is something of a triumph as it runs at an almost constant 60 frames per second within the single player mode - on all sixteen tracks no less - which is impressive when you consider all of the different effects which are going on, constantly being processed quicker than the blistering speeds you will often be racing at. There are plenty of clever rendering tricks used which I'm not even going to attempt to understand or try to convince you that I know how these results are achieved but suffice to say that Shin'en are true technical wizards at the very height of their craft which has been steadily perfected with each title released from their fantastic studio over the years; ultimately this title looks consistently good at all times and any small issues are hardly noticeable when going across the tracks at blisteringly high speeds, plus it's the control of your ship you will be concentrating on most of the time.

Such an aesthetically pleasing blue-hue in this area, hey! Keep your eyes on the...

Though it must be said that this is one of best looking pieces of software I have ever seen appear on the Wii U to this very date, I include retail titles along with eShop releases in this statement because the art style used though fairly straightforward is at the very least focused, the high level of polish which has been lavished on the environments and ships is nothing short of impressive as you'll find yourself easily immersed in the on-screen action as you take in the dynamic settings around you. A special mention has to go to Kenshu Jungle which in particular has some spectacular art direction striking an equilibrium between trees and tarmac; there are many other effects which will catch your eye not to mention the rather spectacular crashes when you inevitably lose control for a moment, sending your craft careering into the edge of the track, the scene of destruction is brief but very effective in its execution.  

Of course the soundtrack is very special indeed as with all games made by Shin'en, anyone who has played a few of their excellent titles in the past will know that audio is always an area in which they excel, the legendary Manfred Linzner - who scored the Nanostray titles - strikes a winning chord once again, hitting all the high notes you'd expect to the extent that what has been created is another hypnotically beautiful, futuristic techno beat-heavy masterpiece of aural complexity which flows with the game in a seamless stream. Citing that the direction for the soundtrack was to give an arcade game from 2015 feel, this has certainly been achieved here as to me it feels as if a balance has been struck between other racing games in the the sub-genre and the creation of something brand new which more than fits the style of the game.

While I may have been listening to the soundtrack to F-Zero GX while writing this review - what? it is a one-off classic - I can honestly say that I would buy the soundtrack to both Fast titles in a heartbeat, so it's encouraging to hear that the OST to this title does have a planned release at a later date which is of great comfort to me as I've been a great fan of Shin'en music for a while now, a great deal of it is available to buy directly from their website which I would advise buying not just to plug the company but also because it's well worth buying in its own right. Everything just feels right about the soundtrack which features some spectacular tunes I will leave you to discover along with some really substantial sound effects and all of it perfectly optimised for your surround sound setup, no weird regressive audio mixes here which have plauged certain retail Wii U titles, just pure aural bliss.

Within Championship mode you have three leagues to race through including Subsonic, Supersonic plus Hypersonic - which equate to Novice, Advanced & Expert difficulties respectively - each of which in turn containing Cobalt, Xenon, Titanium and Neon cups which consist of four unique tracks in each which all require you to race against seven smart CPU racers which do NOT have any form of rubber-banding A.I which is refreshing but it also means you have no excuses, if you come off the track and end up going from second to seventh then it will always be from your own mistakes and no cheap trickery from the game; nothing but pure racing skills are required to win.

...track, expect to see crashes like this frequently, especially with motion controls!

Indeed you'll need your speed-maximising skills along with extreme corner-turning prowess if you want to succeed in the multiplayer, going head to head against friends along with bots will keep your friendly rivalries alive, the framerate even hold up pretty well even though the fact that you can't have a screen each when it's just two of you with one playing on the Gamepad as instead the screen is split regardless of your local multiplayer setup; needless to say that my brother and I still enjoyed the local competitive mode very much indeed despite this slight technical limitation. Lest we forget that there is a full Online Multiplayer mode though with support for up to eight players, when I tried it out for a few evenings I must admit that I didn't personally experience any issues but there were for some and Shin'en have actually stated that an update would be arriving in January which would add a new racetrack minimap on the TV screen, online tags and flags which will be shown while racing plus stability along with various other improvements; well the first month of the year has gone just like the second for that matter though the update was submitted to Nintendo for review weeks ago at least so perhaps March will be the month? Far be it for me to judge though as this review was originally planned to be released at least a good few weeks ago though I had hoped to have included an extra section detailing how much the game had improved as a result of this update... touché in a way but better late than never in both respects of course, in any case when the update does arrive N-Europe will be sure to test it out and report back in another article.

Anyway once online you have a choice of playing with Everyone or Friends, either way you pick your ship and you're straight into a lobby where you have about fifteen seconds to choose from three tracks which seems to be a different selection for each person so you could conceivably be racing on any track. When racing online it completely changes the game as you start developing racing habits which you wouldn't think of using in single player, everything can go wrong so quickly which makes it all the more exciting when you actually do well in a race, I managed to win a fair few though there were times when I was simply beaten to the finish line; in a way it is a shame that there are no other racing modes online but the fact that the one online mode that is there works well - for me at least - is a triumph and it is fun to go for first place to try and accrue more points to go next to your name, obviously you get less points for falling behind so it will take you longer to get more points unless you can get up to the front of the pack but really the numerical value is just the same as it is in other racing games... completely arbitrary but at least your online experiences can end up making you want to strive for perfection in the single player as well where there are plenty of shiny trophies, some of which you will need to go for if you want to unlock all the ships.

Getting to unlock Hero Mode should be considered something of a triumph in itself, actually beating it is another matter as this unique offering was clearly created in response to many players longing for F-Zero's style of play which I have tried to deliberately stay away from comparing too much because the FAST games are their own experience which deserve as much recognition yet for different reasons; with that said though it is amazing to be able to blast through a mode where your ships boost gauge is actually your life as well as there is no denying that it is a fantastic mechanic which makes for a manic mode and to a certain extent the answer is "Yes" it will satisfy your hunger for an F-Zero-like experience just so long as you take the mode at face value for what it is which is a challenging mode created respectfully for fans of anti-gravity racing games in genre by an excellent developer who know how to please their fans. Also even when all of this is done, you still have the Time Trials to beat of course, not perhaps the meat of the game by any means but it still proves to be very enjoyable indeed.

If you squint this almost looks like a screen from F-Zer... oh, just a certain fabled series.

If any DLC had been planned then it would of course have been the icing on the cake which in this case is a fairly unassuming offering which has a certain richness to it, alas there is no actual DLC planned but then again I feel as if we should be thankful for the game as it is for I'd rather that than have an offering which merely looks good while turning out to be rather bland like a lot of other racers have been; this certainly isn't the case for this spectacular title though as while it may be bare bones in its presentation, lacking in a certain challenge mode from the original and not have a huge amount of customisable options it is still a true triumph for the eShop, one which should surely be celebrated for what it has achieved rather than berated for what else could have been included.

Overall it must be said that FAST Racing NEO is an amazing triumph for Shin'en which has been well worth the wait, don't buy this instead of F-Zero, buy it because it's brilliant... then buy F-Zero if it ever comes out again, in twelve years there hasn't been an entry in the long almost forgotten Nintendo franchise apart from teasing cameo's so for a new franchise to emerge in that time and produce two titles of exceptional quality which is as much an ingenious entry in the sub-genre as it is a love letter to anti-gravity racing is testament to the real commitment to fans. This is a title which needs your support not just because it's an excellent independently made piece of software but because it represents just how good a game can be when it stays with a simple concept which is then superbly executed and polished in order to make it as playable as it can possibly be in an age where releasing completely broken or incomplete games and then patching loads in later is worringly becoming a normalised process; here is a fantastic complete game which is an amazing experience in its own right, made available for a reasonable price by a proven developer you can trust and built from the ground-up specifically for what is in many ways an underrated gaming platform.

A future classic series? Without a doubt.