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aka: FAST Racing League

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FAST is a futuristic racing game series similar in style to the F-Zero series and made by developer Shin'en, creators of Jett Rocket. It is set in the same universe as Nanostray, with a lot of locations and fictitious brand names taken from that series.

The series' signature mechanic is the ability to "phase shift" or change the color of your car (from white to black in Racing League, and orange to blue in NEO and RMX), which allows you to take advantage of different parts of the track. Matching the phase of your car to the phase of the track gives bonuses such as boosts and jumps, and not matching your phase on the other hand can slow down your car or even send it careening to its destruction.

Like Shin'en's previous WiiWare game, FAST Racing League manages to cram an impressive amount of graphics and gameplay into so just 40 megabytes of data, pushing the Wii to its limits. In 2015, a sequel, FAST Racing NEO, was released on the Wii U, followed by FAST RMX, an Updated Re-release of Neo on the Nintendo Switch, in 2017.


FAST provides examples of:

    As a whole 
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Dying by falling off the course or hitting an obstacle only sets you back a few places, rather than making you forfeit the race as in F-Zero. Averted in League's Challenges and HD's Hero Mode, where blowing up fails you the run.
  • Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels:
    • League uses Neutron (easiest), Proton, and Ion (hardest).
    • NEO and RMX use Subsonic (easiest), Supersonic, and Hypersonic (hardest).
  • Nintendo Hard: Even at Neutron and Subsonic, don't expect the A.I. to hold back on you at all.
  • Nitro Boost: In all games, you can get a boost by matching the color of your car to that of highlighted portions of track (or at any time via button press, at the cost of energy).
  • No Plot? No Problem!: Here's a bunch of machines that can travel at supersonic speeds. Here's some cool futuristic tracks to race them on. That's about the extent of the plot.
  • Numerical Hard: The A.I. hardly changes behavior on the higher Classes/Leagues, which simply change vehicle top speeds.
  • One-Hit-Point Wonder: Aside from the walls or other cars, hitting any obstacle on the course instantly destroys your car.

    Racing League 
  • Challenge Run: There are special courses where unique single-player objectives can be reached for.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: Most of the opposing racers' names are in Japanese, as are many league and course names.note 
  • Tech-Demo Game: This installment's relative minimalism helps cram the basics of a full-fledged 3D racing game into the 40 megabytes that WiiWare games are restricted to.

    Racing NEO and RMX 
  • Arrange Mode: Hero Mode is a lot like the standard race format, except your Boost meter now doubles as a Shield meter and can be refilled by driving over boost strips, collisions take away from your Boost/Shield meter with one at zero meter causing a crash, and unlike in other modes, a crash or going out-of-bounds ends the race in failure. The courses are also mirrored, forcing the player to break up their muscle memory.
  • Artistic License – Space: The Kuiper Belt course appears to be set dangerously close to the Sun, already an example of this trope in and of itself, meaning that it cannot possibly be near the actual Kuiper belt, the inner rim of which is at least 2.7 billion miles (or the distance from the Sun to Neptune) away.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Several course names:
    • Sunahara Desert, Sunahara Plains, and Sunahara Valley: "Sunahara" (砂原) is "sandy plains" or "desert" in Japanese. So...Desert Desert and Plains Plains?
    • Hibashira Speedway: "Hibashira" (火柱) is "fire pillar" in Japanese. The course takes place in Lethal Lava Land with pillars of lava erupting all over the place.
    • Mori Park: "Mori" (森) is "forest" in Japanese. The course is set in a forest.
  • Cast from Hit Points: In Hero Mode, your boost meter starts out full and doubles as a shield meter.
  • Comeback Mechanic: In a multiplayer race, you gain more boost meter per orb the further behind you are.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Hero Mode mirrors the courses, which coupled with the game not respawning you if you crash can quickly lead to a "Please try again!" for those who don't adapt quickly.
  • Gusty Glade: The Haze has giant fans on straightaways with no rails, potentially sending you off-course if you don't adjust accordingly. RMX has them reprise their role in Tepaneca Haze.
  • Hard Mode Perks: Hero Mode turns your Boost meter into a Boost / Shield meter, but also allows you to recharge the meter by driving over boost strips and boost ramps (which provide a speed boost but not meter in other modes).
  • Large-Ham Announcer: These two games have an especially enthusiastic announcer: the same one featured in F-Zero GX and F-Zero AX, no less!
  • Lethal Lava Land: Hibashira Speedway is set over a sea of lava.
  • Level in Reverse:
    • All tracks in Hero Mode are laterally mirrored.
    • Most of the Remix tracks in RMX copy the layout from other tracks but makes you race them backwards. Tepaneca Haze does this with The Haze, Sunahara Valley does it with Pyramid Valley, and Scorpio Mine does it with Willard Mine..
  • Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode: The HD games have both local and online multiplayer modes, with RMX also allowing local wireless play. Unfortunately, online play has one glaring problem: There is no option to join a specific friend or to create a private lobby. Furthermore, RMX limits all online play to Subsonic League, not permitting players to play in Supersonic or Hypersonic Leagues.
  • My Rules Are Not Your Rules: In Hero Mode, it's an instant failure if you crash at any point, and your boost is Cast from Hit Points. The AI opponents, on the other hand, won't die just from hitting something at zero energy and if they crash, they'll just respawn.
  • New Neo City: The Neo Kyoto course.
  • Orange/Blue Contrast: Orange and blue are the two boost phase colors used here.
  • Remixed Level: The six DLC courses in RMX are mishmashes of existing RMX courses. As examples, Chuoko Habitat features Chuoko City's massive urban sprawl environment and music and Zenshou Habitat's instant-kill lasers, Tepaneca Haze combines Tepaneca Vale's nighttime setting and boost-jump pillars with The Haze's sky-high environments, music, and giant fans, and Cameron Raceway has Cameron Crest's lush green environments and music and Zvil Raceway's dangling roads.
  • Sand Worm: The background of Scorpio Circuit features giant worms to complement the futuristic setting.
  • Skill Gate Character: Rochdale in NEO and RMX has excellent cornering and acceleration, making it good for beginners, but its middling boost and lackluster top speed allows faster machines like Bliss and Mueller to, in the right hands, leave it in the dust.
  • Spell My Name with a "The": Of all the courses present, The Haze is the only one with a "The" in its name.
  • Shifting Sand Land: The "Sunahara" courses, Sunahara Desert and Sunahara Plains, are set in the desert. Pyramid Valley is set around a pyramid in another desert. RMX has Sunahara Valley, which mixes elements of these courses.
  • Updated Re-release: RMX features all content from NEO, including 6 new tracks and 6 new ships.


Alternative Title(s): FAST Racing League

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