Fast RMX is without doubt the fastest paced game you will ever play on the Nintendo Switch until an actual F-Zero comes around or another successor to this reflex testing anti gravity fest. But does FAST mean GOOD?
Grab your old baseball cap and flex your thumbs; The arcade is back in town!
First of all the comparison to F-Zero is not too far fetched as this game is right inside the old classic’s ball park and I hope the devs at SHIN’EN will forgive me for this very tributing comparison. The game excels at pumping the ARCADE feeling through your veins right from the title screen! You are immediately welcomed to the brightly colored world of Fast RMX with its vertigo enticing race tracks and pumpy early 2000’s electro score. This game is everything the arcade stands for; Fast music, Fast Vehicles and Fast tracks! One thing is not arcady at all and we couldn’t be happier; the controls! They feel super responsive and with all the different types of controls the Switch offers (the game accepts ALL of them!), you will certainly find the lagless input you’re looking for in this fast game!
You better start playing the Championship mode first as it will explain the controls during the first few tracks. You have the choice of 3 difficulty modes within the Championship mode but you’ll have to clear the novice level until you can advance to the medium or hard mode. See them like your 50cc-100cc-150cc racing modes in MarioKart. Within these modes reside the same version of all the cups the game offers! There are 10 cups to unlock with 3 different tracks in each of the cups so you’ll have a whopping 30 tracks to explore and you’ll have to make it to 3rd place at least to unlock the next cup and a new anti-gravity vehicle.
This is an “ARCADE” pure sang; Fast music, Fast vehicles and fast tracks!
Every track feels different and they’re increasingly difficult. While the first cups offer protective railing you can grind against, so as not to fall down the track in a resulting ball of fire, the later cups won’t offer these railings and will thus not prevent you from falling off the edge to certain death. Luckily you spawn rather quickly during the Championship mode. So be wary to use your strafing controls! To go even faster the tracks will offer patches of orange or blue energy that will act as “boost patches” but you’ll have to ‘switch’ your engine energy to orange or blue accordingly with the X button (in normal controller mode) to match the energy signatures of the track. Otherwise the conflicting energy will result in an electrical failure that will slow down your vehicle instead of making it go faster and that will unforgivingly give the edge to other racers.
WHO PUT THESE GIANT WORMS HERE??
While swooping at 600 mph over the various tracks you can also collect energy balls that will replenish your boost bar you can use whenever you like until you run out of boost. While boosting you can hit other non boosting racers and make them spin around to slow them down. While boosting you are in turn protected from other racer’s boost. This is your only way to “damage” other racers, there’s no weapon system or pickups but honestly you wouldn’t be able to aim because the game is amazingly fast paced. It’s all about you not hitting obstacles, robots, giant worms, asteroids, ice and many more things no one in their right mind would put on a racing track… But it makes it so much more fun! While the game is forgiving in the beginning (hence the rails etc.) you will need to focus and try to make a perfect run timing your boosts if you ever want to make it in the top 3 at the end of each cup. I played on novice level and already had a hard time to get 3rd place in every track! The game is very difficult in the later cups and I haven’t even touched the expert levels yet! That being said, I am no arcade master at all but it just shows that this game will be a challenge for the average player! Even though I had a hard time I had a lot of fun and the more you play this arcade game the more you’ll master the twists and turns of its mindboggling tracks!
FALCON MODE!
If you really want to get as close as possible to F-Zero style gaming you can try the Hero mode that is basically the normal single player but where you HAVE to be 1st to advance and where your boost and damage meter are fused into one gauge that will be unforgiving for scraping against the railing or walls. If your meter runs out you will explode and there’s no respawn to help you out. This mode will demand that you not only master the basic controls and the track layout but also the ‘strafing’ shoulder buttons that will allow for more experienced handling and less wall hitting. A true mode for experts and an homage to the F-Zero gameplay!
Visually the game runs in 1080p/60pfs in console mode when docked but the portable mode looks amazingly crisp as well on the Switch’s bright screen when on the go or on the toilet.(be honest!)
I had no noticeable frame drops and that is exactly what you need when playing this speedy game! Every 1000th of a second will decide wether you are first or last in this arcade masterpiece! The vehicles have nice decals and all feel different to one another. I’m personally a big fan of the leopard print on one of the earlier unlocks! It just rocks that beautiful jungle level!
Even in 4 player splitscreen the Switch breaks no sweat at all!
Multiplayer is extremely fluid. You just jump in online and the automatic matchmaking will put you with racers of around your level of skill. You mostly have to look at the previous ongoing race but the game is so fast you’re not waiting that long at all. You pick a track of your preference and your vehicle and within seconds the match starts. It’s extremely fluid and you sometimes get to play tracks you haven’t unlocked yet too so you’re always in for a surprise against real life racers.
If you want to play locally you can play against another Switch system or of course share one of your joycons and play split screen (up to 4 players) amongst the other control schemes you can pick from. Be aware that your boost will be assigned to your analogue stick click instead of the shoulder buttons when playing with the shared joycons. Other than that I didn’t feel like I was missing any buttons playing this way. It truly shows the versatility of the Switch’s controls and how well it works even on the go!
Conclusion
All in all the game is a good launch title for Nintendo’s new system and I haven’t even elaborated on the best part: it only costs €19,00/$19.00 on the e-shop. This is by far one of the best price/quality downloads I’ve ever made! It’s a fast racer you can play at any time since it’s stored inside your Switch’s memory and you can pull it out as fast as you want for some quick racing on the go! Wether you play it with your friends or by yourself. Fast RMX leaves some features behind compared to its previous WiiU entry but you get an even prettier, faster and play on the go experience that you should get for the miserably low price during this launch window! If there’s a dedicated F-Zero on the way for the system, Fast RMX will already have set the bar pretty high!
UPDATE: A Time Attack mode and Friend online support are coming as part of a first update!
