So its a new year, a new day, and one where all the shops are shut and there's nothing to do besides spend money on digital gaming purchases.

Most on here will know me as a bias evil Vita fanboy (seriously, the system ownz!) A few others however will also know that despite having a ps4 and a decent gaming PC, my "home" gaming platform of choice is the Wii U.

So I thought given its a new year, I should get a new game. There was one particular Wii U exclusive that really had my attention. I have been a fan of Shin'en's work since they blew my mind of what was possible in portable gaming with Iridion II.

Couple that with my love of futuristic racers, be it F-Zero, Wipeout or even Motorhead or Xtreme G and believe me, my hopes were high for FAST!

So let's get the negatives out in the open first. This is NOT the technical marvel that will blur the line between the Wii U and other 8th gen home consoles. It looks alright, but has sprite trees in the scenery making it clear compromises are made for that 60fps frame rate. It's also very clear that the resolution drops in more complex scenes to facilitate a higher frame rate.

Chuck into that a level of presentation that would seem lacklustre even in a game like Slipstream 5000 and the bar is instantly lowered for what along with Xenoblade Chronicles X, was being hyped up by Nintendo fans as a 2015 killer app.

But you know what? From admittedly early opinions, that's as much criticism as I can level at the game. I was expecting yet another generic futuristic racer which is all style over substance. Hard for the sake of being hard (yes Sega, I know what you did with F-Zero AX to make sure it swallowed up more yen!)

But no.l, so far, rather than view this as a cheap futuristic racer cash in, it feels more like an evolutionary hibrid of F-Zero and Ikaruga. The AI isn't easy, nor is it complex. The key to winning races lies with your own discipline. Learning courses is essential. After that, just make sure you have the correct boost set up is the key to victory.

FAST Racing Neo is actually such a refreshing hark back to arcade gaming. If you have a Wii U, you owe it to yourself to try this game!

I went in expecting a technically outstanding, but mechanically mediocre experience. The end product is actually the total opposite. The visuals are the weakest part of FAST.

Fanboy and biased doesnt mean ur a hater, i'm biased towards Nintendo but that doesnt mean that I automatically hate other plarforms. thats stupid.

Btw great review, I love the game, that studio is amazing tbh.

Indeed hahah I can't believe such a small team can pull off something so impressive time and time again. But what really gets me is the hype around the game seems completely misplaced. I really love the boost colour swap mechanic. It is what sets the game apart, yet until I bought the game, I had no clue of that being the main mechanic because people were so fixated with xomg grafix on Wii U. *sigh*

Im biased toward Nintendo but also have a PS4 which I love. On topic, I think the visuals on Fast are really great, especially considering this is made by a handful of people on a restricted budget. Maybe the hype people were giving the visuals left you a little underwhelmed  when you saw them?, but they are decent and suit the style of game. One track in particular looks stunning, cant remember the name of it but its the one with the rain effects.

Serioudly, were been critical over the way FRN looks?? They game looks fine, i cant understand gamers who get so concerned over the way a game looks especially a game like FRN, hardley ruins the experiance, jesus you must be really looking for things to pick faults, just be happy with what you got its hardly an ugly looking game.