I played a bit more, gold on the first 2 championships but damn, my hands are not compatible. Using all the shoulder buttons on the gamepad starts to hurt after a few races, and the classic controller I have has those little zr/zl buttons that are even harder to reach with everything else.
I'm also missing any options or settings? Is it not possible to configure the controls or the sound mix?

Anyway it inspired me to boot up Wipeout again. Still awesome, feels smoother too without all the blur and interlacing (and rendering at 4.5x the resolution), perfect soundtrack as well. But I had forgotten how hard it was. Even on novice it took me a whole bunch of tries to get out of last place in just the second speed class. I completed the whole game 5 years ago, I guess muscle memory doesn't last :( It's not as flashy but at least playing it doesn't hurt :/ Damn the gamepad.

I see what you mean with sunuhara, just tried it in subsonic titanium leage. 1st place, 2nd place, 10th place. Makes me hate the extreme zoom out on boost it keeps doing as well. I could have still pulled off the championship if I did not get stuck in a death loop on the last course. Comfortably in 1st place, then all of a sudden, dead, reset, dead, reset, dead, reset, dead, reset, last place, ugh.
Maybe I'll give motion control a try later, my hand is starting to cramp again already.

Having played this and with what they have out this christmas, they could have easily released a physical version at a value price (or even a few bucks off that) like captain toad or Kirby and done well with it.

So, I was trying the online today and it worked marvelous (maybe I suffered lag in 1/20 tracks or so), and I managed to get a lot of 1st positions, which is great since I started to believe I was the worst FRN player in the world. I'm having a hard time with the Hypersonic league, it's just insane, and that f*****g desert is difficult as hell. I'm stucked in the third cup because of that track. I can't manage to avoid all those tiny rocks. Hell, you're racing at 900mph and that gravel blows your car to pieces lol.

I tried all available controller options (that I have)
Classic controller - can't reach the tiny lean buttons
Wii mote + nunchuck - direction buttons are for leaning, akward to press above A used for mode switch
Wii mote alone - same thing plus motion steering is laggy

So yeah, back to the gamepad, indeed with pointer and middle finger on the shoulder buttons.
The problem is the A button for accelerate. Either I have to uncomfortably bend my thumb to hold it down or press it with the middle of my finger while keeping off x. Both starts hurting after a while. All I need is R to accelerate and tap x or y for boost. Simple solution, yet I can't find anywhere if you can configure the controls (guess not), nor any support on their website.

It sucks the game is fun and the eShop doesn't take returns lol. I got gold on the cup with that desert track, although only placing 5th on Sunuhara. Managing to stay on the track is only half the work, the bastard AI likes to spin you around as soon as you slow down. On many tracks they simply bounce off the walls instead of take a corner. I did a bit of the next cup but had enough for now. Hopefully there will be a patch with config options. Would be nice to turn that announcer off as well :)

Funny thing, I found the way I had to blend my thumb to run really unconfortable the first day too, yet I have been playing the rest of days without even thinking on that, I guess I just got used too, I found the controls in general weird at first, now I find them very confortable, I even use L instead of X to switch colours, at first I though L was a bad place, but now I would not change it even if I could.

Is number 2 here on Spain, just behind Splatoon and also in Canada for what I have read on Twitter. Looks like is doing good, I hope so. In my game says the first cup has a ranking with around 22k best times from different players, so that would mean maybe 30k already sold? 80k is usually the biggest amount indie games get on WiiU and few break that, so around 30k so soon would be a good number I guess? I wonder if we will ever know if this game was sucessfull.

I use L too, since using x and a together is even more annoying. I guess my old fingers aren't as flexible anymore after years of rsi from working on pc.
Anyway can be easily solved with button assignments, rather lazy ommision.
I had the same issue with the button placements on Mario maker, (dash + jump) still played it way more than I should. (Of course there I could easily break it up with editting, didn't need the shoulder buttons, and worked fine on a wii mote)

Have no issue with using a and x together. But changing between ZR and R on the Gamepad. Definitely prefer the Pro Controller.

I never use X; I just keep my thumb on A while my pointer fingers alternate between the triggers and bumpers. Beyond the usual adjustment period for a new game's controls, it's never bothered me.

Also, just played Neon cup for the first time, (got my arse handed to me) but Cevo Canyon looks drop-dead gorgeous.

Devs sometimes comment on the sales of their eshop games; I remember Shin'en saying in the past that every game they've made for Nintendo hardware to date has turned a profit, and Frozenbyte saying they were very pleased by the sales of Trine Enchanted Edition on Wii U earlier this year.