Fusing Fast To Nintendo

Shin’en might not be a household name in gaming, but it has certainly made waves in recent weeks by releasing its latest game, Fast Fusion, on the launch day of the Nintendo Switch 2. It is still one of the few truly exclusive titles for the platform. The studio has been making gems out of Munich, Germany, for more than two decades, and the majority of its games have only been playable on Nintendo consoles throughout the team’s history, stretching as far back as the Game Boy Color.

Shin’en is not a Nintendo studio, yet it has seemingly worked hard to align itself to various Nintendo platforms over the years, save for the occasional release on a PlayStation console and its awesome voxel adventure game, The Touryst, which made its way to every console and PC from 2019 to 2021. To learn more about this studio, I spoke to one of its leads, Manfred Linzner. He’s one of the eight unique names I count in the Fast Fusion credits. However, his name appears multiple times under executive producer, game design, track design, music, game programming, engine programming, and sound effects, so it’s safe to say he wears many hats at the studio.