Dominic Toretto and his crew have been through all sorts of adventures, with even spin-offs, licensed videogames, animated shows and more based on ’em. There have even been multiple arcade cabinets based on the franchise, such as 2022’s Fast & Furious: Arcade. That game has now arrived to consoles, and since it’s a racer, I had to be there! This is the XboxEra review for Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition, tested on Xbox Series X!
I live my life a quarter dollar at a time
To be blunt, the lucrative cinematic franchise led by Vin Diesel, has not had the most stellar run of licensed videogames. The since delisted and often mocked Fast & Furious Crossroads, the decent but hardly memorable game based on the Spy Racers spin-off… oh well. At least the Rocket League DLC cars were pretty nice. Let’s just get it out of the way: Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition isn’t really gonna break this unimpressive trend. But there is still fun to be had here, for fans of fast-paced arcade racers. So… what is this game, anyway?
In short, it’s a quite faithful recreation of the arcade cabinet game from 2022, with not much changed or added. One or two players, on the same console, get to race through six fast-paced missions in as many locations in the world, mimicking famous scenes from the long-running movie series. From intercepting gold in Colombia to grounding a plane in Hong Kong, the winks at the movies are evident. The game is not about family, rivalries, gunfights, nor we go to space. It’s pure and simple arcade racing bliss, driving iconic rides from the franchise like the Dodge Charger and the Shelby GT500 KR. If they nail that, surely we have a great racer on our hands, no? Well…
We improvise, all right?
At its core, Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition is extremely similar to another arcade cabinet racing classic: Cruis’n Blast. Blazing speeds, extremely snappy handling, mostly downhill racing that further gives the impression of speed, massive drifts. You can “Burnout 3 your opponents” into the shadow realm, do wheelies, even. There’s a lot of ramps and jumps, with the player being able to rotate their car like a skateboard mid-air for gnarly tricks that give, you guessed it, boost. The short tracks end on a timer, in pure arcade cabinet style, so you really gotta be speedy. Sounds good, right?
The execution of it is where it all comes crashing down. I can excuse the very outdated graphics – it reminds me of some PlayStation 2 era classic racers, so that does not bother me. The real problem is how incredibly glitchy and janky the whole of racing is. This game demands speed from players, but its game logic is simply not up to the task. Cars frequently get stuck in walls. You’ll see your vehicle clip through the ground constantly. When you jump and do tricks, the car can sometimes lose speed and get pretty much stuck in mid-air for no apparent reason. Audio is also a mess, with tons of repeating and annoying clips. There’s only so many times the same, 1-second long engine sound can avoid annoying you, when doing a wheelie.
Money will come and go
There’s also a severe issue with the actual amount of content in this game. While there are a few different options, cars and difficulties, the entire game boils down to 6, couple minutes long tracks – the ones found in arcades. They have all sorts of action, with explosions, planes flying and whatnot, but it’s all visual and scripted only. You can quite literally see all the game really has to offer in a single, 20 minute or so session. Anything beyond that is just repeating what you already completed, maybe with another of the 8 available cars or at a higher difficulty. At least, you can play it with a buddy in local split-screen, and there’s achievements and high scores to aim for. But it’s a ridiculously low amount of content for a 29.99USD / 29,99EUR videogame launch – arcade cabinet origins or otherwise.
Yet, despite the incredibly janky physics, the shockingly low amount of content, the outdated graphics… Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition can be pretty enjoyable. The high speeds, the adrenaline-filled courses, the retro vibes… in short, I still had fun. I can not recommend a game like this, however. It’s way too short, way too unpolished, way too expensive for what it offers. Thus, you might want to wait for some patches and some deep discounts before joining this family.
Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Fast and fun racing with old school arcade vibes
- Recreates many iconic moments from the movies
CONS
- Extremely janky
- Insanely limited amount of content
- Nothing new compared to the arcade cabinet
- Very expensive for such little content
