Fast and Furious: Arcade Edition Review

Arcade racing games had me by the hook during my teenage years. As Android devices became more common in households, I was introduced to the world of arcade racing by Gameloft's Asphalt series. Now you may ask me what made these games so addictive? It's the feeling of speed and chaos, and obviously the fast shiny cars.

Throughout the years, I slowly grew out of the arcade racing phase and moved on to the world of realistic racing titles like Gran Turismo and Forza Horizon. However, I still cannot help myself from trying out arcade racing games whenever I get the chance. In recent times, Fortnite's Rocket Racing has been a major source of fulfilling my arcade racing itch that resurfaces once in a while.

Now, a few weeks ago, I got the chance to try out the new Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition. I can wholeheartedly say that I had a lot of fun, despite the game's obvious shortcomings. This is the console port of the 2022 title of the same name, Fast & Furious: Arcade. Off the bat, the game greets you with chaotic and fast-paced racing action.

Cradle Games

Fast and Furious: Arcade Edition

Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition takes you to the iconic locations seen in the movies. Each race works like a mission with an objective, like destroying a mega-drone or running away with a bank vault. The outcome of the mission depends on your final place during the race, and usually, earning first place completes the mission objective.

The game has the compact feeling of most arcade games, mostly similar to the iconic Asphalt series. The sense of speed in this game went beyond my expectation. Although the vehicles drive at hyperspeed from the start, controlling them felt quite easy once I got the hang of it. The traction and handling of most vehicles in the game are very beginner-friendly and won't take much time to master.

Cradle Games

Fast and Furious: Arcade Edition

Moving on from the speed, the collection of the vehicles in this game left me disappointed. There are only eight cars to choose from in this game, which quickly gets boring if you plan to play the game for a long time. Most cars in the car roster felt out of place for a Fast & Furious game. The game would have been much better with more muscle and JDM cars.

Unfortunately, I was expecting to see some of the beloved characters from Fast & Furious make an appearance in the game, like Dominic Toretto and Brian O'Conner. There are no voice lines from the iconic faces of the movie franchise, which felt pretty odd to me. I did enjoy seeing Toretto's 1970 Dodge Charger in the game's small car roster, though.

Cradle Games

Fast and Furious: Arcade Edition

To my surprise, this might have been the shortest title I have come across in a while. The game can be finished in 30-45 minutes at max if you are an adept racing game player. The limited content holds the game back from reaching its full potential. There is a co-op mode which can be used to play with friends locally, a feature that shines on the Nintendo Switch. However, with the lack of content and multiplayer mode, there is no room for replayability in the long run.

Visually, the game looks like what you would expect an arcade racing title to look like. The visuals in the game are full of colours, which made the game's ambience pleasant. Performance-wise, the game showed no issues. It was running perfectly on my PlayStation 5, considering the game was ported from an arcade machine.

Final Thoughts

Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition is a sublime arcade racing title with untapped potential that is severely held back by its limited content. The arcade machine feeling of the game is better suited for smaller screens, especially the Nintendo Switch. Honestly, the game is not worth it at its full price with the current limited content, so wait for sale is you're still keen on trying it out.