It may seem strange, as it isn’t ingrained in our Belgian culture, but arcade machines aren’t a thing of the past. There are still games designed specifically for arcades, which are intended to take as many coins as possible over the course of an evening’s play. One such title is Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition. First released in 2022 as an arcade cabinet by Raw Thrills, it is now receiving ports for the PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. It was developed by Cradle Games and published by GameMill Entertainment. Let’s talk about what you get when you decide to play this game on console instead of going out and looking for the extremely cool-looking arcade cabinet in the wild.
Ready players?
In case it wasn’t obvious from the title, Fast & Furious is a video game based on the film series of the same name. It’s an arcade racing game in which you drive one of eight cars on one of six different tracks. All the cars and locations are based on the films, but with an arcade twist. The gameplay loop is simple: choose your car, beat the competition and win the course. There isn’t really a story or campaign; it’s just the thrill of the road.
In a race, you first see the target time to beat. This is strange in a game where your position in a race is always displayed on the left of the screen and is clearly shown at the end of the race. However, you should think of this game as a series of time attack trials rather than a race for first place. If you crash your car into the obstacle at the end of the course, you still win, even if you were in second place. This isn’t mentioned at the start of the game, but after coming second twice and completing a course, it became clear to me that this was the case. There are also two types of power-up scattered around the map. One triggers a boost when you hit the icon on the road; the other is a magnetic pulse that knocks another car off the map. But that’s all there is. Just race and beat levels to your heart’s content.
Fast & Furious fans will also know that the series is all about family. So naturally, you can take your friends on the road in split-screen co-op.
Burnout
Thinking about and writing this review took me longer than playing the game itself. I completed the game in an hour. Admittedly, I only played with one car, because to fully complete the game, you have to redo the same six tracks sixteen times. Once per game mode with each car. This game didn’t hook me enough to want to complete it 100%.
The racing is mediocre at best. You can play with gyro controls on Switch, as if using a steering wheel in an arcade game. However, I preferred the button controls, so I opted for this control scheme. I can’t describe how weird this feels. If I touched the analogue stick lightly, the car would immediately take a sharp turn. It felt like my vehicle always wanted to drift around corners instead of turning, no matter how slight the curve was.
Despite this ‘handicap’, I managed to beat every race on the first try, achieving the target time after just one race to get used to the controls. This didn’t change in Furious mode, where the cars go faster and you get ten boosters instead of three. I maintained my winning streak, regardless of whether a race was classified as hard or not. The difference wasn’t noticeable.
I haven’t played the arcade version of this game, but I think it loses a lot of its appeal when it’s moved to consoles. While there is a case to be made for game preservation, I can’t think of a reason why someone who isn’t a collector should spend thirty euros on this game when they could just put a coin in an arcade machine to play it once and have a better experience.
C
onclusion
Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition aims to bring the arcade experience to your living room. However, the lack of content and repetitive gameplay make it less enjoyable. Combine this with a lack of challenge and a thirty euro price tag, and you have a disappointing title that feels more like a quick cash grab than a fully fledged game. I would highly encourage people to steer clear of this game until it hits the bargain bins, but if you’re set on trying it, go and track down an arcade machine instead.
