[Review] Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition (Nintendo Switch)

Fast & Furious is a franchise we are all very familiar with by now, and combined with the high-octane, adrenaline gameplay of the Cruis’n racing games, it should be a match made in heaven, right? Well, that is what we are about to find out as Game Mill Entertainment has taken the arcade racing game from Raw Thrills and Cradle Games and has brought it to consoles in the form of Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition.

If you haven’t played a Cruis’n game before, they are chaotic racers, complete with fast cars, insanely competitive AI, and absolutely bonkers visual effects with explosions that would make Michael Bay nod in agreement. Choose your favorite vehicle and race across exotic locales in the hopes of coming first. Bear in mind, though, that the CPU drivers are not gonna make it easy for you, and you will be fighting them tooth and nail to the finish line. You can use crazy stunts and nitro boosts to get ahead of the other competitors, such as using wheelies to bounce ahead of them by crashing into the back of other vehicles.

Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition takes everything that makes a Cruis’n game and gives it a FF coat of paint. Well, in title and general objectives that is. With the exception of the 1970’s Dodge Charger, the other cars in the lineup for you to choose from are not typically ones that you would think of when it comes to Fast & Furious series, like the Jeep Wrangler or a Ford Bronco. The fact that iconic cars like the Nissan Skyline or Mitsubishi Eclipse GS are not in the game at all (even though the Skyline has appeared in other Cruis’n games) is actually quite a letdown when these are two of the more iconic cars in the series.

As for the objectives for each race, they are stylized as “Get to the Vault, Stop the Missile, and Ground the Plane, etc,” but all you really have to do is reach the end of the race in first place. It is rather anti-climactic as you are led to believe that there is something more to each race; however, in reality, there really isn’t. It is that straightforward, but what makes the races more challenging is how the rubberbanding of the AI will make sure you are never too far ahead or behind, but if you decide not to accelerate at all, the other cars will keep going on ahead.

When it comes to actual content, I am sad to say that Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition is much like old Mother Hubbard’s cupboards (it is pretty bare). There are only six different race tracks themed on locations from the FF franchise and eight cars to choose from. You can unlock Furious Versions of each of the standard cars, but you will need to come in first in each circuit with that particular car. This means that to unlock every furious version, you will need to play through the game at least eight times, once per vehicle. In terms of actual game modes, there is a Single Player and 2-player split-screen Multiplayer. That is it. There isn’t even a time trial mode. You can unlock Extreme Mode upon beating all of the six circuits at least once, but it is just a harder difficulty on the same six circuits.

As I wrap up this review for Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition, it really was not what I was expecting. Perhaps it was because Cruis’n Blast on the Nintendo Switch was such an enjoyable game that I do go back to it on occasion. I thought that this game would have provided a similar experience, but with a Fast & Furious flair. It is a shame that it just didn’t deliver that for me, and I sincerely hope that more content gets added to it in the future, as there is so much more content in Cruis’n Blast, and it is the same price as well. What I can say in the game’s favor is that the UI is nicely represented, and the environments and the vehicle models do look pretty darn good. It still isn’t enough to redeem the game in my mind, but it isn’t beyond saving, and should a bulky content update come to the game, I will certainly consider revising the game again and amend our review where necessary.

Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition leaves its players fast to play something else and furious that there is nothing substantial that they would want to come back to. If you want a great arcade racer that does everything this game does and so much more, you are better off picking up Cruis’n Blast instead.