I’ve got a huge soft spot for arcade racers. While that term is so all-encompassing that it’ll include the likes of Ridge Racer and Daytona USA, what I’m really talking about here is the kind of arcade racer you get in the same building as a bowling alley. Rarely do these loud money-drains feature any actual classic machines, instead focusing on the big names. Usually there’s a Walking Dead game so violent it’s in a curtained-off booth, a Jurassic Park shooter, Space Invaders but new, some kind of VR Minions monstrosity, a massive wheel that you spin, a Nerf lightgun shooter that I used to be able to rinse for tokens until my local alley got wise and upped the required score, and a Fast and Furious hydraulic set-up. The money I’ve spent on the latter with my kids you wouldn’t believe, and it’s this game that has made its way to home consoles and PC.
“I saw the trailer for this and it looks rubbish, what the hell are you doing writing about it on Eurogamer when you didn’t even bother to review Ninja Gaiden 4?” I hear you ask. “You are lazy and should be ashamed,” you add before I get a chance to ban your account. Here’s the thing: Fast and Furious: Arcade Edition isn’t an obviously great game. It’s rough around the edges (there’s a rather egregious stutter on initiating a speed boost), it’s light on content for a modern racing game, it’s lacking depth, and its handling model is more geared around going forward at speed than it is taking a racing line… but it’s endearingly fun nonsense that I’m pleased exists.
If you’ve never played the arcade version of the game, Fast and Furious is a series of over the top multi-lap races, with each also having an objective of sorts – such as stopping a missile or grounding a plane. Courses are littered with alternate paths and shortcuts, and there’s no shortage of environmental interference, as large obstacles come barreling into view. Vehicles don’t worry about actual physics or durability, with all design decisions allowing you to career along towards the goal, boosting as much as you can and enjoying the ride.
Excuse the basic screenshots – the game pauses during gameplay when you take a snap, so these are pre-race.
If this sounds somewhat familiar to you, but you can’t pinpoint how, then you might have played the arcade or Nintendo Switch port of Cruis’n Blast. That game was developed by Raw Thrills, the same studio behind The Fast and Furious Arcade, and it shows. The two games are remarkably similar, offering a similar feel to races, the same over the top action, and lack of refinement that’s easy to mistake for a lack of quality. This Fast and Furious offering tickles the same part of my brain eager for excitement without a need to think too much.
I’m currently planning a heap of Game of the Year coverage, and make no mistake, Fast and Furious: Arcade Edition isn’t going to appear anywhere near it. Likewise, I wouldn’t put the Burger King plant-based Whopper or a Greggs vegan sausage roll on my list of best meals, but that doesn’t stop me wanting to eat them at every opportunity. Maybe it’s the fact I’m old and I yearn for simpler times, a bygone age when you’d spend £40 on a PlayStation game and it’d be nothing more than three tracks and a bunch of cars whizzing around them – this is £25, has six tracks, and eight cars – but I firmly believe there’s a place and audience for games like this.
A copy of Fast and Furious: Arcade Edition was provided by the publisher.
