Considering even arcades themselves are seldom seen outside of busier seaside towns, it’s always pleasing to see GameMill bringing one of Raw Thrill’s bold and brash arcade games to consoles. Raw Thrills of course being one of the few companies left producing arcade machines that aren’t ticket/prize redemption based. Bootleg keyrings and mini pots of slime be damned.
Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition appears to share Cruis’n Blast’s engine, featuring a similar visual sheen and tracks loaded with ramps and set pieces, ergo copious explosions. It also controls similarly, with vehicles – which are licensed, varying from the sleek Dodge Charger to the rugged Jeep Wrangler – reaching top speed in a matter of seconds while sticking to the road like glue.
It’s also possible to drift, requiring no more than a single button push while turning, and perform wheelies, all while burning nitro – with three canisters available off the starting grid. To secure first place you’ll need to memorise where the few additional canisters can be found. Do this, and victory will forever be in your grasp.
A single weapon also features, taking the form of a shockwave that auto-fires a few seconds after collecting. Vehicles don’t take damage, instead bouncing and spinning through the air when colliding, and I’m confident in saying that it’s impossible to misjudge jumps. If you’re a few meters short of landing safely, you’ll be magically guided back onto the track.
The six tracks are spread across the globe, set in such locations as Yellowstone, The Swiss Alps, and Hong Kong, each featuring several chances to go airborne and a handful of non-interactive events such as a satellite dish rolling downhill, a shopping mall to smash through, and an airplane crashing after being struck by lightning. As flashy as they may be – in fact, for a 2017 release it holds up extremely well – these set-pieces don’t have any impact on racing. Shortcuts meanwhile are not only highlighted in green but also alerted to in advance by the race narrator.
If you’re wondering where the Fast & Furious license comes into play, I have just one answer for you. Each track has a target to destroy, such as a bomb-loaded train to derail, a missile silo to crash into mid launch, a drone the size of a football field (or thereabouts) to takedown and, peculiarly, a colossal safe filled with cash to plough into. Only by achieving first place can this objective be met, with the final seconds of a race always being a frantic dash to overtake whoever has been scripted to hold onto pole position. Keep a nitro back, and you’ll have the advantage.
Placing lower than 3rd is a rare occurrence, with racing rivals usually keeping close together, providing plenty of opportunities to smash and crash your way to 2nd place before snagging 1st just as the objective comes into view.
The game’s structure varies from other arcade racers, with no GPs or tournaments to speak of. Instead, the six tracks play endlessly on rotation until you come 1st in each. By winning six races consecutively, the harder ‘Extreme Mode’ unlocks and remains in play until you exit to the main menu. Coming 1st in every race will also unlock the Furious variant for your chosen car, granting ten nitro boosts instead of just three. Handily, the vehicle selection screen keeps track of progress. By this point though you’ll be more than familiar with each track, with the extra nitro only serving to make an easy game easier.
The aim is to unlock every Furious variant for all eight vehicles, meaning you’ll need to win every race with every vehicle, doubtlessly triggering ‘Extreme Mode’ several times through natural progression. This task takes a few hours; a few hours spent playing the same six tracks repeatedly with only a minor increase in difficulty to spice things up.
This console release adds a two-player split-screen mode. Other features are few, such as a leaderboard that’s local only. Visit the options menu and you’ll find just the ability to alter wheel sensitivity and the standard audio sliders, making for quite a basic package.
Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition is always entertaining – the busy backdrops are colourful, it moves liked greased lightning, and it can be delightfully hectic – but it’s never cerebral, requiring little more than holding down the accelerator, using nitro proficiently, and occasionally drifting on the few tracks that have wide enough bends. I can’t really recommend it to fans of the film franchise, being largely disconnected outside of its targets to destroy, but I do feel that younger gamers will enjoy its boldness and brashness. It also reminded me of Midway’s celebrated noughties arcade games, such as San Francisco Rush and Hydro Thunder, all of which – much like this – can be linked back to the Cruis’n series. So, if you enjoyed those…
GameMill’s Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition is out now on PS5, Xbox Series and Switch. Developed by Cradle Games. Originally released in arcades by Raw Thrills in 2017.