Fast and Furious Arcade Edition Guest Review by Craig Green (Retrozoid)

The following review for Fast and Furious Arcade Edition, is a guest review by Craig Green (Retrozoid). At Complete Xbox, we always welcome your views, and we love to share and promote them within the wider gaming community.

For over 20 years I have pretty much played every racing game in each of the genres, whether that be Simulation, Open World and Arcade. Since 2010 I have been longing for another racer that can match the legend of Split Second: Velocity, and The Fast and Furious Arcade Edition hits that itch in more ways than one. Sometimes you want a game that you can pick up, play an hour, switch off and come back to, without worrying about missing important collectibles or milestones.

The premise? What to expect? well in each of the locations you race, you either need to takedown a plane or stop a missile from launching. How you do that? Well, you need to finish the stage in 1st place, and this is not an easy feat. So many times I have got to the end missing out on the final overtake by literally half a second. Normally I would be throwing my Xbox Controller out of the window, but this is where The Fast and Furious excels at being addictive. The need to try over and over, to better yourself, whether that be the use of a well-placed shortcut or not, or when to use that Nitro boost most effectively.

The locations to race, include Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Swiss Alps, Havana, Yellowstone and Columbia. Each with different environments, some of which will be on busy roads, whilst others will take place in the hills and on a beach.

Fast action with zero slowdown – the events within Fast and Furious Arcade Edition have destructible elements, with doors that require breaking down, wooden panels to smash through, glass to break or foliage and it’s all timed to break automatically, but only as your car hits them. However, it’s not all fully destructable in the races, as other elements which should break, simply don’t, which takes away from the fun being had and any sort of realism on offer.

Each area will have boosts panels to race through, making you quicker and there are additional Nitro’s to pick up to help you improve your standing in the race. It was pleasing to see variation in each of the stages, but the premise is pretty much the same, whilst stopping a missile from launching sounds like a thrill, in actual fact, you only do this by winning and not at any point otherwise.

How many cars can you race with I hear you ask, well there are 8, some are better than others. The Ford GT is the best of the bunch giving top Speed, Traction and Acceleration. One downpoint about the game is the limited customisation, offering just a handful of colour options should you want to pimp it out.

Once you have completed each mission and come first, a faster variant can be unlocked which also gives you 10 Nitro Boosts, but do not expect this to make your races easier. I found the AI to be pretty much unforgiving and took multiple attempts to win.

Fast and Furious Arcade Edition offers multiplayer, however this is limited to split screen and not over Xbox Live. Sadly, this would have been a great addition, and would have added to the game, and the whole arcade feel, shame. Performance wise using Split Screen i did’nt notice any slowdown in the action as I competed against my daughter, so that’s a win there for the game.

Graphically Fast and Furious Arcade edition plays well on the Xbox Series X, considering all the explosions, cars, signage, track and moving backgrounds there is no drop in frames throughout. For me playing on a LG OLED set up you feel like you are in the game but more importantly like you are at an Arcade Machine in a Fairground.

I know I’ve compared this game to Split Second (a huge favourite of mine), i just never expected another racing game could match the sheer amount of background action or the thrill, let alone this one, but honestly this racer is on another level in that detail.

Audio wise the game performed as expected. The sounds of the cars as you hit nitro or as you crash solidly into the barriers, obstacles and into the other cars hit the mark for an arcade affair. The only downside for me is the announcers voice, this should have been in the form of a booming impact, that added to the experience. It could have memorable, but unfortunately lacked any real oomph. Another nitpick, if i’m being critical would be with the locations themselves, they could have added more drama and seriousness.

Having said that….

Fast and Furious Arcade Edition is fun to play, whilst short in longevity, the arcade style gameplay will provide you multiple hours to enjoy, just don’t expect deep gameplay.