Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition | PS5 Review

There aren’t many arcades near me. The closest Dave & Buster’s is about an hour away. There’s a Chuck E. Cheese nearby, but that’s not exactly a place a lone adult can casually walk into; you kind of need to be part of a kids’ party. When my kids were younger, we would visit the indoor waterparks in Sandusky, Ohio. Castaway Bay, owned by Cedar Point, is the most family-friendly of the group. Great Wolf Lodge sits in the middle with plenty for the little ones but a few more thrills for older kids and adults. Finally, there’s Kalahari, easily the most thrill-seeky of the three.

All of them have arcades, and I always make sure to spend some time (and money) enjoying skeeball and the classics. They also feature licensed games like Jurassic Park, The Walking Dead, and Terminator. These are usually time-based shooters that offer time extensions mid-round, often paired with a physical peripheral like a plastic gun for blasting enemies. They shamelessly use the licensed IP for instant recognition, even if the gameplay rarely matches the movie or show. Another that leans on name power and high-speed action is Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition.

The characters from the movies are non-existent, but the cars are fast and the racing brings all the arcade glory you’d expect when you drop a quarter into the machine. Bringing that arcade fun to a home console is exactly what I needed since I don’t have a local arcade to visit anymore. But does it live up to expectations and deliver the same thrill? Let’s find out.

All Gas, No Plot

There isn’t a story. You select your car, choose your difficulty, and hit the track. A few locations come straight from the movies, including Havana from The Fate of the Furious, Abu Dhabi from Furious 7, and four other destinations. Each track has an objective to claim or destroy. Finish first and you’ve cleared it. Then it’s on to the next race.

Quarter Munching Chaos

I have one small problem with the controls. First, there’s no option to remap the controller. I’m fine with R2 as the accelerator and L2 as the brake. However, when you are told that tapping R2 twice pops a wheelie, then later you’re told that tapping R2 twice also leans into a turn, and/or initiates a drift, I’m baffled by those design choices. They know there are ten other buttons and a D-pad, right? How am I supposed to maintain speed if I have to lift off the accelerator just to tap it twice? Yes, I slowed down performing those tricks, and it felt counterproductive.

Thankfully, the Nitro button is mapped to X. The developers clearly didn’t license NOS, but it serves the same purpose. And yes, I shouted “NOS!” just like Dom Toretto the first few times I used it.

The handling feels exactly like an arcade cabinet with little nuance. Just keep the pedal down and use nitro on the straights. Hitting walls slows you considerably, so steer clear. You can also ram opponents into obstacles, Burnout Paradise style, which causes them to explode. It slows you down slightly, but that’s one less car vying for position. Passing is tough enough one-on-one; add a third car, and you’ll often find yourself finishing last.

A local Versus mode is available, though I didn’t have a second player to test it out. After winning enough races, players can unlock Furious Mode for the car, which increases the number of nitros from three to ten. This helps with replayability since you have to win with each car to unlock that vehicle’s version of Furious mode. There’s also a leaderboard, though the names appear to be generic placeholders rather than real player profiles.

There are no assist or accessibility options to adjust gameplay difficulty. The only settings available are Wheel Sensitivity and audio controls. Thankfully, the game runs beautifully on PS5 with no slowdown or technical hiccups throughout my time playing.

All the Arcade Glory – Sounds and Sights

This is what I came for: pure arcade immersion from my couch. And wow, Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition delivers. The graphics burst with color, and the environments stay crisp despite the high speed. Tracks feature mountains, streets, and even airport runways reminiscent of Fast & Furious 6. One track sends you crashing through a church and back out the other side. Another has you jumping onto a cruise ship and racing along its deck. As ridiculous as it sounds, the visuals are spot-on.

Then there’s the music, energetic and full of that “arcade buzz.” All I was missing were the sounds of ticket machines, jackpot bells, and Pac-Man beeps in the background. The whole experience screams arcade fun. I was so into it that my wife asked me to turn the volume down. “No, babe,” I said. “Your peaceful diamond art will have to wait a few minutes.”

Final Verdict – Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition

And, seriously, that’s all she had to do was wait for a few minutes. You can choose from 7 cars with different attributes of speed, acceleration, and handling. Then there are the 6 tracks. Choosing the difficulty setting is just choosing which of the 6 tracks you start at. In the end, the 6 tracks are the same regardless of difficulty; just the opponents are more difficult. For the $30 price tag, I would have liked more options in Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition.

What’s here is excellent. It took me straight back to the arcade and gave me exactly what I wanted from a console port. The graphics and music shine bright and make it easy to keep replaying. I really enjoyed it, I just wish there was a little more to it.

To hear me talk more about Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition, be sure to listen to the October 29, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the 1:27:49 time stamp.

This review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy of Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition provided by Sandbox Strategies for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.