The Fast and the Furious (2006 video game)


The Fast and the Furious is a 2006 racing game for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. The game is based on the film series of the same name, particularly, . The game is considered a spiritual successor to 2004's Street Racing Syndicate. It was originally going to be published by Universal Interactive, but the company closed its doors before the game was completed. An Xbox version was also planned but was cancelled.

Gameplay

Players race on the Shuto Expressway or mountain roads. On the expressway, players can compete in point-to-point races or contests to achieve the highest speed between the start and finish. The mountain roads also have point-to-point races but also have competitions for the most drift. Hotspots are positioned along the roads to access race starts and car dealerships. These garages were featured in the film . There are eight different dealerships where vehicles can be purchased: Nissan dealership, Mitsubishi dealership, Mazda dealership, Honda dealership, Toyota dealership, Subaru dealership, Lexus dealership, and a U.S. Naval Base - where according to the instruction booklet included with the game, cars are brought over by stationed soldiers who end up selling them or are just imported. The tune shops are spread over the map and offer performance upgrades, visual upgrades, and paint jobs which are free and fully customizable by the player. The game includes many Japanese cars such as the Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Toyota Supra, Honda NSX and the Nissan Skyline. However, Honda and Acura vehicles were not featured in the PAL version, due to licensing issues. There are also some American cars such as the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and the Shelby GT500 as well as some American Variants of Japanese cars and Cars manufactured by Japanese Automakers in America like Honda Civic SI Coupe and Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Development

In 2003, an anticipated game with the same name was being developed and then cancelled. The promotional trailer is included as one of the bonus features in the 2 Fast 2 Furious DVD. The two games were developed by two different developers however, and besides their tie to the Fast and Furious franchise, they were not related in any way.

Reception

The game was met with very mixed reception. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 58% and 59 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version, and 55% and 58 out of 100 for the PSP version.