Having always been a fan of action-filled, intense, and even silly arcade racing, the Cruis’n series hasn’t always been perfect over the years, but it has at least tried very hard to do its job pretty well. Cruis’n Blast hit the system a number of years ago, and may have been a bit dumbed down overall, but it got the franchise hallmarks right, and actually included some smart features that helped it remain playable for a longer time than normal. In theory, the Fast & Furious is a great pairing for that style, and at a glance it looks very similar to Cruis’n. Unfortunately, all of the details matter, and they don’t quite add up in this case.

On the positive end of the equation there’s no doubt that the game has retained the over-the-top essence of the arcades. There are flashes of chrome, neon, and generally bright colors everywhere, physics is in no way respected if that gets in the way of the fun, and the tracks have general references to scenes from some of the movies. You’ll also have a number of rides to select from, which also roughly correspond to at least a subset of those that have been in the series over the years, so if you’re a fan it could be fun to get behind the wheel of one of these monsters.

Unfortunately, outside of those more aesthetic and general theming notes, with some time and scrutiny some key areas are suffering. The first is the controls, which for whatever reason have the steering defaulted to maximum sensitivity in the settings, so if you don’t want to feel like you’re trying to race with a D-pad you’ll want to adjust that quickly. Since I tend to play games with the default settings, assuming those are what’s recommended (if they release a game for launch with bad settings, that’s on the developer), it made for a less-than-satisfying time as any nuance in turning was a complete mess. Even tuned towards the middle the game as a whole isn’t built for subtlety so I’d say in general the controls are just middling at best. Another serious problem, even for someone who professes to not get caught up in framerates, is that the game doesn’t feel smooth at all. It doesn’t stutter, so there’s at least that, but having played quite a lot of racers on the Switch and Switch 2 that have been almost buttery, this misses that mark.

Finally, in terms of replayability, this is a very bare bones affair, offering up the base tracks and cars, but outside of trying to unlock the extreme edition of each, you’ll likely run out of things to enjoy pretty quickly. Even without an arcade racer with an almost identical style and generalized feel that came out years ago feeling like a far better release and general value, this still would have been hurting. Unfortunately, when they’re so similar and the gap between them on all fronts is quite wide, it’s very hard to give this racer a thumbs up.