The Fast and the Furious (2006 video game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Fast and the Furious
Developer(s)Eutechnyx
Publisher(s)Namco Bandai Games[a]
Director(s)Brian Jobling
Producer(s)Mark South
Martin Hall
Designer(s)Kevin Shaw
Lee Barber
Composer(s)Peter Connelly
SeriesFast & Furious
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
PlayStation Portable
ReleasePlayStation 2
  • NA: September 26, 2006
  • EU: March 9, 2007
PlayStation Portable
  • NA: April 24, 2007
  • EU: October 26, 2007 (as Tokyo Drift)
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The Fast and the Furious is a 2006 racing game developed by Eutechnyx and published by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. The game is based on the Fast & Furious film series, particularly the third film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Gameplay[edit]

Players race on the Shuto Expressway (Wangan) or mountain roads (Touge). 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. 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.[citation needed] There are also some American cars such as the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and the Shelby GT500.

Development[edit]

In 2003, Universal Interactive announced a Fast and the Furious game was in development by Genki, and showed off a demo of the game at that year's E3 expo.[1] The promotional trailer is included as one of the bonus features in the 2 Fast 2 Furious DVD.[2] However, that game was cancelled when Universal Interactive was shut down as a separate publisher the following year after ties between parent company Vivendi Games and Universal Studios were severed.

The published game was a wholly separate development, begun under license from the film studio. It is considered a spiritual successor to 2004's Street Racing Syndicate, which was also developed by Eutechnyx and published by Namco, and with which it shares many themes and gameplay elements.

In 2023, an unreleased prototype build of the game for the Xbox was found on an old Eutechnyx Xbox Development Kit by Dimitris Giannakis, better known as Modern Vintage Gamer, and released online.[3][4]

Reception[edit]

The game was met with mixed reception. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 58% and 59 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version[18][20] and 55% and 58 out of 100 for the PSP version.[19][21]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Released under the Namco label in Europe.

References[edit]

  1. ^ IGN staff (May 15, 2003). "E3 2003: Fast and Furious Hands-on". IGN. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  2. ^ "The Fast and the Furious [Canceled] – Overview". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  3. ^ "Unreleased Original Xbox Game Discovered Thanks To Old Devkit". PureXbox. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
  4. ^ "I dumped and preserved an UNRELEASED Original XBOX game". YouTube. Modern Vintage Gamer. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
  5. ^ EGM staff (November 2006). "The Fast and the Furious (PS2)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 209. p. 124.
  6. ^ Whitehead, Dan (March 12, 2007). "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (PS2)". Eurogamer. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  7. ^ Helgeson, Matt (November 2006). "The Fast and the Furious (PS2)". Game Informer. No. 163. p. 134. Archived from the original on December 3, 2008. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  8. ^ Davis, Ryan (October 6, 2006). "The Fast and the Furious Review (PS2)". GameSpot. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  9. ^ Davis, Ryan (April 27, 2007). "The Fast and the Furious Review (PSP)". GameSpot. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  10. ^ Leahy, Dan (October 20, 2006). "GameSpy: The Fast and the Furious (PS2)". GameSpy. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  11. ^ Boker, Gabe (October 29, 2006). "The Fast and the Furious – PS2 – Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  12. ^ Roper, Chris (October 4, 2006). "The Fast and the Furious Review (PS2)". IGN. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  13. ^ Roper, Chris (May 1, 2007). "The Fast and the Furious Review (PSP)". IGN. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  14. ^ "The Fast and the Furious (PS2)". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. November 2006. p. 119.
  15. ^ "Review: The Fast and the Furious (PS2)". PSM. December 2006. p. 84.
  16. ^ O'Keefe, Billy (October 21, 2006). "'The Fast and the Furious' (PS2)". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  17. ^ Gibbon, David (March 9, 2007). "PS2: 'The Fast and the Furious'". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on June 20, 2007. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  18. ^ a b "The Fast and the Furious for PlayStation 2". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  19. ^ a b "The Fast and the Furious for PSP". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  20. ^ a b "The Fast and the Furious for PlayStation 2 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  21. ^ a b "The Fast and the Furious for PSP Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 29, 2014.

External links[edit]