As a franchise, The Fast and the Furious is a phenomenon. Not only has it been raking in the profits at the box-office, it’s spawned countless imitators, both in the cinematic and video-game realms. But the question still remains – is the hype warranted? The answer to this subject is, of course, open to interpretation. In my sole opinion, this entire “underground street racing” fixation has gone a little too far to the point of overkill. However, Bandai Namco believes otherwise, and upwards of five years after The Fast and the Furious first hit theaters, they’re here with their representation of the sport of drift racing to coincide with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the latest offering in this long-running series.

The gameplay of The Fast and the Furious can be described as a Midnight Club/Need for Speed: Underground mix, with elements of Auto Modellista thrown in for good measure. Its driving mechanics are of arcade style and a heavy emphasis has been placed on customization options. The only real mode of play here, aside from multiplayer, lies within its career mode, which is very akin to the Midnight Club series in that you have a free-roam world (to an extent) to work with. As you progress through the campaign, different locales will open up. These locations are home to racing hotspots where your objective is to take out entire street crews, one by one, to earn cash for upgrades and new rides.

There are essentially four types of races – drift, grip, destination, and top speed. The first two types are only selectable on mountain locations in the game, and the latter two on the main highway where you begin the career mode.

In the open world of The Fast and the Furious, you will come across car dealerships, from Dodge to Toyota, Honda to Subaru, where you can obviously purchase vehicles, amount of funds withstanding. After purchasing a vehicle of your liking, you can take it to a tune shop to tweak its performance and visuals. As aforementioned, a great deal of work has gone into this game’s customization department. There are over a dozen performance upgrades you are able to execute, many boasting different levels to make things even more complex. Available performance upgrades include: nitrous, intake and exhaust, fuel and ignition, turbocharger, intercooler, engine swap, suspension, brakes, transmission, clutch and flywheel, weight reduction, tires, and differential. And unlike some racers, upgrading your vehicle will actually matter more than buying a new car. For example, you can obtain a Toyota 86 Sprinter, which retails for around $8,000 bucks, and carry out an engine swap, level 4 nitrous upgrade, and give it a set of grip tires and it’ll be able to take on anything, even cars triple its “sticker” value.

Moving along, there are an abundance of visual enchantments at your disposal as well. You can vastly modify the appearance of your car with a total 13 customization options, which are: rear spoilers, skirts, front bumpers, rear bumpers, hoods, light clusters, wheels/rims, under-car neons, full wide body kit, drifter charms, valvestem LED, window tint, and NOS purge. Additionally, you can paint your car and slap on a variety of vinyls.

The Fast and Furious is a very technical game, and it’s evident the developers put in the hours to make it very true to the movies without completely cashing in on the franchise’s name. The gameplay provides a solid sense of progression as you knock out racing crews and build your garage. Customization options are bountiful as well, making for a mostly non-linear title that underground street racing fans are sure to adore.

Visually speaking, the game has an exceedingly shiny and polished finesse to it, but grainy textures and laughable environments abruptly put a damper on the party. However, the vehicle modeling is first-rate, and that’s undeniably vital to any racer. If there’s one complaint I have with this game’s graphics, it’s definitely its menu presentation. Some of the text is unreadable at points, especially during the frequent loading screens due to awful-looking backgrounds.

One of my foremost pet peeves in video games is utterly fake voiceovers. Sadly, The Fast and the Furious contains some of the worst I’ve ever witnessed, complete with peculiar pronunciations of “everybody” and cheesy lines galore. To its advantage, cutscenes are few and far between, so you won’t have to suffer too much. The soundtrack consists of J-pop/rock, punk, and revolting foreign hip-hop/rap. On the flipside, The Fast and the Furious delivers where it counts, as the engine sounds and miscellaneous effects are spot-on.

Overall, The Fast and the Furious is a fairly entertaining title. It sports a good selection of licensed cars, a smorgasbord of options to pimp out your ride, and visuals that make the cut. It doesn’t exactly bring anything particularly new to the table, but you’re not going to find a racer with as much focus and determination.

Gameplay: 7.5
If you’re a drift-racing fanatic, this is your game. It won’t provide much of anything else worthwhile, but it does what it does exceptionally well.

Graphics: 7.2
For the most part, the presentation is a mixed-bag. Car models are awe-inspiring and a ton of detail has gone into customization, but most gamers won’t be able to get past the washed-out textures.

Sound: 6.5
Horrendous voiceovers and an annoying soundtrack make for a generally poor-sounding game, but the sound effects are satisfactory.

Difficulty: Easy
Playing your cards right at the beginning of the game can secure you success in nearly every race to come in your career.

Concept: 7.0
Midnight Club and Need for Speed: Underground have already perfected the nocturnal street racing circuit, but The Fast and the Furious is a welcomed addition to the genre and possibly a worthy contender if its sales warrant a sequel.

Multiplayer: 7.0
A lag-laden online mode is available in addition to offline multiplayer. If you’re keen on the single-player, you’ll most definitely find some enjoyment playing with friends.

Overall: 7.4
When I first popped The Fast and the Furious into my PS2’s disc tray and began playing, I was tempted to write it off as a generic attempt to bank on its movie license. After around three hours of playing its career mode, I came to the realization it’s actually a fairly fun game. While this is no NFS: Underground, followers of both drift racing and the scandalous underworld of street racing will find a good deal to admire.