Today we are going to take a look at Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of Sh1ft3r. This casual racing game promises to put you into the world of Fast & Furious high octane racing. Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of Sh1ft3r is available on Steam for 39 Euro and 99 cents or your regional equivalent.
With this review you have a choice of either reading it here in text form or listening to the video review. They both contain the same content.
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Back when Anakin Skywalker was still discovering the dark side of the Force and Marvel was just beginning to think about the Avengers another character was being born. Brian O’Conner was entering the world of illegal racing. And into the pants of his friends Dominic’s sister. Surprisingly, he stuck with doing both for a long time. Long enough for Fast & Furious to become one of the biggest franchises out there. It even got to go to space. And since even today’s children need their physics ignoring heroes Spy Racers were created.
If you haven’t heard of Spy Racers then you either do not use Netflix or have no children. This naive world that extracts more value from the franchise through Dominic’s cousin Tony is quickly gaining a lot of fame and is currently in its fifth season. And yeah, the formula is simple. There are always some bad guys, the car maniacs that serve a secret government organization travel the world and save it. It’s essentially the same thing as the movies but with much less Vin Diesel. But it does come with its own videogame.
So, it's time to open a pack of gummy bears and a double pack of Red Bull. Because, while Spy Racers Rise of Sh1ft3r sadly is so far the best gaming adaptation that came out of the Fast & Furious franchise you will still need at least a good amount of sugar if not heavier drugs to get through it. Though, at first glance, it might seem okay. There is a good selection of different modes and even a career with a story about the main bad guy who needs to be defeated.
As your engine revs go over 9000, the wheels screech then… then the fiery heart suffers a heart attack. Sadly, the first race will tell you everything you need to know. The driving model may be a bit basic but in the genre of kids racing games, it's actually okay. Each car behaves differently and you can actually feel the developers want for you to switch between cars for different events. Sadly, it doesn’t work well. One in four cars is actually controllable and the rest of the cars that are unlocked cannot actually be used in the career mode. This makes them completely useless unless you have someone to play with on a split-screen because the online multiplayer mode is dead.
For some reason, power-ups have been also added into this strange racing game. Sadly, apart from each character's special attack, there are just three in total. The target audience means rockets and guns were replaced with paintballs and … boredom. Yes, that’s the best way to describe the races. Boring. The is no adrenaline, no strategic use of power-ups, no great soundtrack, or even great visuals. The best I can say is that the game is not exactly ugly.
The campaign itself will be done in a quick two hours. And with the end of the campaign also ended my desire to continue playing. I’m sure I’m not the target audience for Spy Racers and if you get this in a value bin for your kid … they will be happy and get you to play split-screen with them.
Conclusion
So… in conclusion: Don’t buy Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of Sh1ft3r. It’s just not worth it. Just get Forza Horizon 5. Your kids will enjoy it more and you will also get to have a fun time when playing with them or alone.