The Fast and the Furious: Streets (3D)

Are The Fast and the Furious films still going? I watched the first one then decided against bothering with any of the sequels, using the logic that as the original was essentially nonsense salvaged by cool car chases, the rest weren't going to bring much other than more beautiful people and fast cars to the table. Which is a fun mixture, though not exactly mentally stimulating.

But assuming there are still people out there who care about The Fast and the Furious – and I-play obviously thinks there are – here's a game that brings you one half of the films' subject matter. That's the cars, not the eye candy.

Although The Fast and the Furious: Streets is decent eye candy alone. The title lets the cat out of the bag with the '3D' bit – everything is indeed modelled in three dimensions and looks very polished. And despite the number of polygons the game is shifting, there's barely a hint of slowdown during races. One of the most important bits of The Fast and the Furious – the fast bit – is certainly present and correct, and it really feels like you're rattling along at 100mph.

The other important bit – the cars – is also here in abundance. There are 32 in total, and winning them all is the overall goal; it's not just about winning races. The tracks and the competition really plays second fiddle to the cars themselves. Which is just as well because there's a meagre selection of tracks, and although Arcade mode contains 16 races, these are really the same four at four difficulty levels, with you starting at different points on the track, taking slightly different routes, and going around them in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, the number of races modes and cars do make up for that. There are four different modes: Cop Chase, Road Race, Drag Race and Drift Race.

Cop Chase has you roaring around a course against a police car, trying to avoid getting busted by being bashed into. Road Race is a straightforward race to the finish line against three other cars, while Drift Race is similar but with you having to earn a certain number of drift points to win. Drag Race is the most different from the rest, with the steering of your car done for you while you just concentrate on shifting up a gear the moment your revs needle turns green and triggering nitro at the most opportune moments.

Within its subject matter, you can't say there's a lack of variety. A strategic element is also added with the pink slip betting. At the start of each race you choose your car then choose which of your opponent's cars you want to bet a pink slip on. That effectively means that if you beat that car, you get to keep it. However, if they beat you, they take your ride. Unless it's the last car left in your garage, in which case they conveniently decide they don't want it so as not to spell the end of the game.

Collecting all of these cars quickly becomes an obsession. You win two, lose one, win two more and slowly try to fill your garage with all 32. As you progress through the game's four difficulty levels (from Rookie upwards), bigger, better and faster cars become available. But, of course, they become harder to win, too.

There's an obvious problem with this concept. Which is that if you're struggling at one race, you can gradually lose all of your cars from the best down to worst and be left battling with one really rubbish car. And from my experience of the game it seems impossible to finish drag races on the higher difficulty levels with a slow car.

It's not a big problem, though. It just means you'll be playing The Fast and the Furious: Streets (and possibly getting a bit furious in the process) for some time. No bad thing at all, because the easy arcade style controls, speedy races, generous number of cars (which all handle differently) and well-pitched difficulty curve all add up to a racing game that reflects the essence of the film franchise it's based on: a little shallow, but a lot of fun.