If you consider the Fast & Furious film franchise from the perspective of a car lover or street racing enthusiast, it’s almost surprising that it took years for any kind of “fan experience” to come about. We’ve spent essentially two decades watching Dominic Toretto and the others racing exciting, supercharged vehicles, and the film franchise has unexpectedly raked in billions in box office sales. Yet it took until April of 2018, when Universal Studios opened Fast & Furious: Supercharged, for us to get any way of simulating a day in the life of the gang.
Unfortunately, it’s not much of a simulation by most accounts. Though the experience has gotten some light, generic, “family-friendly” sort of praise, it is more widely viewed as something of a disaster. One review at a local Orlando site went as far as to say it might have been Universal’s biggest misstep of the decade. The experience blends a sort of tram ride with pre-recorded videos featuring characters from the films, as well as virtual trickery and holograms of additional characters. Through all of this it’s meant to take you on an adventure as if you’re in a Fast & Furious film, though again, most seem to find it thoroughly underwhelming.
At the same time though, there are enough fans of this franchise and enough lovers of all things related to souped-up cars and racing vehicles, that it’s easy to imagine this just being the first of many Fast & Furious experiences to come. Again, this film franchise has raked in billions, and it seems unlikely they’d allow all of that potential interest to be squandered on one disappointing theme park ride.
Starting small, it’s easy to imagine some pretty great Fast & Furious games coming about on mobile devices. Universal released one such game last year, and it wasn’t a bad racing simulator. Though it invoked the spirit of the films to some degree, however, we can only imagine that as the film franchise grows even more expansive (there are at least three films to come, counting this summer’s spinoff), more involved mobile games could follow this one. It’s not quite a ride-like simulation of course, but a collection of mobile games that actually let people play out the biggest racing moments of ht series is an interesting thought.
Sticking with games for a moment, there is also potential in other arenas that is just about completely untapped. Needless to say, a Fast & Furious console game – a big, beautiful one with real investment behind it – could really be quite an experience. And on a smaller scale, there would seem to be some potential for online arcades, potentially in the casino space, as well. With New Jersey embracing online gaming, the U.S. is inching closer to casino acceptance, and it’s not uncommon for popular films to license their content to game developers in this space for overseas sites. Fast & Furious-themed games could be instant hits in this space – though, as with mobile games, they wouldn’t exactly be immersive simulations.
Where a happy medium could emerge between Fast & Furious: Supercharged and mobile, casino, and console games is – as you might have surmised by now – in the virtual reality category. VR gaming still hasn’t quite gone mainstream to the extent some might have thought it would, but it is the most immersive form of gaming we have when done right, and it does hold the most potential to put us right into the driver’s seat of that iconic black Dodge Charger in place of Dom Toretto himself.
