Essentially a quick cash-grab for the developer but surprisingly fun despite being horrible to look at.
User Rating: 5 | Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit WII
Back in the day, all racing games used to be arcade-style due to technical limitations. These days its a choice. Need For Speed goes for a very arcadey racing game but it looks like it was made many years ago because the graphics are so bland and basic, it would look at home on the PS1. The actual gameplay is okay but often feels stressful due to the harsh time limits imposed; often I found I failed the race by a second or so some races I ended up replaying several times. You could say you feel the need for speed, so it lives up to its name! In each area you need to play through the different types of races; Hot Pursuit, Eliminator, Rush Hour, Time Attack, and then the Boss race. Hot Pursuit is a normal race against 7 other drivers. Eliminator means the person in last place fails when the count down timer is elapsed. Rush Hour is a similar to Eliminator but involves racing against 99 other cars and so a large amount of cars are eliminated each round. Time Attack is a time trial with a time penalty if the cones are hit. Boss race is a race to capture flags that appear randomly in the city. These boss races feel punishing as the boss car is in the next class (eg you have a C class and racing against a B class), and the arrow guiding you to the flag is vague so you often have to guess which is the best road to turn down. Once a flag is picked up the next one is placed but it seems to be random so can end up being placed favourably to either you or the computer which makes the boss races feel like it is down to luck rather than skill. The game features a decent selection of licensed cars but since the graphics are poor, the cars look too generic and bland so may as well be made up designs. The races take part in city scenes and have a small amount of traffic on the road as well as police that chase the racers, and amongst the track are pick ups to aid the drivers (extra turbo, repair vehicle, auto steering). You earn a turbo boost by driving dangerously and power-sliding which can be activated any time and the amount you can store is dependant on how damaged your car is. If you compare the game to the other consoles, this is a completely different game, and you can understand fans frustrations and claims that this is a insult to the Wii and was made quickly just for a quick cash grab. Despite being unbearable to look at, and having a simple game-play, it still is surprisingly fun, but most people will probably stick to Burnout rather than buy this.
