TGS 09: Need For Speed: Nitro Racin' Report

Sep 23, 2009

I've seen Need For Speed: Nitro a couple of times now, and I'm usually pretty happy with my hands-on experience. I'm not a big racing fan, but the ability to spray paint your car and drop in designs is rad, I like that your logo starts popping up around the city as you zoom by in first place, and the simple control scheme of one Wiimote is pretty slick.

The game has always seemed simple and approachable, and that's right up my alley because I couldn't care less about shifting, braking when I turn, and all the other crap that makes real racing racing.

Today, EA showed me Nitro's career mode for the first time. Now, IGN's own Matt Casamassina got to detail the nuts and bolts of this the other day, but I'm happy to share some impressions as well. When you start a game, you'll be a street kid in Rio de Janeiro and get a crappy car to race around the streets. If you can hang in there and smoke your opponents, you'll move up the ranks and take on the area boss. Beating the game's bosses will unlock the next of four other cities you can play in -- Singapore, Cairo, Dubai and Madrid.

When I kicked off my own career this afternoon, I picked the VW van, decked it out in Mizzou black and gold, and tossed a goofy skull on the side. From there, it was onto the sunny streets of Rio and with its sandy shoulders and tree-filled areas. As the first of the cities, the roads are rather large and inviting so you're free to try and get the hang of drifting, boosting, and so on. However, as you progress into the more advanced stages such as the skyscraper-filled Dubai level, you're greeted with narrow roads that offer little to no room for error.

When you're in first place, you're still going to be painting the cityscape with your logo and color scheme and it's still awesome, but one nifty new feature is that you can still play with friends in Nitro's career. The local mode allows for four players to race and earn money for whomever's career you're racing in so that you can collect more cars. Of course, this joins the more than 120 challenges in the game as well as the title's seven different race types that range from single drag races to a grand prix to drifting competitions.

I also got a taste of the DS version of Need for Speed: Nitro today, but my time didn't afford me the chance to get as in-depth with the game as IGN's own Mark Bozon did last week. I personally dug the ability to create your own logo via the DS touch screen, the in-game awards such as doing three flips, and the absurdity of running over piñatas on a baseball diamond. Still, the game looked a bit shallow although is packed a career similar to that of the Wii version.

Need For Speed: Nitro is racing to stores this November. I think the game has a chance at grabbing both casual racing fans and some of the mid-range folks with it's easy to use control scheme and nifty color effects. Still, the game is a bit loose in its drifting so I found myself slamming into walls and the hardest of hardcore race fans will probably want more under the hood customizations and less floating wrenches on the screen. Will people be happy with the final product? Come back to IGN in a few weeks to find out.