| Need for Speed: Nitro | |
|---|---|
NFS Nitro Wii cover. |
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| Developer(s) | EA Montreal (Wii), Firebrand Games (DS) |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Series | Need for Speed |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS, Wii |
| Release date(s) | 3 November 2009 (US)[1] 6 November 2009 (EU) 17 December 2009 (JP) |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E10+ PEGI: 7 |
Need for Speed: Nitro is a 14th installment in the long-running racing video game franchise Need for Speed. It was published by Electronic Arts for the Wii and Nintendo DS platforms, It is also the only game to date in the franchise to not be made for PC. It was announced in January as part of a three-game announcement that includes Need for Speed: Shift and Need for Speed: World.[2] The game was developed by EA Montreal whom have previous experience with Nintendo titles, although the DS version was developed separately by Firebrand Games' Florida studio.[3] An improved version of the DS edition of the game, Need for Speed: Nitro-X, was released for DSiWare in November 2010.
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Need for Speed: Nitro is an arcade style racing game that emphasizes speed and excitement over realism or vehicle tuning. The Wii version allows up to 4 players to race, with a maximum of 8 racers at once. The Wii version lets up to 4 racers compete in a drag race.
Events feature different modes, namely circuits, team circuts, elimination races, drift challenges, speed trap challenges, drag challenges and time attacks. Career mode allows players to compete in several cups and build up a roster of vehicles, while Arcade Mode lets players immediately jump into a race with customized difficulty and race conditions.
During races, police will attempt to block and ram racers, causing damage that will reduce the players' top speed and amount of nitro available. The game features power-up icons in the race that immediately repair vehicle damage or increase your opponents heat level. During a race, players are awarded "style points" based on performing powerslides and drafting, and nitro is recharged over time.
The game has an aesthetic feature called "Own It"; while a player is in the lead, the surrounding landscape and buildings are textured with his car's colors, graffiti, and tags, all of which can be created with the game's new car customization system.[4]. The "Own it" feature is a convenient way to indicate the race leader, and players get additional style points for staying in first.
The five cities in the game are Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Madrid, Singapore, and Dubai (and San Diego in the DS version). Each city has two full race circuits, one track for drag racing, and the game takes certain parts of a track for time trial and drift events. The tracks for drag racing are almost in straight lines.
There are 30 classic and modern cars included in Nitro on Nintendo Wii. There are 3 classes of cars in the game. The "C" class refers to family cars and includes vehicles like the Renault 4. The "B" class refers to performance vehicles such as the Ford Escort RS Cosworth and the Nissan Skyline GT-R. The last car class, "A", refers to supercars, such as the Ford GT and the Nissan GT-R. There are also 3 SUVs unannounced but officially available in this game, they are Porsche Cayenne Turbo S ("B" class), Hummer H2 SUT and Ford Explorer Sport Trac Adrenalin ("C" class).
There are 35 racers with names in the Wii version of the game, with Jawad being the most competitive and the hardest to beat.[5]
There are 26 songs in Need for Speed: Nitro's soundtrack for Wii. Some artists in the soundtrack are k-os, Dizzee Rascal, Danko Jones, LMFAO, and the Crystal Method.[6]
In the new franchising model for the series adopted by EA, Nitro takes its place aiming at casual gamers rather than the hardcore fans of the series and is also Nintendo exclusive. As with previous titles in the Need for Speed series, Nitro features a large catalog of customizable licensed vehicles, as well as cops. It is distinguished by fast, arcade racing with an anime-like visual, akin to the also upcoming Blur racing game. Need for Speed Nitro is also the first Need For Speed game that has traffic cars that can also be bought in career mode (with the exception of the Volkswagen Golf traffic car).
A trailer was released on the Need for Speed website depicting four cartoon-like vehicles that are actually disproportionate real-life vehicles. The cars were a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, a Nissan Skyline, an Audi R8, and a Lamborghini Reventon. The trailer also displayed the buildings in different vibrant colors and several disproportionate police vehicles (Shelby GT500's).
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 73% (Wii)[7]
72% (DS)[8] |
| Metacritic | 69/100 (Wii)[9]
70/100 (DS)[10] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B- (Wii)[11] |
| Allgame | [12] |
| Eurogamer | 5/10 (Wii)[13] |
| GameSpot | 7/10 (Wii)[14]
7/10 (DS) [15] |
| GameTrailers | 7.2/10[16] |
| IGN | 8/10 (Wii)[17]
6.8/10 (DS)[18] |
Need for Speed: Nitro received mixed reviews upon release. Mark Bozon from IGN awarded the game an 8.0 out of 10 for the Wii version, stating that "Nitro is a blast despite its faults".[19] Although 1Up enjoyed the title, they criticised the game for its shallow campaign, awarding the game a B-.[20] Eurogamer were considerably less impressed, awarding the game a score of 5 out of 10, stating that "[although] it might scream 'excitement' at the top of its tiny lungs...Need For Speed: Nitro's initially endearing zest quickly degenerates into repetitive strain." Despite this, Eurogamer praised the innovative use of the changing level appearance depending on the player's car.[21] Official Nintendo Magazine gave a more positive review, rating it 80% and saying; "Need For Speed: Nitro doesn't do anything remarkable. It doesn't have a fancy gimmick that no other game has featured before, it doesn't have the sort of visuals that will blow you away, and it doesn't offer outstanding online multiplayer gameplay that will have you playing for years to come. It's simply fun to play, and in focusing on quality over quantity EA has managed to put together one of the best racing games on the Wii." [22]
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