Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (Wii) - Review by chris

Introduction

After last year's Nintendo specific effort Need for Speed Nitro, which proved to be a very competent arcade racer on the Wii, EA are back again with the next instalment in the once again yearly Need for Speed franchise. Borrowing the title of one of the earlier games in the franchise and handing it off to the developers of the incredible Burnout Paradise, Criterion Games, EA are hoping to offer up another blisteringly fast racing experience. Except, as expected, Wii owners are receiving a different version of the game with developer Exient taking the reins on this iteration. And the end result is one which feels like a right old banger in comparison to the other console versions.

Gameplay

The Wii version of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit bares little in common with the other versions of the game, barring the name of course. While those versions offer a high octane, route based challenge pitting you against foes and police, here the actions is much more played down and takes on a more arcade-y presentation. It's initially disappointing that the game doesn't take on the same gameplay but last year's Need for Speed Nitro showed that the franchise can do arcade racers well on the console so from that, you'd expect that EA would be able to follow that up with another game which builds on those foundations. Unfortunately that isn't the case and instead it feels very much like a step backwards for Wii owners.

In the game, you're presented with a variety of different race types and tasked with driving your heart out to win in the hope of gaining credits and a Bounty level, which acts as a form of multiplier to your eventual credit total at the end of the race. With these credits you can then go on to purchase new cars or even customise ones you currently own, although these customisations are purely cosmetic and add little to the manoeuvrability of your rides. The racing itself is very mundane and run-of-the-mill, with the trademark nitro boost ability levied to all cars and power-ups littering the track added to the mix. The former is necessity given the AI at play in the game and will definitely help when you've come away from crashing into a barrier, which you'll do often because of poor controls and a physics engine which makes every car feel like you're driving a tank. The power-ups, which take the form of instant boosts, repair kits, EMPs, and invincibility items add very little to the game and really don't make it any more enjoyable, instead feeling very lacklustre and unnecessary in most cases.

With the game taking on a more arcade-y style, the events you'll cover in the game's Career mode, which offers up the most substantial offerings for you to play through as there are multiple events set up in the game's 4 included cities, will feel very familiar to those who played last year's game, as the same time trial, stock lap racing mode and elimination modes return and where they managed to excite in the previous game, they feel dull and lifeless here thanks in large part to the computer AI controlling the other cars, which is badly rubber banded and poorly integrated to the experience sticking carefully to the optimal line. The inclusion of a rush mode, an extension of the elimination mode only with 100 cars on the track at one time, and boss battles tries to bring the game up to speed but again, these are let down severely by the poor AI, car physics and controls.

Away from the Career mode, you have the typical options allowing you to set up single races against either the computer or against friends, with only 4 player multiplayer being included and still no online options. It's a disappointment for sure but the 4 player split screen options aren't bad and seeing as they get rid of the issues of the poor AI and puts everyone on a level playing field in terms of the poor drivability of all of the cars, it does provide the most fun of everything included on the disc, but then that really isn't saying much when everything else fails to bring anything other than derivative and mundane racing to the table.

Controls

You have 3 main control options at your disposal for play, all of which work to varying degrees of success. Firstly, there's the Wii-mote only option, whereby you'll use the 1 and 2 buttons to accelerate and brake respectively while tilting the controller to turn your vehicle. It's setup as the most accessible option but feels rather clunky in comparison to efforts seen in other racing games, especially when it comes to drifting and here you'll find it hard at times to keep your car from slamming into barrier. Secondly, you have the Wii-mote and Nunchuk setup which does away with the motion controls (for steering at least as you'll still need to shake the controllers to use your nitro) and acts like a more traditional setup but again, it doesn't quite come off as smoothly as it should and the general layout feels clumsy but it's far from being unmanageable. The last option, allowing you to make use of a Gamecube controller, feels the most natural and definitely gets the job done in most departments. However, the lasting issue that covers all setups is that regardless of what car you are driving, everything feels decidedly heavy to move around the tracks and even shallow corners have to be drifted around, a process which also isn't particularly well implemented but it just manages to get the job done.

Graphics

It seems as though the developers initially intended to try and go for a realistic visual style, similar to that in the other versions, but quickly realised it was unobtainable and quickly reverted back to a very scaled back version of what we got in Nitro. Yet, whereas Nitro looks great with vibrant colours helping to draw you into to the exaggerated look of the game, here things look incredibly dull with an abundance of greys and browns being used to put together the 4 cities you'll be driving around and while there is structural change between them, backgrounds look very similar in all cities failing to give each any sense of personality. Low resolution and blurry textures also hinder the process of drawing you into the locations.

Car models don't fare much better, and while they were never going to match the standards in the other versions, they look average at best here. Each of the cars on show bares only a slim resemblance to the original thing, with a generally low polygon model being employed in an exaggerated style that looks awful. Again, low resolution textures are simply pasted across them failing to even capture an ounce of the intrigue the cars in Nitro managed to bring. Damage to the cars is very basic, mostly employing different textures to enact cracked windscreens and such. It all looks slapped together at the last minute and needs more than a good polish to bring it anywhere close to the Wii's other racing games. Throw in a very unstable frame rate and it's a bit of a mess to look at considering it's such a big name title.

Sound

Music comes in the form of your typical casual friendly song selection from EA, with rock and R&B primarily making up the tracklist which you'll encounter throughout your play and it's got enough variety to appeal to just about everyone, as is the case with most of the music in EA's games. Sound effects are largely dictated by engine noises from the cars but they're bordering slightly on the unrealistic side of things and there seems to be little difference between cars overall in terms of how they sound.

Final comments

When you consider that even iOS devices are getting a version of the game similar to the other home console versions, it makes Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on the Wii look like an absolute shambles. Things feel very rushed and slapped together with a severe lack of polish all around and it lacks the thrill of racing that the other versions, or indeed last year's Nitro, manage to bring to the table. It plays like a complete afterthought and why EA didn't bring in the developers of last year's title to give a true Wii centric version of Hot Pursuit is baffling. Even with its paltry driving game library, there are much better racing games available and worthy of your money in place of this.

Pro: Decent amount of content available, local multiplayer options can be fun
Con: Controls never feels as fluid as they need to be, presentation is severely lacking polish, lacks any enjoyment factor, plays like a cheap cash-in on the license
Final score: 4.8

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