The Need for Speed franchise has had great success across many consoles but the Wii has not been one of them. With the Wii’s lack of graphical prowess a serious racing game was never going to be the most successful option on the market. EA, to their credit, have noticed this trend and have released two new titles in quick succession; Shift, their realistic racing game with incredible graphics for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and Nitro, specifically for the Wii and DS, transporting us to the realm of arcade gaming.
This arcade feel becomes apparent from your first view of any of the cars available. Don’t expect to find any realistic apparel or true-to-life designs of vehicles, from the get go you’ll realise that its aim is not for that of many traditional racing games. Instead you can discover garish colours, massively exaggerated speed effects and even a somewhat wacky plotline, if working your way through five regions and defeating the ‘boss’ can really be called a plotline that is. Essentially every element of the game is geared toward you, the player, having a bit of fun.
With Nitro having been designed for the Wii you’ll find yourself able to control your cars of choice with nothing but the Wii Remote. Simply turning the controller will steer your car. If that doesn’t sound appealing you can still go back to basics and jump onboard with the classic controller, or plug in your nunchuck to allow for analog steering if that’s more your thing.
Handling control is reasonable but don’t expect any realism from it, the setup of your actual driving, just like the design, is arcade-y in style. Your car has the ability to drift though the button to start it being the same button as to brake sometimes causes confusion. Camera angles also leave something to be desired with a lack of a cockpit view making this an entirely third person perspective racing game.
The formula of Need for Speed Nitro is similar to one that you’ll undoubtedly have played before. You enter the fray on the bottom rung with access only to the most basic of cars. However, the more races that you find yourself competing in and winning, the more cash you’ll earn that will allow you to upgrade to a better model, or simply modify your own ride. It’s not all about the money though; winning races and completing some sub-challenges within them will have you receiving stars. These stars are what will allow you to unlock additional areas to explore and more races to conquer. It’s an addictive way to create a game as the next upgrade or available car is always just around the corner, keeping you returning to attempt to secure it time and time again.
With your campaign completed, your cars customised and everything unlocked you might be thinking it’d be a great time to jump online to do battle with racers around the globe. Unfortunately you are to be disappointed as Nitro is lacking in the online department, restricting your multiplayer antics to those evenings that you can persuade some friends to come for an evening of Wii racing.
A truly excellent set of car customisation options, some fun gameplay and a generally new and unusual approach to racing games will help you to look past the unfortunate flaws, producing a title well worth the money.