Here comes Ryan Cooper! The comeback kid!
I have never played a Need for Speed game before in my life. Wait, scratch that. I have only played one, but that was just Need for Speed Carbon on the GBA, so I'm not sure if that counts or not, but I'll count it out as I'm just talking about the mainline console titles for this review.
I wish I could talk about this game more in depth, but my journey begins with getting the damn thing to work in the first place.
First, I had to"Google the game's zip file" I mean look for a copy of the game that wasn't broken or still would be supported. That means either asking origin support for a copy of the game that I wanted to purchase, or take my chances with the internet and see what I could find. I did end up finding a copy, but christ did it feel like I was back in 2010 and just taking a chance on finding a game like this would be a gamble if it worked. Not to mention people in the comments would also be posting about their problems with the game, so that really didn't help me out one bit either.
But anyway, game acquired. Now time to play.
But wait guy, I see you're trying to do a race or two.
Let the game just stop working at every win screen and prevent the player from moving forward by hitting the key or button to move on to the next screen. This happens throughout my entire time playing the game, and I have to take a gamble at which race I'm going to do to keep playing this, or just have fun beating myself with a rock instead, as I would probably get more done than just repeating the same races hoping for a different result.
The race days in the game can be finished with getting enough points per match (If the game decides to let you move forward), so there wasn't that much of a problem for me. I got to play a bit of everything, and my progress was moving along as it should.
Until I got to a damn showdown king race event.
If you don't know, the game's whole shtick is around you doing certain types of races with each showdown king that holds the title "King" for each type of race. So there's a drift king, a drag king, a grip king, and two other ones I forgot as I was just getting frustrated writing this review.
But anyway, the way these events are made is that they go in a certain order. So if you're facing a drag king showdown event, you're going to do a 1/4 mile drag race, a 1/2 mile drag race, and finally a wheelie drag race. Sounds pretty simple, and I could knock em out.
But the game does this thing where the options are not spread out like they should be as it is with every racing event that you compete in. You're supposed to win one, and then go back to the main menu, and then do the next event, and so on and so forth.
I retried to do the first event 7 times until I just called it quits as the game just didn't want to budge.
This is not a review of the full game, but an review as to what I played for myself up to a point.I do see the fun in this game while others felt bitterness for this, due it being Blackbox's last title for the Need for Speed series until Criterion took over. I don't think this game is going to win any awards for best racer, because while this does feel empty with the races at times, it's so goddamn stylish with its presentation and soundtrack banging while you're finishing a race AND full customization of cars just makes it feel Grand Turismo esque while still maintaining its arcadey roots.
This game is a reminder that titles that are not available to play anymore should at the very least be preserved well for anyone else to try. Hell, if something like Syndicate can have a better time being available, why can't this title as well?
"So even all of these struggles, why did you play this game in the first place?"
I saw this video on my recommended yt feed, and it gave me an itch to finally try the game out.
Hell of a way to start off 2023.
I have never played a Need for Speed game before in my life. Wait, scratch that. I have only played one, but that was just Need for Speed Carbon on the GBA, so I'm not sure if that counts or not, but I'll count it out as I'm just talking about the mainline console titles for this review.
I wish I could talk about this game more in depth, but my journey begins with getting the damn thing to work in the first place.
First, I had to
But anyway, game acquired. Now time to play.
But wait guy, I see you're trying to do a race or two.
Let the game just stop working at every win screen and prevent the player from moving forward by hitting the key or button to move on to the next screen. This happens throughout my entire time playing the game, and I have to take a gamble at which race I'm going to do to keep playing this, or just have fun beating myself with a rock instead, as I would probably get more done than just repeating the same races hoping for a different result.
The race days in the game can be finished with getting enough points per match (If the game decides to let you move forward), so there wasn't that much of a problem for me. I got to play a bit of everything, and my progress was moving along as it should.
Until I got to a damn showdown king race event.
If you don't know, the game's whole shtick is around you doing certain types of races with each showdown king that holds the title "King" for each type of race. So there's a drift king, a drag king, a grip king, and two other ones I forgot as I was just getting frustrated writing this review.
But anyway, the way these events are made is that they go in a certain order. So if you're facing a drag king showdown event, you're going to do a 1/4 mile drag race, a 1/2 mile drag race, and finally a wheelie drag race. Sounds pretty simple, and I could knock em out.
But the game does this thing where the options are not spread out like they should be as it is with every racing event that you compete in. You're supposed to win one, and then go back to the main menu, and then do the next event, and so on and so forth.
I retried to do the first event 7 times until I just called it quits as the game just didn't want to budge.
This is not a review of the full game, but an review as to what I played for myself up to a point.I do see the fun in this game while others felt bitterness for this, due it being Blackbox's last title for the Need for Speed series until Criterion took over. I don't think this game is going to win any awards for best racer, because while this does feel empty with the races at times, it's so goddamn stylish with its presentation and soundtrack banging while you're finishing a race AND full customization of cars just makes it feel Grand Turismo esque while still maintaining its arcadey roots.
This game is a reminder that titles that are not available to play anymore should at the very least be preserved well for anyone else to try. Hell, if something like Syndicate can have a better time being available, why can't this title as well?
"So even all of these struggles, why did you play this game in the first place?"
I saw this video on my recommended yt feed, and it gave me an itch to finally try the game out.
Hell of a way to start off 2023.