Dr Game's Euthanasia - Need for Speed

A new segment to the blog inspired by EA's recent announcement that not one, but four, Need for Speed games are coming. Dr Game's Euthanasia is my opinion of series that I think should be put to rest... permanantly.

Let's go back. Need for Speed hit the mainstream with Need for Speed Underground in 2003. It was when Vin Diesal was considered cool, the Fast and the Furious was the equivalent of what So You Think You Can Dance was in terms of popularity amongst tweens - in fact the term Tweens wasn't even invented yet. Need for Speed Underground combined awesome blur effects to illustrate the speed with cool car customisation - and not the kind of customisation you would find in a Forza or a Gran Turismo. Instead it was all about pimping your ride - neons, decals, funky colours and big rims.

In traditional EA fashion they released a sequel 12 months later with more items to customise your wheels and an open world where you wandered around until you found a race. It also had Brooke Burke... nice. Essentially it was a bigger better version of the original game.

The next year EA turned the lights on with Most Wanted. It was inspired by one of their older titles - Hot Pursuit. The customisation was toned down a little and the focus was on outrunning the fuzz. It was the first Need for Speed title to go next gen and while it was received well - there were signs that the series was beginning to age.

The lights went out again for Need for Speed the next year with Carbon. I thought Carbon was fantastic - the speed was amazing and it was fun taking over the city. The highlight for me was no doubt the canyon races. It was a one-on-one dual one a narrow road and your goal was to tailgate your opponenet to accumulate points - the closer you trailed the more points you got. If you managed to overtake them then you would win but this was almost impossible. You would then switch poisitions and your goal would to be to get as far away from your opponent as possible. It was really intense. It's cheap now and I would recommend it for any racing fan.

Then the series went to shit with ProStreet. This was a joke of a game. EA tried to do a racing game like Grid or Forza and it failed. It was just not fun at all. The customisation was there but the focus was on the race types and the "legal" street competition. But you had no oncoming traffic or no danger except for the fact you were driving at high speeds.

Last year Need for Speed went back to the city streets and aimed to bring an experience similar to The Transporter films. It was decent and it was fun but it couldn't compete in awesomeness to games like Burnout Paradise or Midnight Club LA.

After the poor sales there was a rumour the series was done for but the other day EA came back with an announcement for three new titles and a secret Need for Speed title that would be discussed at a later date. But they are going in a hardcore racing direction and I don't think this is going to bring the series back to the level it once was. Prostreet's poor reviews should have proved that it was the wrong direction for the series.

EA - if you want to create a hardcore racing title then that's cool, just don't put it under the Need for Speed banner. Let this series rest in piece.

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