We are still waiting on a suitable Amiga AGA emulator with robust recording features before tackling such games.
Need for Speed: Nitro
Need for Speed: Nitro, developed by Firebrand Games and published by Electronic Arts in 2009
| 
Screenshot |
Player's Review
"FIGHT to the FINISH. Extreme tracks, race on a rollercoaster, a golf course and more! Over 30 real cars, modern and classic. Create your own decals with the Nintendo DS Stylus to customise your car"
Out of all the Need for Speed games this on is probably the ugly duckling of the franchise. Its more like a generic arcade racer with the NFS name thrown on. What other NFS game has you driving out collecting tokens/collectables and smashing stuff. I guess the tagging mechanic of having your logo sprayed on buildings was enough to earn the title name. I'd say its more Burnout than NFS.
The game is made of of 6 countries with different race events contained including racing, smashing, collecting and Hot pursuit. These are played multiple times over three difficulty levels. In the longplay I play through all events and difficulties to finally unlock all cars and the end credits. The game has a trophy system which I mostly complete but not 100% as it requires grinding points and even multiplayer with two DS's. Doing so wouldn't unlock anything or add to the game so I still consider it done. After the credit roll I clean up the last trophy and collectables missed during career race. Completing the gold championship unlocks the final Nitro challenge which sends you to the moon. I quite like the way this is presented and a bit different to other racing games. Its worth noting that this level is not in the DSi Nitro-X game and instead you replay the ski level.
Controls can feel twitchy and each car reacts a little differently. Only light touches required on the dpad else you are likely to go flying across the road. Police cars can appear randomly in the road and you need to be really quick on the heroic button press to get the jump on them. Even waiting for the perfect red marker you are likely to crash.
Overall, not the greatest driving game on the DS, and not even a great nfs game but as an arcade racer it is ok with some fun elements like leaping over cars and road blocks and finding a few special auto drive events. Collectables are scattered over the various tracks but can only be found in the races by collecting all the orange tags. Sometimes these are sneakily hidden in forks in the road where you can easily take the wrong path and miss it, collecting ordinary yellow tags instead. Considering the game is cart bases, the level loading times can be quite long.
Need for Speed: Nitro-X was released later as DSi ware which is a massively cut down version of this game. All the levels are there but nearly all the music was cut as well as a huge amount of textures so it can look a little bland. On the upside the framerate is more stable and the game can be completed more quickly. There are also differences in the overall presentation in the menus and gameplay. One aspect of the gameplay I like, and many other racing games can learn from this is that the number of laps does not change as the difficulty scales. The races are faster and the opponents more clingy and that is enough, no need to drag the races out. Speaking of which the rubber banding is a little strange in the game yet fair. They will creep up behind you waiting for an opportunity, but they do not shoot ahead and can often be manipulated by your own speed changes.
01:15:33 Bronze Difficulty Events
02:35:50 Silver Difficult Events
01:52:25 Gold Difficulty Event
---------------------------------------------
04:11:34 Cleanup & Awards showcase
Out of all the Need for Speed games this on is probably the ugly duckling of the franchise. Its more like a generic arcade racer with the NFS name thrown on. What other NFS game has you driving out collecting tokens/collectables and smashing stuff. I guess the tagging mechanic of having your logo sprayed on buildings was enough to earn the title name. I'd say its more Burnout than NFS.
The game is made of of 6 countries with different race events contained including racing, smashing, collecting and Hot pursuit. These are played multiple times over three difficulty levels. In the longplay I play through all events and difficulties to finally unlock all cars and the end credits. The game has a trophy system which I mostly complete but not 100% as it requires grinding points and even multiplayer with two DS's. Doing so wouldn't unlock anything or add to the game so I still consider it done. After the credit roll I clean up the last trophy and collectables missed during career race. Completing the gold championship unlocks the final Nitro challenge which sends you to the moon. I quite like the way this is presented and a bit different to other racing games. Its worth noting that this level is not in the DSi Nitro-X game and instead you replay the ski level.
Controls can feel twitchy and each car reacts a little differently. Only light touches required on the dpad else you are likely to go flying across the road. Police cars can appear randomly in the road and you need to be really quick on the heroic button press to get the jump on them. Even waiting for the perfect red marker you are likely to crash.
Overall, not the greatest driving game on the DS, and not even a great nfs game but as an arcade racer it is ok with some fun elements like leaping over cars and road blocks and finding a few special auto drive events. Collectables are scattered over the various tracks but can only be found in the races by collecting all the orange tags. Sometimes these are sneakily hidden in forks in the road where you can easily take the wrong path and miss it, collecting ordinary yellow tags instead. Considering the game is cart bases, the level loading times can be quite long.
Need for Speed: Nitro-X was released later as DSi ware which is a massively cut down version of this game. All the levels are there but nearly all the music was cut as well as a huge amount of textures so it can look a little bland. On the upside the framerate is more stable and the game can be completed more quickly. There are also differences in the overall presentation in the menus and gameplay. One aspect of the gameplay I like, and many other racing games can learn from this is that the number of laps does not change as the difficulty scales. The races are faster and the opponents more clingy and that is enough, no need to drag the races out. Speaking of which the rubber banding is a little strange in the game yet fair. They will creep up behind you waiting for an opportunity, but they do not shoot ahead and can often be manipulated by your own speed changes.
01:15:33 Bronze Difficulty Events
02:35:50 Silver Difficult Events
01:52:25 Gold Difficulty Event
---------------------------------------------
04:11:34 Cleanup & Awards showcase
No Comments have been Posted.