There are some good things about Need for Speed Nitro. But any reasonable comparison between it and what else is available in its genre shows it to be a pale shadow of the state of the art, and on top of that, it’s short on fun.

What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. No online play for a fairly serious car-racing game in 2009? I guess it was considered not worth the effort to do. A lot of the game reeks of that attitude: very few tracks, a repetitive and simplistic career mode, limited car selection, long loading times and shockingly bad visuals combine to give an impression that the Wii version of Need for Speed is very much a poor cousin to the real deal on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Oh, and the racing is not all that interesting either.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Need for Speed: NITRO.

EA announced late yesterday that their long-running Need For Speed racing franchise recently passed the 100 million (!) units sold mark, placing it in a pretty exclusive club and generating $2.7 billion in life-to-date sales, making it the best selling racing brand in the gaming world.

President of the EA Games Label, Frank Gibeau, said of the achievement: “Few videogame franchises ever reach the 100M units mark, so this is a huge honor. We have millions of fans to thank for driving us to this milestone.

“With the launch of Need for Speed SHIFT and the upcoming release of Need for Speed NITRO, we hope to continue to deliver the most entertaining, action-packed racing experiences.”

Since the release of the original Need For Speed on the 3DO in 1994, the franchise has racked up quite a few impressive statistics, including the following:

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EA recently announced that their next Need For Speed title, Nitro, has gone gold and will be releasing on the Wii and DS early next month in North America and Europe, and to mark the occasion, the official list of songs that comprise the game’s soundtrack has been released.

Need For Speed: Nitro looks like a blast to play, and seems to take the best parts of previous entries to the series, such as the extreme speed and arcade fun, and wrap them up in a package that is even more arcadey, colourful and stylised.

As for the soundtrack, Worldwide Executive of Music and Music Marketing at EA, Steve Schnur said:

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EA has stamped an official release date on their upcoming racer Need for Speed Nitro. Nitro, the first Need for Speed title made exclusively for the Wii and DS, will be available on the 20th of November.

Developed by EA Montreal, gamers can choose to play the Wii version of Need for Speed Nitro using the Wii Remote, Nunchuk, racing wheel, classic or GameCube controller. The game boasts a “nearly limitless visual customization system” along with “fresh modes, tracks and exotic real world locations,” promising to make Need for Speed Nitro “one of the most exciting, heart-pounding arcade racers for the Wii and Nintendo DS.”

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EA have released the debut trailer for their Wii and Nintendo DS racing game, Need for Speed: NITRO, while a video interview with the senior producer, Joe Booth, fills in some of the blanks.

Incidentally, it’s been confirmed that the Wii version of NITRO uses the upcoming Wii MotionPlus add-on for the WiiMote. Interesting. Watch the debut trailer for Need For Speed: NITRO below:

Find out some NITRO secrets by watching the senior producer’s video interview below:

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