Pong and Beyond

731st played so far

Genre: Racing
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts

I’ve always distantly admired the Need for Speed series. I remember the original being released and playing it with friends and enjoying the naughty feeling of being chased by the police and the thrill to speed along and getting away.

Two entries in the series are on this list and since we’re approaching that three quarters mark that I’m looking forward to, it’s time that I get these two entry franchises started. Let’s hope it works.

Our Thoughts

I didn’t really get to play this game. That’s not for a lack of trying, but ten goes at the first race and never winning it means this game is too difficult. I’d say for me, but the first race, the first level, is your chance to hook your player. Unless you’re intentionally making a difficult game – and I see no evidence that it’s the case here – you want to make sure they can beat it. Rubber band, give some bonuses, give a better car, there are many options.

The car you start in is way too floaty. I’m sure expert players don’t mind that, but when you’re learning the game, its physics and its controls, you don’t want to be drifting all over the place because you misjudged a corner. That’s bad on boarding and not providing a good user experience.

And that’s a shame, as there’s promise in the game. The FMVs are set up in a way that blurs computer generated images and actors really well and I was hoping to see where they went with that. The world looks interesting. But who cares if you can never get far enough into the game?