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You can’t just port your 360/PS3 game to Wii these days and expect to get away with it. Wii-owners simply won’t have it. So, EA is developing Need For Speed Nitro from the ground up for the Wii, dumping the sim racing of SHIFT in favour of arcade-style racing, stylised visuals and an easy to learn control system. While still months from release we came away from our time with Nitro fairly pleased with the direction EA is heading.
By far the most notable thing about Nitro is its angular visual style and fisheye camera view. The single track we played featured a narrow road and plenty of tall buildings, making it feel quite claustrophobic while also helping to create an artificial sense of speed. The scenery will also change to reflect the current race status, with the winner’s logo being painted all over buildings and billboards that surround the street. It’s a different approach, for sure, but should make for a dynamic-looking game.
The cars have had a similar stylistic makeover, too, sporting large rear wheels and an extended wheel base. The end result is cars that are essentially caricatures of real-life vehicles. The game is going to nip along at quite a pace too, with EA promising 60fps on the Wii. In fact, this was in the design document from the start and is partly why the team chose a fairly simplistic art style. The whole thing will certainly take some getting used to, and to our eyes is geared towards a younger audience, but EA is most certainly making an effort.
Our hands-on time racing around the Madrid course on offer revealed a few interesting issues surrounding the controls. Firstly, you’ll be able to play with a number of control schemes, and secondly, there’s a definite Ridge Racer/Burnout feel to the car handling. In our first race we opted to use the control setup we imagine most ‘gamers’ will opt for: Wii Remote and Nunchuck. This worked as expected, with the Wii Remote being used to trigger your nitrous and the analogue on the Nunchuck used for car control. The controls felt decent enough, but the powersliding we’d seen during an on-stage demonstration earlier in the day didn’t seem as simple as it looked.
This changed when we took to the track using just the Wii Remote – a control scheme that we admit having reservations over. To our huge surprise, holding the Wii Remote with the pointer facing straight ahead, turning your wrist to steer and shaking to boost worked quite brilliantly. It also made the powersliding a complete breeze, with my turbo-charged car screaming around corners with ease. Using this method gave the game a more frantic, edge of your seat feeling, which we expect is what EA is going for.
Cops have generally played a big part in Need for Speed titles, and Nitro isn’t going to buck the trend. Despite being a closed-circuit racer you can and frequently will face off against aggressive cop cars. The more heat you accrue the more aggressive they’ll be, attempting to ram you as you scream around the city streets. It’s a mechanic that’s hard to judge based on a few laps on one track, but it should add some action to the already frenzied racing.
What we haven’t seen much of is the car customisation. A short demonstration video revealed that you’ll be able to sculpt your ride in a similar fashion to what was possible in many recent Need for Speed titles, but how the interface works with the Wii Remote is something we just don’t know at this stage.
We’re all for developers trying to make games that are for the Wii audience and built around the console’s hardware, and Need for Speed Nitro appears to be on the right track. With SHIFT most definitely going down the simulation route, Nitro will be the only arcade-style game in the series you’ll see this year, and its return to fairly classic arcade handling will be seen by many as a very wise move.
Need for Speed Nitro is due out this year on Wii and DS.
