Game:

Need for Speed: Nitro (2009)

Duration: 10:01

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This video was captured using the actual game on an actual Nintendo Wii. Loading times and menu screens have been removed for your consideration and enjoyment. The in-game music has been shut off mostly because it sucks, but also to prevent a third party copyright claim.

This game breaks my heart. It's a game that I wanted so badly to love. It has stunning graphics that move at a silky smooth 60 frames per second without a single hitch or stutter. The sound design from the cars to even the menus are absolutely top notch and make proper hi-fi systems sing.......except for the music which is crap, but that can be and is turned off in this capture. The sense of speed is so great and the game just oozes style and personality. As polished and pristine this game is, there are quite a few glaring problems that just gnawed on me the entire time I played this game which made it more of a chore to play instead of fun. Looking at this gameplay you may think "I don't think this looks bad at all!" and you'd be right. When watching someone else reasonably well it does look good. However actually playing the game is an entirely different story. Let's take a look at why.

First is the drift mechanic. It's sloppy and unpredictable. When you tap the brake under accelerating around a turn you will go into a drift maneuver except that the drift hardly ever activates on time which makes you hit walls a lot. With some practice you can adapt to the lag in the drift mechanic, but it is a total buzzkill when it causes you to slam into a wall. Second is it's very hard to see when going fast mostly due to the fact that the camera pulls down to give a greater sense of speed but blocking your view in the process which causes annoying collisions for all the wrong reasons. While these things certainly are annoying, they are not what killed this game for me. What kills me is the lack of traditional racing. While traditional racing is technically the majority, it's the inclusion of other types of racing that are not fun that you are forced to play in order to complete the game. The drag racing as in all EA games is absolute trash. Again your car steers itself while you concentrate on shifting gears and changing lanes with a twitch of your thumb. It feels more like a quick time event than racing. The time attack mode wouldn't be so bad if EA had not placed cones in the middle of your racing line and on the outer extremities of each turn which forces you to slow down because you will add 1 second to your time for each cone you hit. It's not really a time attack, it's an obstacle course that has a very tight time limit. The drifting as you can see in the video is super lame. There's one track that you have to drift on that is almost entirely straight! All you need to do is wiggle down the road and you'll make your grade. It's not really that it's hard, it's just stupid and not fun. The speed camera challenges are almost like puzzles. You need to plan where your car needs to be positioned in order not to hit the cop road blocks and plan where you need to hit the nitro to go fast enough for the camera. Speed camera challenges were some of my favorite events in Most Wanted, but they don't work at all in Nitro. So we're left with circuit racing, elimination, and grand prix. All three of those are good, but there's just not enough. I feel like I'm more shoveling crap and grinding with the other modes than I am racing. To make matters worse there's only 4 tracks! You race in each city which is one track with all the events shown in this video and then grand prix is just a 4 race championship. The grand prix feels like a cheap boss rush used to extend the game. The only difference between the bronze, silver, and gold cup are the cars you race with, but you race on the same tracks which makes the game extremely repetitive and grinding. One thing that others seem to think is cool is the car customization which is pretty cool, but it's not so cool when you make an awesome looking car just to race it in a sub-par racing title. IMO car customization will never top Underground 2. It just won't. Plus Underground 2 was actually a very good and robust game unlike Nitro.

I swear the only reason why I played this game for as long as I did is because I wanted to love it for it's impressive graphics and framerate and the awesome sound design. I mean this game sounds crazy good on my well adjusted system. Unfortunately the game itself is just a dud. This game puts up quite a challenge and has it's moments when you take turns like a smooth operator, but then you remember that your next race is a drag race, or a speed camera challenge, or a time attack, or drift challenge........and that just ruins everything and it isn't worth the grind. This game is the very definition of a gold plated turd.

Thank you for watching.

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