Ever since the first Need For Speed games showed up, they were a phenomenon. You could instantly tell that they stand out from other car racing games. The biggest popularity was in the time of Need For Speed Underground 2 in the late 90ies and soon after that almost at the same time The Fast and the Furious movie came out in the 2000’s that also like the Need For Speed games have many sequels and versions. At the moment the most popular is Need for Speed Heat, the newest game that asks for so much resources that is lagging on maximum graphics even with a i9 processor. This year the Need For Speed Series is celebrating 27 years from its existence.
The first Need for Speed games had options where you could drive the car from the inside where you could see the stearin weal and you would look through the windshield-in the first person view(you could also switch the view to a one where you could just see the road without a steering wheel) and you could look at the whole car from the back and up in the third person, the cars in those games were so fast that if a collision happened they will fly 4 meters in the air making pirouettes and that was one of the more fun effects. But there wasn’t as much customization as in the sequels.
The success of Need For Speed Underground 2 was because it was the first driving game in an open world, there was a huge city to explore, to build a racing career and best of all to edit the cars that you would buy or earn and to try them out after you edited them just the way you want. The nitro in the game was an important part of the driving because it gave instant acceleration that you couldn’t use it the whole time-there was a wait for it to recharge again. But one of the best things you could do is to ride on stages for drifting and the more you would attain the state not to hit another car or an obstacle you would get more points. And many young people would compete in drifting on the same computer with their friends taking turns one by one. Either that or they would race on the same tracks with an indicator of who will finish the race in less time with the same automobile.
When we are at the automobiles the options that you could paint your car in the desired color, to set up special rims, tires, spoilers, bumpers and to add stickers or drawings along the car itself was very attractive not only for they boys but also the girls wanted to play and played this game-maybe it’s one of the most played games by girls for that time.
The graphics drastically got better with Need For Speed Most Wanted. One of the main effects was that when you would engage the nitro the whole screen went into a blur and the game itself asked for a better computer because the cars and the levels for driving seemed “more realistic”.
In the meantime the Need For Speed titles came out the whole time and the most famous titles are Need For Speed Shift, Undercover, Unleashed, The Run, Rivals, No Limits, Payback, Hot Pursuit and Heat. Hot Pursuit has a remaster and the people waited for years for the most influential and most legendary Need For Speed Underground 2 to get a remaster but it seems that -that won’t happen anytime soon.
In the newest Need For Speed Heat you can edit the car to terrific detail, you can change the headlights, the brake lights, wheelbarrows, the bumpers have creative solutions same as the different spoilers and hoods with air holes, and to make your perfect car, regardless if it’s only in a game.
