Need for Speed Games Part 1: The Need for Speed, Need for Speed II

This week on Super Adventures, I've decided to finally write about some Need for Speed. It's the most successful racing game series of all time and it's been around almost as long as Mario Kart, but I haven't written about a single of one them yet!

The trouble with racing games, and the reason I don't write about them much, is that they're all about racing. I mean that's not a problem when you're playing them, many would even consider it a positive, but it makes writing about in detail a bit tricky as all you do is drive down a road, often in circles. Then if you do it right you get to go do the same thing someplace else! I could fill up space by taking lots of screenshots of cars and menu screens, but I'd run out of stuff to say fast as I'm not exactly an expert on the subject.

But I've thought of a clever solution: if I write about lots of Need for Speed games then I don't have to write so much about each one! And seeing as the 25th anniversary game, Need for Speed: Heat, is coming out in four days, I've decided to write four separate parts covering the series' first 10 years, in chronological order, starting with Road & Track Presents The Need for Speed and Need for Speed II!

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Virtua Racing Deluxe (32X)

But first I've got a few other screenshots for you, to give the first Need for Speed game some context.

Virtua Racing Deluxe is the Sega 32X port of an arcade game from two years earlier. It's maybe a bad example as the original 3DO Need for Speed was released in August 1994 and the 32X add-on wasn't even out until November, but this is as good as racing games ever looked on the Mega Drive. There's also a port for the base Mega Drive that uses a Sega Virtua Processor chip in the cartridge to do similar magic, but it's not as pretty.

Stunt Race FX (SNES)

The Super Nintendo's Stunt Race FX, on the other hand, did come out before The Need for Speed. The window's a bit small and the frame rate isn't incredible, but it's not bad for a humble SNES... with a helping hand from Star Fox's Super FX chip in the cart. Incidentally Fox McCloud appears on texture-mapped billboards, so the game can do textures. It just doesn't do it much.

PC games weren't doing texture-mapping much at this point either, though they did have a lot more polygons on screen. Arcade games on the other hand...

Daytona USA (Arcade)

...were a little more advanced.

Ridge Racer and Daytona USA appeared in arcades near the end of 1993, featuring graphics home consoles could only dream of. Texture-mapped 3D cars on texture-mapped 3D track, and all running at a decent frame rate! They weren't exactly going for an accurate racing simulation though, so the handling's very, uh, arcadey.

So that's pretty much the state of 3D racing games in August 1994. The Sega Saturn and PlayStation wouldn't be out for another few months, the Jaguar only got a handful of racing games and they all came out later, and polygons made the CD-i cry.

1994 - ROAD & TRACK PRESENTS THE NEED FOR SPEED
(3DO, PC, PLAYSTATION, SATURN)

And here's The Need for Speed on the 3DO! Look at those breathtaking realistic texture-mapped 3D graphics running on a home console. Plus they're even rendering a rear view mirror at the same time just to show off. It's just a shame that you can't actually turn the car around and look the other way for real. It's also a bit of a shame that it only runs at 15 frames a second.

I can't take a screenshot of how it drives, but it's a bit more of a driving simulation than games like Ridge Racer. Though they kept it arcadey enough for anyone to pick up a controller and immediately start racing.

But before you get to the gameplay, you get to meet the star of the game:

This is where the series started, with this guy popping up in his tiny window to tell 3DO owners to pull their butt off the couch and prepare themselves for the outer regions of outrageous.

He shows up during the game as well, to tell you about the cars and to mock you if you fail a race. I'm not sure what the actual situation with him is, the game doesn't say, but the way he's addressing the sky here makes me think he knows this is a video game. He's not a millionaire letting our character play with his collection of supercars because he's bored and wants to race someone, he's just a smart-mouthed AI opponent.

The manual calls him the ominous X-Man and he was apparently played by a guy called Brenan T. Baird. I checked his IMDb and found that he really wasn't in much, though he did turn up in an episode of Babylon 5: Crusade!

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

He was also apparently one of these Cardassian soldiers in an episode of Deep Space Nine called Things Past, but no one knows which one.

The manual calls this screen 'Control Central' but I'm calling it the main menu. It also tells you what all the pictures mean, which is good because otherwise I'd be struggling. Every single one of these images could mean 'race', well except for X-Man's face, which as far as I can tell means nothing at all.

Actually I'm still struggling, because the buttons don't do what you think they're going to do. I keep getting videos coming up instead. The game really loves showing off its cars.

It's like an episode of Top Gear, except without the licenced music. Can't say I'm all that keen on the soundtrack of this version to be honest. It sounds like they bought generic rock instrumentals from the same place games like Bad Rats get them from.

I'm not sure I've ever watched all the showcase videos and looked at all the stats for each car, but it's nice that they went to the trouble to put it all in here. I suppose it's easier to go into detail when there's only eight cars in the game to drive (plus an unlockable fantasy bonus car). Though eight was actually a pretty impressive number at the time, when you'd be lucky to get three real licenced cars in your racing game, and games like Ridge Racer and Daytona had none.

Right now I'm in a black Lamborghini Diablo trying to weave through traffic, escape the cops and outrun the X-Man. I thought I'd pick a moment that something interesting was threatening to happen. Truth is that the cops don't seem all that interested in chasing me, the traffic isn't much of a problem, and I think I must have put X-Man in a slower car because he's miles behind me.

The biggest problem I'm having in the game right now is staying awake. It's not just the gameplay, this engine drone is like a lullaby and there isn't even any cheesy rock music to wake me back up! Here's a video game fact for you: this is the only game I've ever fallen asleep while playing. Seriously.

Though the gameplay really isn't helping. A lot of the tracks are a bit too... straightforward.

I mean look at this one, it's about as straight and forward as you can get!

The 3DO game only has the three tracks to pick from, all point to point, but it's not as bad as it seems as they're split into three reasonably long segments each. Though if you play on easy mode you'll only get to see two of them.

The series wasn't getting annual sequels at this point, but it did get all kinds of ports and alternate editions (with alternate names) that added between 4-6 new circuit tracks, occasionally swapped in new cars, and made it so you can actually race against more than one opponent. Plus they added a little mini-map in the corner of the HUD!

Over Drivin' DX: Rally Edition (PSX)

Here's the PlayStation version for example. Actually this is a screenshot of the Japanese exclusive Over Drivin' DX: Rally Edition, which replaces the tracks with two rally circuits and replaces the exotic supercars with... actually they left them alone. This rally mode is apparently unlockable in every port, so that's one big change they all share.

If it's new cars you're after, you'll be you'll be wanting Nissan Presents Over Drivin' Skyline Memorial on the PlayStation, or Nissan Presents Over Drivin' GT-R on the Saturn, which weirdly don't share the same set of Nissans to drive.

Over Drivin' GT-R (Saturn)

I've found hot air balloons! You know you're playing a proper Need for Speed game when you see the hot air balloons (though they probably only show up in like three of them).

The first Need for Speed made it to the PC, PlayStation and Saturn, each time gaining a much improved frame rate and faster gameplay in general, plus more arcadey handling to go with it. The ports all come with more ways to play, more tracks and more car facts (in case you want to learn the history of the Chevrolet Corvette from a video game), but I think it's the PC versions that have the edge due to their increased resolution.

Look at these amazing Super VGA visuals:

Need for Speed (MS-DOS)

Well, they were impressive in 1995 at least.

I usually play racing games in cockpit view because my driving tends to be slightly less terrible that way (and I like watching the little dials move), though it's not helping much here now that I'm against a full pack.

It wasn't so bad in the 3DO game when it was just me versus the X-Man, and head to head mode does still exist even if his FMV clips weren't ported over, but when seven of his friends show up I usually find myself a comfortable spot somewhere around fifth place. I suppose switching to manual gears might theoretically squeeze a little more speed out of the car, but I struggle enough when I've just got forward and reverse to worry about.

Need for Speed SE (MS-DOS)

Oh damn, that's not something you expect to see in a racing game. A screen full of Porsches, all of them the same colour! Car customisation is limited in the first few Need for Speeds, but in this first game it's entirely non-existent. You drive the car you see in the showcase video, exactly how you see it in the showcase video.

This PC Special Edition you're looking at here actually is pretty special though, as it adds two extra circuits and online multiplayer. Plus this and the PlayStation game both have music during the races!

But at the time the Special Edition and the PlayStation version came out in 1996 the game actually had some proper competition from textured 3D racing games like Destruction Derby, Wipeout and a port of Ridge Racer. On PC it was also up against a pair of flashy 'Ridge Racer clones': Fatal Racing (aka Whiplash) and Screamer.

Screamer (MS-DOS)

Screamer's trick was being really bloody fast, which was impressive considering that this was just before 3D accelerator cards became a thing. It also looks great for it time and they managed to find a cheap way to include a similar set of supercars to NFS by just changing the names and hoping no one told the manufacturers they'd nicked them.

Trouble is that the driving in Screamer is so arcadey that you drift around almost every turn without even trying to. Though maybe it'd be more accurate to say that it's cartoony, with the way your car flips into the air if you hit a wall too hard. Plus it has an obnoxious commentator and timed checkpoints for no good reason! So for me NFS wins this round.

Fatal Racing (MS-DOS)

Fatal Racing's gimmick is the the tracks are basically roller coasters. Well okay only two of them have vertical loops and I only found the one corkscrew, but they're all a bit on the hazardous side. Trouble is that the developers haven't exactly made a commitment to realism with their driving model either so the game's a bit of a mess, at least when I'm driving. I couldn't even win one race in it, though to be fair one time it was because my car was on fire. My generic no-brand car that looks basically the same as every other car on the track. I think I like Screamer more than this to be honest.

So Need for Speed is the clear winner! But I'm not really that keen on it either. The 3DO game's slow, dull and limited, and the other versions are still too dated to be any fun to me. If you want to give it a try, the PC's Special Edition is clearly the best of them, but really the only reason to play this these days is to hear the daft bullshit coming out of the X-Man's mouth between races, and he's exclusive to the 3DO game.

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1997 - NEED FOR SPEED II
(PC, PLAYSTATION)

Three years after the 3DO game we finally got the first sequel, released for PC and PlayStation, and it has a nice bright pretty menu screen with clear options! This is the PC's Special Edition, but the only change it makes to the menu I'm aware of is the 'SE' under the logo.

Oh, plus that 'Last Resort' track is new. The Special Edition also includes extra cars and 3DFX accelerated graphics! Stick an expensive 3D accelerator card into your case and not only is everything faster and less pixelly, but there's also new weather effects! This isn't necessarily a good thing though as on one of the tracks the 'weather effect' is bugs that splat on your windscreen and there's nothing you can do to turn them off. Also using 3D acceleration means the dashboards don't work anymore for whatever reason. That's not just because of the NFSIISE wrapper I'm using to get 3DFX graphics working in Windows 10, it's always been like that.

The first Need for Speed was credited to Pioneer Productions, which was a team inside EA Canada, and their logo still remains as the icon for the 'Proving Grounds' track. Apparently this time EA Seattle made the PC game while EA Canada was busy on the PlayStation version, though there's very few differences between the two versions I noticed. Then again I can't even tell the difference between the 'simulation', 'arcade' and 'wild' driving modes it features.

The X-Man is entirely absent this time around but we're still in the mid 90s, which means we still get live action video clips for each of the supercars to show them all off. Thankfully you can change the colour of the in-game cars now so they're not all stuck looking exactly like the one in their video.

There's no returning cars this time around (so no Diablo for me), but the new line up is just as ridiculously fast as the one in the first game. The Jaguar XJ200 isn't even in the top class, and the Lotus Esprit is in the slowest class!

The tracks have gotten more ridiculous to match, and I'm not just talking about the one that lets you do the Death Star trench run from Star Wars.

There are only seven tracks in the game (eight in the Special Edition) and all of them are circuits, but they're all unique and memorable. Sometimes because you drive through an ancient temple over a river of lava, sometimes because the turns it's making you do are crazy. Cars this fast should not be driving across tracks this treacherous! I know this because the AI cars skid around, flip over and fly off cliffs just as often as I do without any help from me! Sometimes if I'm lucky it turns into a Blues Brothers car chase, with them all crashing into each other.

PlayStation version

I've read some people criticising the AI because of it, but I find it reassuring that the computer controlled racers bad are as I am. It's nice to know that flipping my car on my roof isn't necessarily going to cost me the race, because there's always a chance the guy in first will do it too.

It's more arcadey than the first NFS, but it still wants to be a proper racing game and I'm relying on the other drivers to make mistakes so that I can catch up to them. This isn't the kind of game where you can floor the accelerator and expect to to sail around every corner and overtake everyone, it's not Cruis'n USA.

Cruis'n USA (N64)

To be honest I only really brought Cruis'n USA up as an excuse to show off a Nintendo 64 racer from this era. Look at all that detail on the cars! Shame it's all painted on.

It's always nice to get nice stable polygons that aren't wobbling around, but personally I prefer Need for Speed II, even on the PlayStation. It's in the middle ground of realism where you have to brake for turns occasionally if you want to win, but your car won't spin around 180 degrees and shatter against the wall if you decide not to. Though there's no manual reset key, and brake doesn't automatically switch to reverse once you've stopped, so getting out of situations can be awkward for mere humans.

It's even more awkward when you're a Tyrannosaurus Rex that farts clouds of cows, just because of the sheer size of the creatures.

They've added a new 'knockout' mode in this game that disqualifies the slowest player on each race, and you have to win it to unlock the 'Monolithic Studios' bonus track. But that turned out to be difficult, and I wanted a screenshot of the track, so to save time I looked up the unlock cheat and discovered that this game has an extensive collection of cheat codes to let you screw with it. I didn't even mean to turn the traffic into T-Rexes, that was just a side effect! (I didn't mean to flip my T-Rex onto its roof right after this either, but it's an awkward hill.)

Incidentally you can't just restart the track you failed on when you're in a knockout or tournament; if you screw up you have to replay it from your start. Or load a save game. And it's easy to screw up when you pick the fastest car so you can win the oval-shaped 'Proving Grounds' stage at the start, then find you have to steer your McLaren F1 up a bloody mountain a few races later. Just look at that mess of corners on the mini map!

If I was going to rank the Need for Speed games in order of how much I enjoyed playing them this time around, Need for Speed II would be somewhere down near the bottom, and that's a shame really considering how much joy it's brought me in the past. It immediately has what Need for Speed 1 was missing for me, but it's still the most primitive and dated of the rest. They should totally make a remake, with reimagined versions of the tracks, more cars, and the exact same music. After playing the first 10 years of Need for Speed games in a row I've come to appreciate just how good tunes like Siwash Rock and Feta Cheese are (YouTube links) and NFS 2 can be pretty good at times as well. It's got faults, but it's also got personality.

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1997 - NEED FOR SPEED: V-RALLY
(PLAYSTATION, PC, GAME BOY COLOR, N64)

PlayStation version

Hang on, this isn't a real Need for Speed game. EA took a completely unrelated European rally game and stuck the title onto it for the US release to sell more copies! Get off my list you bloody imposter!

The sequel's even worse, as the PlayStation version of the game's called Need for Speed: V-Rally 2 and the Dreamcast version's called Test Drive: V-Rally! It's a shame they didn't continue this tradition for the sequels or else we could've gotten Burnout: V-Rally and DiRT Rally: V-Rally.

PlayStation version

I didn't really like V-Rally much, as it's got checkpoints and limited continues, and 'realistic for 1997' handling where you're steering by tapping a D-Pad but the car likes to lose control and spin around all the time. Though to be fair I didn't give it a fair chance as I was only playing it long enough to get a screenshot.

So that's the Need for Speed games from 1994 to 1997 covered, 40% of the series' first decade in one go. Next time I'll be looking at all the games from 1998 all the way to 1999 and you don't have long to wait as I'll be posting that tomorrow. I thought it'd be cruel to take up an entire month with racing games, so check back soon for more screenshots of low-res car backsides. In fact chances are you're reading this in the future and you can click that 'next game' picture down there to read it right now!

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Thanks for reading!

I suppose there's not much point in me asking you to guess what the next game is this time, but I'd still appreciate it if you left a comment!