Last year, the Need for Speed series seemed to hit a moment of crisis.  After the subpar release of Need for Speed Undercover, Electronic Arts announced that they were going back to the drawing board, and for a period of time, it looked like we might see the Need for Speed series disappear.   Of course, the series was relaunched across three new brands, including a newly created franchise for the Wii and DS called Need for Speed Nitro.  Shirly Chu of Electronic Arts spent some time with Aeropause, giving us a guided tour of the gameplay and visual asthetics of Need for Speed Nitro.

Need for Speed Nitro has been developed from the ground up for the Nintendo Wii, and will use any of three control types.  For our hands on, we used just the Wiimote by itself held vertically.  The game will also accept horizontal Wii control, similar to MarioKart Wii, or with the nunchuck and Wiimote.  Controlling the vehicle was simple enough, with the A button used for accelerating, the B button for braking and drifting, and the d-pad for hitting your nitrous boost.  Twisting the controller to the left or right will turn your vehicle.  Again, it is simple and intuitive for any age group when it comes to controls.

While Nitro is not as graphically intense as its older cousin, Need for Speed: Shift, it does hold its own on the Wii, using a pastel color palette, with a watercolored cell-shading effect.  The end result looks really good on the Wii, while running at a high frame rate.  I was really captured by the visual style of Need for Speed Nitro.  Obviously, the game is not an HD, true to life experience, but the visuals are really striking, and I am a sucker for cell-shading.

Need for Speed Nitro will ship with fair amount of licensed vehicles, some that will be there at the start of the game, and others that will have to be unlocked.  There are also five race locations, two of which are in Madrid and Signapore.  Each area will have several tracks that can be raced on.  At the end of the day, there will be a fair amount for players to unlock, which will add to the gameplay.

The DS version Need for Speed Nitro has been focused on by its own development team.  The goal was to create a game that would capture the feel of Nitro on the Wii, but fit it to the controls of the DS.  Controls are relatively similar to most racers on the DS, using the A button to drive, and the right shoulder button to brake/drift and the left shoulder button to boost.

The DS version will ship with 20 tracks, and more than 30 cars that you will be able to unlock with career victories.  Nitro DS is also looking to go more over the top than the Wii version by using pick ups that will spray a part of the  level with your colored graffiti.   The tracks are also way over the top, with our demo run showing our person making a run for the US border from Mexico, while running from the police.  The track had all kinds of crazy twists and turns.

The look of the game seemed a bit off, but I am wondering if it was the hardware that it was being shown on after three days of use.  I just thought it would have a better color palette than was actually shown in the game.  There was a lot of flashing and blinking, but it just looked like a lack of color overall was used in the game.   I do know that the screenshots we were given in the press kit ( and attached at the end of the article) came from the game, and look significantly different from my playthrough, indicating faulty hardware.

After playing through both of these titles for a little while, I realized that the Wii version of Need for Speed Nitro will be a great kind of family racer.  My son loves MarioKart, but would like to play a racing game that has a more real look, like a Project Gotham Racing or Need for Speed title, but they tend to be a bit hard for him to control.  With Nitro, I see him and me being on equal footing, and I think that is what Electronic Arts is striving for with Need for Speed Nitro.   Look for both titles in November 2009.