Here’s a fun fact for you: there isn’t a single person on this planet who can recite the titles of all 24 Need for Speed games in order. It’s actually physically impossible, like licking your own back or hearing the words “Hi, I’m Daisy” without getting irritated. While this ‘fact’ is open for debate, here’s one thing that isn’t: there hasn’t been a Need for Speed game on a Nintendo console since 2013 (Most Wanted U) and it’s about time that changed.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, as the name suggests, is a modern upgrade of the 2010 instalment of the series (the 16th one, if you were keeping count, which you weren’t). While Hot Pursuit was given the Nintendo treatment back in the day in the shape of a Wii ‘port’, it was actually a completely different game that had nothing to do with the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. As such, title aside, this is the first time the ‘proper’ Hot Pursuit has been playable on a Nintendo system.
For those not familiar with it, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is set in Seacrest County, a fictional region of the United States that’s based on the states located on the country’s west coast. Turns out Seacrest County is ideal for illegal street races, the sort of ones where there’s some sort of… desire for velocity, for want of a better phrase. As such, there’s a constant battle going on between the racers looking for their next fix of hi-octane hijinks, and the SCPD officers trying to get these speed freaks off the roads before they do themselves a mischief.
The twist here is that Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit lets you see what life is like on both sides of the fast/fuzz divide. Some missions obviously have you taking part in races, hurtling through country and city roads at obscene speeds while trying to avoid being taken down by the cops. Other missions, however, hand you a badge and a gun (okay, maybe not the gun) and put you in the law-loving boots of an SCPD cop, with your aim now being to break up any races you see and take down as many punks as you can.
You’ll encounter different types of events during both campaigns. Sometimes you’ll be doing a standard street race, sometimes it’ll just be a time trial. Sometimes you’ll be going head-to-head with one other car while the cops are chasing you, sometimes you’re the cop trying to take down one racer (or even every competitor in a race). Sometimes you’ll go it with just your car as your only equipment other times you’ll be armed with gadgets like spike strips, EMPs and jammers.
As you perform well in each event you’ll earn bounty points, which eventually increase your Wanted Level as a racer or your Cop Rank as… well, a cop, up to level 20. Earning bounty points also unlocks a series of cars which are regularly thrown at you like confetti, until it gets to the point where you almost have more cars than you can keep track of. There are 78 racer events and 63 cop events, and you can get a gold medal/distinction if you exceed a certain performance milestone (usually finishing in a certain position or time).
If this all feels like we’re just going through the basics here, that’s because this is literally all there is to the game. You pick the next event, clear it then move onto the next one, unlocking a bunch of new cars along the way. There’s a free-roam mode too but it’s completely pointless because the roads are too linear and you’re just following the normal racing route for the most part, albeit without any actual purpose. This isn’t a Forza Horizon situation where you can go off-road (except in specific shortcuts) and roam wherever you like; you’ve got a set path and that’s that. Even the flimsy wooden fences at some roadsides might as well be made of diamond because when you drive into them it’s always you who ends up worse off.
It’s essentially just race after race, then. That’s a bad thing, isn’t it? Actually, no: we’re delighted with it. It’s crazy to think that just 10 years ago this passed for a perfectly acceptable level of depth for a triple-A release, but that nowadays if this was a new game rather than a remaster it would be getting criticised for a lack of variety or long-tail content. These days the idea of a game that just offers you a series of events is considered unambitious, when sometimes that sort of simplicity is what people crave.
At the risk of sounding like an old person, these days you have to put up with timed seasons, season passes (which are different things, obviously), customisation loot boxes, weekend XP boosts, pre-order DLC and 60-hour story modes where you have to explore every inch of a comically enormous world map in search of arbitrary collectables. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit does away with all that (or, rather, didn’t have it in the first place). You don’t even have to drive from event to event; you pick from a list and are instantly taken there. It’s bliss. Granted, the original did have some DLC packs, but they’re all in here too so even that hassle is gone.
Everything runs well enough, too. It renders at 1080p in docked and 720p in handheld, and runs at a solid 30 frames per second 99% of the time. We did notice some stuttering when things were at their most extreme – at night in the rain with a bunch of cops around, for example – but these were ‘perfect storm’ situations that were extremely rare and we only encountered them once or twice during our entire review period.
When you’re done with the single-player content – which we calculate would take around 25-30 hours to 100% – you’ve also got online multiplayer there, which is cross-platform to boot. We had a bunch of races against players on PC and other consoles, and everything ran perfectly smoothly without any issues. Well, one issue, but it’s not a performance one: most of the time you’ll get dropped into a race where players can choose any of the cars they’ve unlocked. As such, it doesn’t matter how good you are if you’ve only got the basic starter vehicles, because you’ll be eating dust. Our advice is to leave the online alone until you’ve unlocked all the good cars in Career mode, because there’s no real handicap system in place here.
That’s pretty much it, then. It’s safe to say that this is one of the more straightforward big-name racing games out there (mainly because it’s a decade old), certainly compared to something like Burnout Paradise Remastered, also by the same publisher and developer. Its simplicity won’t be to everyone’s tastes; some will be more used to current-gen expectations and would have preferred some more depth to the game than simply ‘do this race, then do this one, then do this one’. But for people who just want to turn their Switch on, get thrown into some fast-paced and exciting racing right away, then turn the thing off after a while and get on with their lives, this is one of the better options on the console.
Conclusion
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered teleports players back to more innocent times a decade ago, when simply taking on a series of races was considered enough to keep players entertained. Many would argue its simplicity is a strength, however, and the reality is that despite the lack of depth it's still a hugely entertaining time whether you're playing as a racer or a cop. If you struggle to stay afloat with all the faffing around in modern games, this old-school dose of straightforward racing goodness is your life jacket.
Comments 106
This game sounds perfect for a lot of us who have Switches but don't have the time to figure out everything open world. For some of us, linearity was was part of the beauty of older games.
This is a welcome addition to a console lacking in decent automotive sports games.
I find the races in Paradise a bit rubbish as the tracks aren't gated and it's too easy to get lost down a wrong corner and have to restart: not fun. Tearing around the map is good fun though.
This seems to be a long standing thing with Nintendo based on the incorrect assumption Mario Kart leaves a long shadow. The GameCube missed out on Burnout 3, the Wii had what, Excitetruck? And the WiiU was the WiiU.
All the while Sony and Microsoft had PGR and Forza and Wipeout and Gran Turismo and Motorstorm and Driveclub.
Here's hoping they do a remaster of the Most Wanted sequel to this. That was top.
I still have to get this...maybe next week. I can't remember because I'm old but this have a physical release?
Linear game play has its place. Better linear than a bunch of empty dead ends or meaningless "openness" with nothing to do.
I feel like for some people a linear game is like the kiss of death or something.
A simpler time? Hmpf.
Now the should keep with the trend of porting similarly simple racing games of yore and port Burnout Revenge 😤
I just finished my GameCube Save file for the final championship race in NFS Hot Pursuit 2 last night... after 18 years. Time for Hot Pursuit 3.
Wow... everyone was talking about this game but I didn't know what it was. Now I'm thinking: should I get MKHC or NFS for my new racing game?
I would love a new Linear Ridge Racer game, just bung every car and track possible and then sub title it, Ridge Racer Lineage insta hit for the 30 pluses. I will keep my eyes on a sale for Hot pursuit, nearly got it but I have spent too much this month with new games etc.
Great game really, ^^ however, far, very far from being very good like the classics (1994 - 2002 for me), yes, the classics lacked things (limitations in its time), but the option of quick races and modifiable races to the player's taste (choose your car and tracks without limitations, choose rivals, with or without civil traffic, with or without police and choose the game modes), customize the tracks / circuits (day, night, rain, in reverse, in mirror and all this mix); that and more, they gave more useful life to these games!!
Now it is simply to finish them and play only online ...
The reviews for this have been interesting as they have all highlighted a perceived simplicity. I quite like that though and purchased on that basis.
Only thing that annoyed me slightly is that when my copy turned up it's got one of those 'internet download required' warnings that wasn't pictured on Amazon or any of the promos I saw. Only 2gb so could be worse. Still annoying though.
@mike_intv
IMO Burnout Paradise ruined Burnout. Not everything has to be some open world non-sense.
This sounds much better imo. Or port Burnout 3 to it.
Nice, might get it when discounted.
I just wish we would get Split Second remaster. That game was so fun!
I wouldn't call 30fps in a racing game a plus, solid or not.
@N8tiveT3ch it does. You can get it on Amazon for instance.
This game is great fun. Easily my favourite racer until Mario Kart 8 came out in 2014.
Also of note ( and not mentioned in the review ): the soundtrack is horrendous. Good lord, I bought this on Xbox and thank god I did. Custom soundtracks saved the day here. Every song is bad grunge-rock. Like the DJ is only playing songs his friends made in Garage Band. It’s bad. If I didn’t have an option to change the music, i would’ve returned it. Seriously, as a joke/test, I put on the instrumental to Prodigy’s Fire Starter... well, I kept the game because of it.
Must buy... In fact i bought It🤣
This comment is wrong. We did hace hot pursuit 2 in gamecube right?
"As such, title aside, this is the first time the ‘proper’ Hot Pursuit has been playable on a Nintendo system."
This game is superb!! Absolutely love it.
Of all the trivia in this review, the most surprising to me was that there have been eight NFS games since Hot Pursuit 2010.
Wait a second. This game looks better than original, runs better, includes the dlc, is a cheaper price, has online and somehow got a worse review than pikman 3. Good work nintendolife. Slow clap.
I bought it and I'm loving it! I've been on a hunt for good racer like this and it's hitting the spot perfectly.
I keep seeing 2010 remake and swore I played it before then. Turns out I was thinking of 1998 NFS3: hot pursuit. May have to check this out since I’ve never played before.
Unfortunately, there is a mandatory download for the physical release (it's on the cover too, but most online sellers neglect to reflect this).
I wanted to grab this on day one, but upon feasting my eyes upon the cover, it was an immediate pass. Considering that the game would have required a 16GB cartridge at most (and the fact that storage costs should be a hell of a lot cheaper now than they were over 3 1/2 years ago), this is a shameful showing from EA.
@tourjeff amazon you say ....
Thanks for the info
How is the physical version? Do we get the full game on the cart?
@RadioHedgeFund my favorite street racing games on these consoles are: Burnout 2 on the GC, Need For Speed Nitro on the Wii and the best of all is Need for Speed Most Wanted U on the WiiU.
Simply taking on a series of races is certainly enough to keep this player entertained. Old skool linearity works for me!
Play this over the weekend, love it very much along with Burnout 3 Paradise. I hope these remastered opens up interest for more driving games on the Switch especially Namco and their Ridge Racer series. Now if only Sega means business again and give us a Daytona USA, Crazy Taxi, Scud Race, OutRun, and/or Sega Rally remaster I would jump for joy.
@mike_intv Well said. I ouldn’t agree more, Mike!
if it wasnt for the price the devloper and fact i already own it and paid about 5 bucks yearssssssssssssssssssssssssssss ago. i might jump on it. but its prettey okayish burnout paradise is the better of the two
I think I had this for my Wii and it was one of the first games I ever played in my life along with toy story 3 and Wii sports
"At the risk of sounding like an old person, these days you have to put up with timed seasons, season passes (which are different things, obviously), customisation loot boxes, weekend XP boosts, pre-order DLC and 60-hour story modes where you have to explore every inch of a comically enormous world map in search of arbitrary collectables"
This is so very very true! All games seem to do this these days yet I have absolutely zero interest in any of it. Spontaneosuly, this sounds like a game for me!
Now if it only had a split-screen mode! (Which is still the only practical way of actually getting any local multiplayer done... besides Download Play that is, which sadly isn't a thing anymore.
Great game got this on ps3 and now switch😊
Enjoyed this on the 360, might double dip if it goes on sale. It’s not really clear to me what improvements this port brings to the table. Do remember the soundtrack being pretty awful as well and it probably hasn’t aged well over these last 10 years either
@tourjeff YES! That and Blur:)
@yusuf2002 I'm with you. If Ridge Racer 7 on PS3 and Ridge Racer 2 on PSP could run at 60fps then I don't see why a game like this can't do 60 on Switch.
Definitely worth it if u like racing games and have not played it yet.
@FargusPelagius And the 40 pluses! I remember when RR first released for Playstation back in the day. LOVED that game.
I hated Burnout Paradise and its open world nonsense. This is the game for me... BUT why just 30fps? Paradise manages 60, Need for Speed should too.
'more innocent times a decade ago, when simply taking on a series of races was considered enough to keep players entertained'
That never stopped Mario Kart 8 Deluxe from offering the same basic single player modes.
@Paulo : No. See my comment above.
Ordered myself a copy from Amazon Italy for twenty euros. https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B08KR47VF7
The 30fps is a real killer here, and EA knows it, at least they talked about how important 60fps was for Burnout Paradise, so I can't imagine it isn't anymore.
I wish we could get the WiiUs Most Wanted to come over, I think it is better than these, though I'll probably pick up Hot Pursuit once it drops low enough in price (which it will...you just have to wait, and after waiting 10 years for the game, what's 10 more months?)
I am having the best time with this since launch.
Looks freaking amazing as well.
This reads like an 8/10 to me. It sounds like a good standard port. Solid, no frills arcade racer
As for me, it has been great. Been easy to get into and you have a desire to go back to it regularly.
@LEGEND_MARIOID I agree that the rating should be higher. It does what it set out to do perfectly.
I deeply loved games like Underground, with the open world cop showdowns, BUT EA is notorious for not giving nintendo players what they want, and then using it as an excuse to avoid nintendo for years on end.
So, I'll buy Hot Pursuit in hopes that EA sees a Need For Speed market here.
@Realness Heh I can relate on the terrible sound track, I don't have hot pursuit, but I did buy heat when it was on sale a few weeks before this released. That soundtrack is pure trash, normally I can tolerate the tracks in most games, but in heat it's hard to even navigate the stations for some reason you'll wind up listening to the same 3 songs and most of them sound like electronica and dubstep. I know it's a pipedream to expect similar now, but vice city still has one of the best selections of music in it
NO @Paulo the game is not all on one cart. It comes on a 8GB cart and requires a 2GB download.
@yusuf2002 30fps can still be a plus when it's a solid 30. I'd rather have that than a game that aims for 60 but can't manage it and ends up stuttering around in the mid-40s.
The original was 30 and it was perfectly fine. This isn't a downgrade, it just isn't an upgrade (at least in terms of framerate).
Great review! Will definitely pick this up
"Might be too linear for some players looking for more depth"
open world does NOT equal depth. This is silly.
Mate, if people can recite the titles of the 200+ doctor who stories in order, I think it’s plausible for people to list off all the nfs titles.
Not me, but someone.
This game I really enjoyed playing a lot back in the day on PS3. The only thing I really hated about it was the lack of split screen. A racing game without split screen.. come on. For single player fun or online play it was a great game and I loved the drifting mechanics in this game!
Will pick this game up someday when it gets a 75% discount
I'm surprised this game seems to be getting universally good reviews. I thought the initial sentiment was that the 2010 Hot Pursuit wasn't good and they wished they were remastered the original series.
I have several Need For Speed games on PS4 and they're all 30fps. It's not a deal breaker.
@cleveland124 This one was well received at the time I recall
@Mr_Humpf oh that's cheap! Just got a copy myself!
STOP romanticizing open world!!!
I'd give it a 9, best non-Mario Kart Racer on the Switch imo.
This game was a disappointment for me back in the day, but then again it's a NFS game on the Switch and I can use all the real racing games I can get. As a portable game it's a lot more appealing.
The one thing I learned from reading this review is that companies really need to push the fact that their games are cross-platform more heavily. Had I not read your review I wouldn't know that and this game would be a never gonna get it... Now it's on my watchlist with a borderline hard buy at full price.
@tourjeff Yeah, even using a regular visa card (not fee free) it worked out at a whisker over £20 including delivery. I ordered mine earlier in the week and apparently it should be out for delivery tomorrow.
@Silly_G Apparently, the 2GB mandatory download is only the online multiplayer portion of the game, and the game can be launched and played without the download. Someone asked the question a few days ago on Reddit.
Basically, it's supposedly a Doom 2016 Switch scenario. I'm okay with that.
@ObsidianEleven : That still isn't excusable, and especially more so because the download is relatively small. Almost every other game has the multiplayer portion of the game on cartridge.
I only made an excuse for DOOM 2016 back in the day because it was freaking DOOM, and while I loved the game, I won't buy DOOM Eternal on Switch unless the game is on cartridge, though I'm content with waiting for the price of the PC version to drop as DOOM 2016 wasn't ideal for handheld play anyway (mainly due to the relatively long load times).
The game may still be playable without the download, but my console is set to download updates automatically, and I imagine that only very, very few would have it turned off.
And if there are any bug fixes in future patches, then you would still have to download the bulk of it anyway (and speaking of DOOM 2016, they introduced bug fixes, gyro aiming and the like in later updates).
@Mr_Humpf Never ordered from Amazon Italy but guess for €20 I'll give it a chance. Costs me 3.50 on shipping to Belgium but that's still a good deal at this price, even if they say it should take 2 weeks to arrive (though I doubt it)
30fps racing games are an instant 0/10
I will get this when its on sale. Looks good.
Absolutely phenomenal game
This is an awesome game. I'm glad to see the DLC is included
NFS 3 is still my favourite! Tho could be nostalgia from watching my brother play it when it first came out lol
This is easily my favorite racing game on the switch.I’ll take this over any kart racer any day.
@durr It actually looks surprisingly good with the motion blur on. I tried turning it off and the game looked terrible with it off, like the blur really enhances and smooths out the experience.
@N8tiveT3ch yes it does
It’s not a good as Burnout Paradise, and I think paradise is a terrible game (whereas I loved Burnout 1and 2)
Not bad, but man are there a lot of these games and I think I would have liked to see a remake of the original nfs 3 more. So much nostalgia around that game.
@Mr_Humpf normally I keep an eye on Amazon websites to check if they have any games with discounts but, this time, I forgot Amazon IT.
Last deal I found was a 26€ burnout on Amazon DE right after the release.
@Heavyarms55 Agreed.
As I have repeated on other occasions, I really would like them to do a remaster or remake of the classic NFS (1994-2002); and the reasons, which I have already said on occasions, here I mention them again and emphasize:
My memories of Hot Pursuit are of my older brother hogging the family PC to play it. This and similar games may be why I don't like racing games as an adult
Will happily grab this when its $20.
@RudyC3 I ordered from the UK at the begining of the week and it arrived today - so hopefully it won't take long!
@N8tiveT3ch Yes, they have a physical release,
I'll stick with burnout. Still bumbed out by the cars feeling too heavy on need for speed Wii U.
I agree with this, I'm all for a more-linear racing game where I pick races and race them rather than having to consult a map, ask for directions, and hope I find where to start a race, and then get lost along the way because the game in no way tells me where to go during the race ::cough::Burnout Paradise::cough::
@Mr_Humpf Mine shipped only today, two days after I ordered it. They're mailing me the package with Royal Mail, to Belgium, which makes no sense if it is indeed coming from Italy. Since when does the British mail carry stuff from Italy to Belgium? I suspect they may ship those from one of their UK warehouses but it just takes them a couple days to arrange the paperwork between local branches for it to happen.
@doctorhino Or maybe they could have included it as a bonus in this remastered game as a extra incentive. Back in the PS1 era NSF 3 was like crack to me
@Realness Yeah I agree that the soundtrack is complete garbage however music taste is always personal preference. I'm a very passionate fan of rock n' roll and metal so obviously it makes this soundtrack suck even more.
I really wish developers would go back to making their own original music in whatever genre they want as long as it fits. Everything is money so I'm guessing its easier and cheaper to just acquire licensed music as opposed to paying a composer and studio musicians to actually put hours into. I don't know its just a guess but personally games (especially racing games) have more of a lasting impact to me when they have their own original tunes to set the mood for whatever is happening onscreen.
@RustedHero I remember it being one of the first games that I played on my friends relatively good pc and then in ps1 and realized how much better 3D was on pc at the time. Ended up getting a gaming pc a few years later instead of a ps2.
The lack of split screen is breathtaking. This would be so fun to play on the same screen. As long as EA do not include this feature in any of their racers I'll be sticking with their competitors.
@Pirate1 I obviously am doing the same thing about remembering the wrong game.
@Alpha008 I just tried, I did a single mistake in the order, therefore it's completely possible 😅
@Paulo With the physical cart, you'll just have to download 2gos for online mode
Are there gyro controls for steering? Otherwise no buy for me, I have NFS Hot Pursuit already on PC. Could you mention about gyro controls in your reviews, especially with car games and FPS games?
This is on sale on Black Friday at Argos for £21
@Babybrad so the download is just for multiplayer and not mandatory?
@Paulo I'm fairly sure it is
If anyones still playing this, UK, SW-0362-6818-9209
@Mr_Horizon because….
It’s EA.
But it isn’t really too much to worry about though. The Xbox One S and base PS4 versions also run at 30 FPS and runs at the same resolution as the Switch when docked.
So we aren’t exactly left out
@RadioHedgeFund so is this game worth buying?
@anoyonmus I bet you can find it for a decent price so yeah give it a go!
@RadioHedgeFund ok then
Burnout Paradise's attempt to go "open world" made the game a chore to play. With no way to retry a race without driving all the way back to the starting point, it was very difficult to master more difficult routes. Hot Pursuit remains one of the best racing games ever made and is on sale on the Switch eshop for 10 bucks right now.
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