PlayStation

The Need for Speed

It's hard to top the feeling of redlining a Ferrari or a Lamborghini and Need for Speed's as close as most gamers will get! If you're a serious racing fan this game's worth every cent.

Simply put, The Need For Speed is hands down the best racing game on the PlayStation to date. One of the most outstanding games ever made for the fast fading 3DO has hit the PSX in a big way, and Electronic Arts has done everything in it's power to improve on the original (which came out way back in November of 1994). With the extra options, codes, and play mechanics, The Need For Speed has turned from a die hard racing simulator fan's dream for the 3DO into what could be the top rung of the ladder for console racing games in it's PSX incarnation.

Now this baby can move. The racing perspective really flies and it's controls are excellent. Enhanced details are shown in both cars and tracks, but it wouldn't have hurt to add some newer model cars and more courses. As a PS platform, this is a solid game with fast-paced racing action at your fingertips.

Need for Speed delivers a high-speed thrill ride that's sure to get the testosterone boiling and is well worth checking out.

As a whole package, Need for Speed is a great racing title! While it doesn't have all the whistles and bells of more modern racers, it still offers long courses, some great jumps, and hour upon hour of wrecks and collisions!

Not perfect, but immensely enjoyable. It scores eight because the fun factor and sheer weight of the content will keep you at the wheel for a long time.

The graphics are gorgeous, with hardly any draw-in at all. However, you never really get that feeling of speed, like in Ridge Racer, and there're no power slides either. The Need For Speed isn't the best racer out there, but offers a nice change from the norm.

One area where Need For Speed suffers is its stiff control, and it doesn't help that the analog stick is not supported. The frame-rate is fair, but in terms of sheer velocity, the game falls short of its title. Also, the boxy cars and seams in the scenery never let you forget you're playing a 1996 game. The audio consists of generic beats and guitar jams - nothing to get excited about, but still preferable to the "extreme" soundtracks of more recent games. In the end, Need For Speed isn't the showpiece it once was, but it's still worth pulling off the shelf every now and then.