Need for Speed Most Wanted (Mobile)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.6 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 01/20/2006
• Updated on: 01/23/2006
• Released on: 12/21/2005
• Originally published on GameSpot: Need for Speed Most Wanted (Mobile) Review

As Verizon's V Cast service continues to pick up steam, we're seeing games that don't look like your average mobile game. We're starting to see games that, superficially anyway, look more "real," with behind-the-back 3D perspectives, better graphics and sound, fully polygonal action, that sort of thing. But as mobile games move from 2D to 3D, we're also experiencing some of the same problems that happened when console games made a similar leap back in the '90s. Need for Speed Most Wanted is a perfect example. At a glance, it's hard to believe that you're getting polygonal graphics and multiple channels of sound. But up close, the graphics get in the way of the action more than they help, and the result is a technically impressive but otherwise uninteresting driving game.

Most Wanted is loosely based on the PC and console game of the same name. It's a driving game in which you're always trying to get away from the cops. But you're also trying to work your way up through the ranks of the blacklist, which keeps track of all the illegal street racers in town. You'll work your way up by completing races to earn cash and challenging the members of the blacklist in head-to-head events. Other race types include outrun, where you race against a clock and are penalized for crashing into police cars, or for letting them crash into you (which seems a little unfair). Speed camera puts photo-ticket checkpoints along the course, and you need to cross those points traveling as fast as possible in order to end the race with a good average speed. The different race types seem to offer a decent amount of variety, but the gameplay remains the same across all the races.

This is because the gameplay is singular and rather plain. Though you can choose to accelerate yourself, it just adds more controls than you'd probably want from a mobile game. However, the alternative--auto-acceleration--sort of makes you feel like you're not even playing. All you do is make occasional course corrections to dodge traffic and make turns. Dodging traffic is made more difficult by the incredibly short draw distance and choppy frame rate, which results in you spending just as much time staring at the tiny onscreen radar as you do staring at the actual action. For sharp turns, you have an E-brake, and if you need a speed boost (and if you've purchased the proper upgrade), you've got nitrous. The cops are almost always on your tail, and if you stop or slow down, they'll catch up and get the chance to bust you, ending the race. This makes crashing into things very detrimental to your success. Few things are as annoying as crashing into something, and then trying to get yourself turned in the proper direction and back on the road again, only to have the five-second bust timer expire and end your race.

While no one is expecting supremely realistic car and crash physics from a mobile game just yet, the crashes in Need for Speed Most Wanted look awful. Rear-ending a car seems to send the game into slow motion, and oftentimes both cars take to the air for a second or two. It's also disorienting, which doesn't help with the aforementioned bust timer. Considering the short draw distance and blurry visuals, you'll be crashing a lot more than you'd like. That said, the game still looks impressive for one that's running on an LG VX8100.

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