The origins are always curious, but there are some that take the cake. Created after collaborating with a magazine to offer the first game designed for motor lovers, the Need for Speed saga is undoubtedly one of them.
Despite being in one of the least inspired moments of his career, the franchise need for speed It has already been seen on more than one occasion in a situation like this. The comings and goings of the saga have already started with a resounding stumble, but he has always found a way to turn the situation around.
The birth of Need for Speed
With the early 90s marked by games like Road Rash, Super Mario Kart or Ridge Racer, it could be said that casual and arcade driving games dominated the catalogue. In EA Canadahowever, had a very different racing game in mind.
They wanted to create a game focused on vehicle fans. Races that feel as real as possible as you weaved through traffic and tried to outrun the police for speeding.
With a past as Distinctive Software that included games like Out Run and Test Drive, taking the next step towards realism seemed like the obvious goal.
There were still years to go before mammoth projects from the motor world such as Gran Turismo arrived, so to sell the brand and the idea, in EA Canada they needed a shoulder to lean on. Road&Tracka car magazine created in 1947 and still alive today, would be his co-driver.
Not only did they win a tagline in the name capable of attracting the attention of an audience outside the world of videogames, the magazine team would also collaborate to offer images, videos, detailed data on each vehicle and, most importantly, a complete test of the game in different sessions aimed at creating the most realistic physics possible.
Road & track presents The Need for Speed
The move did not work badly for Electronic Arts, reaping great critical success, praising the realism not only visually and soundly, but also in the gameplay. The sensations that it offered Road & track presents The Need for Speed they couldn’t match any other game seen to date.
What did not work so well was the reception of the public. Not because it didn’t attract attention, of course, but because it fell exclusively on one 3DO praised for its graphic power and punished for its price. If that had the potential to work, alternatives had to be found.
A special edition of the game would arrive just two years later on PC, Saturn and PlayStation, this time reaping the attention and figures that seemed to correspond to the project.
But back then need for speed was not yet a name carved in stone, so on his arrival in Japan he even flirted with calling the game Road & Track presents OverDrivin and later it came to Japanese consoles emphasizing the same tagline.
Three years after the release of the first installment, without the support of Road&Track and with an eye on the most successful machine of the moment, Between EA Canada and Seattle they launched Need for Speed 2. That little genius had become a saga.
In search of an identity of its own
How would you define a need for speed? If you look back and have a hard time explaining what characterizes it and what makes it different from other driving games, chances are you won’t find it easy.
A racing game focused on speed, often with illegal races and with the police on your heels.
That last could well be, along with realism, one of the most significant points of the first need for speedbut none of them moved to a Need for Speed 2 more arcade and less serious. With the third the cops came back but realism was completely abandoned, in Underground they started a series of titles focused on tuning instead of the beauty of classic cars, the police returned once again, they jumped to the realism of racing with Shift, they brought back street competitions, they toyed with something more cinematic both in the video game like in movie theaters…
Almost 30 years who have given a legacy of 24 video games By not only EA Canada, but also EA Black Box, Criterion, Slightly Mad Studios, Ghost Games, and a handful of other studios that have brought the franchise from 3DO to 3DS.
For better and for worse, and unfortunately the second beats the first by a landslide for much of the life of the franchise, I couldn’t explain what a need for speedbut it’s easy to walk up to the first trailer for the next game and say: yes, it’s a need for speed. He may have completely changed his mind once again, but you know it when you see it.