Another week and yet another Wii title from EA. This time EA return to Need for Speed with their newest version, ProStreet.
Need for Speed has moved away from the Underground storyline and open street racing and has started afresh, this time you are a newbie to the area and you want to prove yourself to be the best racer on the circuit. However that means taking out some serious competition along the way in the form of the current Street Kings.
Each Race day is split into a few races and it’s up to you and your great driving skills to help you get the highest amount of points as possible from each race, enabling you to be crowned king and then move onto the next race day. Some races allow you to drive the competitions cars, this helps early on in the game as you can wreak these cars and not get charged for the repairs. Later on in the game, as you unlock more cars by winning races and dominating the race days, every bump and crash will cost you as your ride is repaired in the garage, eating away at your precious winnings.
There are 4 types of races to play through, Grip, which is the basic race, time attack, or the new sector shutout where the lap is split into areas and you need to go as fast as possible to own each sector. Drift requires you to earn points by powersliding around as many corners as possible, Speed Challenge’s aim is to keep the car at top speed for as long as possible and finally Drag Racing, which is over a 1/4 or 1/2 mile drag strip.
Controls for the cars are very simple, hold the Wii-mote horizontally and tilt to steer, 2 to accelerate, 1 to brake and A for handbrake. The controls seem a little weird on the default camera setting, when you steer it feels like there is not enough movement on the steering to get you round a corner, and then you will oversteer, however I have noticed that with the in car view (how all racing games should be played), the controls seem tighter, and you also get a better sense of speed. On the Drag racing you hold the remote in you hand, twist the Wii-mote clockwise or anti-clockwise to steer, B to accelerate and flick the Wii-mote to change gears in time to keep the best speed.
As with all Need for Speed games, the level of customization is amazing, you can change the angle of wings to decrease drag, change colour, add new parts, you name it, you can change it.
Graphically the game is impressive, the tracks and cars look great, the colours seem a little washed out compared to other games. EA have also put in the usual training wheels to help you get by, depending on what setting you choose you will have assisted steering, braking, race lines shown on the course or nothing at all.
Need for Speed: Prostreet does offer a different experience from other games in the series, unfortunately though it just isnt as much fun as they are.
