Re: "8 Classic Games You Haven't Played (but should)"

On Tue, 11 Feb 2025 08:51:07 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:

On 2/11/2025 7:51 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Tue, 11 Feb 2025 12:42:06 -0000 (UTC), address@is.invalid (LucLan)
wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

"8 Classic Games You Haven't Played (but should)"
https://www.xda-developers.com/classic-games-havent-played-but-should/

I would like to add "The Need for Speed" to the list.
Still enjoying this game.

If I had to rank the NFS games by enjoyment (not necessarily quality),
it would probably go like this:
     Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit (1998)
     Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2005)
     Need For Speed 1 (1994)
     Need For Speed 5: Porsche Unleashed (2000)
     Need For Speed: Underground 1 (2003)
     Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (2013)
     Need For Speed: Underground 2 (2004)
     Need For Speed 4: High Stakes (1999)
     Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2012)
     Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2016)

I played a couple NFS games within the last decade, maybe I came too
late to it, but I just felt they were barely passable.  Of course one
was a mobile game.  Here's what I wrote about it, I assume this is the
one on the bottom of your list (of course it is) and apperantly your
best isn't available for purchase (of course it isn't.)

As much as I loved "Need For Speed 3", I wouldn't argue too strongly
that it was the BEST of the series. For its time, it was a very good
arcade-racer* and I played it a lot... but I don't think its aged very
well. It remains at the top of my list because of my nostalgic
memories of playing it --both offline and with other players over a
very slow dial-up connection--  but not because I think it's the best
game.

If I had to rank the games by quality I'd probably put the 2005 "Most
Wanted" game at top**. It too has aged, but I think it found a very
good balance of quality visuals, racing mechanics, story***, map
design and advancement mechanics (how frequently you get new cars and
upgrades). It wasn't perfect, but it found a better balance between
all these factors than most of the other games in the franchise, and
still remains quite playable today.

By that ranking, "Need for Speed 3" would probably sit five or seven
steps down the list (and the original "Need For Speed" would be higher
on the list too, just because at the time it really was head-and-
shoulders above anything else)

But really, the "Need For Speed" series was always a mediocre
collection of games. Not in any way terrible, but not top-of-the-line
either. I had a lot of fun with the games, make no mistake, but they
were like McDonalds food. Tasty, often satisfying, but you knew there
were better options out there.

Unfortunately, the vast bulk of the older "Need For Speed" games have
become abandonware. In part, this is probably because the licenses
--for the music and for the cars themselves-- have all expired, and EA
doesn't feel it worth the time and effort to renegotiate them in order
to satisfy a few nerds who remember playing these games 20 years ago.
But it's probably also to keep those older games from competing
against the newer ones, which are generally recognized as being
inferior in everything but their visuals. But good luck finding any
way of (legally) acquiring of their games from before 2020 or so.








  =============    
* of the style I often refer to as a 'pinball racer', because bouncing
off the invisible walls --or other cars-- is a perfectly valid way of
getting to first place ;-)

** note I'm referring to the 2005 version. EA started reusing titles
for its games and there is a completely different game --not a remake,
just a totally different racer-- released in 2012 that shares the same
name. It's not a bad game but it's not the one I think is anywhere
near the best. (EA did something similar with the "Hot Pursuit" game,
and in 2016 released a game sans any numbering or subtitle, just
called "Need For Speed", just to make things even more confusing).

*** honestly, story in these racers is generally an unwanted thing but
if you're going to put one there, at least make it not too annoying.
Most Wanted's storyline was still pretty bad, but it was the least
annoying of them all, IMHO