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App Review - Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Jason Tsay
So you read our Need for Speed Hot Pursuit review for the PS3 and are wondering where the review of the iPhone version is. Well, we’ve got our bases covered, so if you’re interested in taking Hot Pursuit on the go with you then you might want to give this a ride.
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
App type: Game
Price: $4.99
Compatible: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad - iOS 3.0 or later
Developer: Electronic Arts Inc.
To start of this review, let’s take a look at the timeline for Need for Speed on the iOS platform. In May 2009, EA introduced the long awaited Need for Speed Undercover for the iPhone/iPod Touch. That game blew away just about every other racing game in the App Store at the time. Then later that same year, the company’s realistic driving sim, Need for Speed Shift, put iPhone and iPad gamers in the driver’s seat, once again creating a unique experience. Fast forward to now and we’ve got Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, characterized by features from both games while dropping some along the way.
The first thing to understand about Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is that gameplay is based off of something called “bounty.” You gain bounty by doing anything from drifting to taking out cops. As you gain more bounty, you level up and gain access to new cars and events. There are 4 event maps for each mode of the game, each map containing 6 events. Events for racers include: Speed Trap, Hot Pursuit, Eliminator, and Road Race, while cop events are comprised of Power Struggle, Tough Justice, Interceptor, and Rapid Response. You play in a variety of weather conditions and areas in both. As you complete a certain number of items in an event, you get stars, much like Need for Speed Shift. The more stars you accumulate, the more bounty you receive. You’ll find yourself going back and playing many events from previous locations to gain more bounty and level up (consequently unlocking new events and cars). There is also a variety of achievements you can receive in the game although they don’t really have much function at all.
Like most Need for Speed games, the licensed car selection is very nice indeed! You can start of the game in either a Nissan 370Z cop car or a Mazda RX-8 racer and be at the top of the food chain with either a Lamborghini Reventón (cop) or Pagani Zonda Cinque (racer). The disappointment in the car department however is the lack of customization. While always being one of the strong points in NFS games, this feature’s absence would have been understandable prior to the racer update but just feels strange after the revision. That said, the color customization options for the racer vehicles are among the best of any iPhone racing game allowing you to change the hue using three separate sliders. What’s been added for vehicles are powerups/weapons, totally making up for the lost feature. Highlight weapons are spikestrips and EMP’s for cops while racers get “overdrive” (an extended speed boost to break through road blocks) and a “jammer” (for disabling police use of weapons). Recharging nitrous comes standard.
If you read our review of NFSHP on the PS3, you would’ve heard of something called Autolog. While this revolutionary online racing system does not make an appearance in the game, there is a local multiplayer mode using either Bluetooth or WiFi. Knowing EA, they would never do this but it would’ve been nice to have Game Center integration with online leaderboards and achievements.
In the App Store, you are given the option to purchase bounty, which we think is straight up lame. Paying $2.99 for something you’re supposed to get as you play the game is not something we’d encourage. After all, the whole point of a game is to play it. But then again, in app purchases are now commonplace among even the best of apps. A more constructive way to make money would have been to sell exclusive cars and even customization kits which are nowhere to be found in the standalone game.
Overall
Before the recent update, we probably wouldn’t have recommended the game much at all. We played through the cop mode way too quickly for our tastes. With the addition of racer mode, you’re essentially getting two games in one 367 MB package. (The two modes of the game are totally separate and you can play one without affecting the other.) Need for Speed Hot Pursuit quite literally combines the best parts of the previous two iOS NFS games and is a recommendation in our book! iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch versions are sold separately.
Download Need for Speed Hot Pursuit on iTunes Now
iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad - iOS 3.0 or later
