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A nice attempt at doing something fresh with NFS on the Wii, but it needs a little more work before being called great.

Need for Speed: Nitro marks the first game in EA's long running racing franchise that's been developed specifically for the Nintendo Wii this time out, and it really goes to show what developers can do with the system when they're not hampered by having to do downgraded ports from HD titles. That's not to say that Nitro doesn't have a few issues, but all together it's a far better effort than previous NFS titles, and I hope that we see this trend continue for the series in the future.

Right off the bat you'll notice that the design of the game seems to be in line with the approach EA has taken this year with other titles for the Wii, including Madden 10, Grand Slam Tennis, and so on. There's this hyper-stylized approach to the in-game characters, cars, tracks and so on to give them a cartoon look that doesn't tax the hardware and actually looks good on both a SD and HD output, which is great for owners of either spectrum. Not only that, but the framerate in the single player game remains smooth throughout, and certainly benefits from the simpler style of design that the game employs. Along with that, the colors for everything in the game are super bright and vibrant, and the cool painting the wall effect that comes from leading a race adds another level of wow to the design used here.

As the game begins it gives you a short tutorial video that displays the Wii remote control set-up, but in reality you can opt for a number of control variations. These include the Wii remote as a standalone, a Wii Wheel set-up, Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the Classic Controller, and a Gamecube controller. Needless to say you should find something there that'll work for you, and I personally opted with a Remote/Nunchuk set-up and the Classic Controller, both of which worked quite well. The remote only set-up is a bit goofy, with the turbo being tied into shaking the controller, which in turn can cause your steering to get a little wild, so I'd venture to say it's the worst of the options given.

Once you get that out of the way, it's time to jump into Career Mode, carried out over a series of real-world locations (with fictional track settings). There's typically a number of race types within each track to try out, including Circuit, Elimination, Speed Traps and so on, much of which will be recognizable to anyone that's played a Need For Speed game in the past five or six years. There's even a Drift Race (drifting plays a pretty big part in the game), and a Drag Race option. All of these have star ranks to achieve, the first three of which are typically tied into whatever place you manage to get in the race, while the others are time based (best lap), and style point based.

For style points, you'll basically earn these whenever you manage to pull of something cool within a race. Most of the time this is related to the drifting mechanic, and with this being an Arcade style racer, you'll find that you can pull of a sizeable drift just about anywhere on the track, provided you have a bit of Nitro to use and you're able to get the quick break / hit the gas mechanic down well enough. By default there's a steering control option on, which pretty much guarantees you can't screw this up. It'll automatically re-center your back end for you after every drift attempt, which actually looks a little goofy since it snaps back so fast, but you can turn off the steering help and still perform the move well enough with just a little practice. Basically, drifting is extremely fun in the game, and cool to pull off, just like an arcade racer should be.

That's what Nitro really excels at too, being a great, and new, arcade racer for the Wii. I'm a huge fan of arcade racing titles, and I'm happy to have the chance to check out Nitro, and I hope to see more of the Wii specific NFS titles turn out like this. Even without the cartoon art style, the racing here is a lot of fun, and in the long run that's exactly what I need out of any racing title. The amount of control options given guarantee you'll find a set-up that you enjoy, and I'm glad to see that the game doesn't force me to use the default Wii remote or Wii Wheel option (which I'm not a big fan of for racers).

On the flip side, Nitro is also a bit too easy for me, and while I realize it's a junior effort for EA Montreal, I'd like to get a little more challenge out of the next version. Even earning all the stars for individual races doesn't take a lot of time or patience, and with no online mode to test my skills against other players; I'm left without much to do once I hit the end of the game. There are a number of unlockable cars and paint options for customization, but that doesn't tend to hold me over for long. There is a local multiplayer option with the arcade mode, but the split-screen action also makes a noticeable difference to the framerate, which is disappointing to see.

So while I think Nitro excels at doing its own thing on the Wii and it's certainly the right direction to take the series on this platform, a little more thought and planning needs to go into making the game something I'll want to continue playing a week after I picked it up. There's not enough content here to keep me satisfied, and the difficulty is far too light for my current tastes. It might hold over the younger gamers out there, but for those of us in our 20's and so on, you'll quickly realize that Nitro is a little too light on content to keep you entertained for long. I certainly hope to see EA try this again though, and I think there's potential here to make a great arcade racer out of this series for the Wii.