Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Wii
Metascore
50 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 8
  3. Negative: 4 out of 8
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  1. Nintendo Life
    Jan 16, 2011
    30
    Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit on Wii is a very poor excuse for a racer that feels like a slap in the face compared to its PS3/Xbox 360 cousin.
  2. NintendoWorldReport
    Jan 13, 2011
    50
    Hot Pursuit on Wii doesn't even pretend to try to live up to the standards set by its HD siblings. Avoid this one at all costs. Go play Mario Kart or Excitebots instead.
  3. GamingXP
    Jan 3, 2011
    76
    Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a really good racing-game on the Nintendo Wii. It convinces with the typical NfS-feeling, a 4-player-splitscreen-mode, and a lot of different cars.
  4. SpazioGames
    Jan 3, 2011
    40
    Far away different from the HD versions. No variety and bad graphics are the main flaws of this title. Recommended only if you're a huge fan of the Need for Speed franchise.
  5. Cheat Code Central
    Dec 19, 2010
    44
    This game feels like an afterthought to the next-gen versions.
  6. Multiplayer.it
    Dec 12, 2010
    72
    While sharing the title with the new episode available for HD consoles, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit for the Wii looks like a completely different game: simpler in many ways, but packed with a good number of events and game modes.
  7. Official Nintendo Magazine UK
    Mar 6, 2011
    58
    Lacks any real impact. [Jan 2011, p.80]
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  8. Nintendo Gamer
    Feb 6, 2011
    39
    Poor AI, limps physics, forgettable track layouts and a general absence of excitement. [Christmas 2010, p.59]
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User Reviews

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User Score
3.9 out of 10

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 5 out of 6
  1. raimar
    2
    i hate the need for speed nitro style on wii, they should bring to us a new
    need for speed with the old need for speed carbon style (the best     need for speed for wii (from 2006...)).… Full Review »
  2. Coldsalmon
    0
    This is not the game that has been advertised. Trailers show the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, which are literally different games. The graphics on the Wii version are a joke. It does not even have the same tracks. I am not saying that the game is heavily modified from what you see in the trailers. I am saying that despite the same box art and the same name, you are buying an entirely different game.

    I commute for 1.5 - 2 hours a day, so I don't have any desire to drive for the sake of driving. I got this game expecting the thrill of driving supercars on the open road. Instead, I found myself literally navigating a traffic jam in a Subaru. Let me list the reasons that my daily commute in New Jersey is better than this game.

    1 -- Scenery. Even aside from the wretched graphics, the scenery itself is horrendous. On my daily commute, I can see trees and appreciate the changing fall foliage, or a light dusting of snow in winter. The worst part of my commute is when I take the Pulaski Skyway and have **** cut me off while I stare at a dreary urban wasteland of gray concrete and steel. This perfectly describes the entire game in NFS: Hot Pursuit for the Wii. The game is not set in the "open world" of "Seacrest County" as the website clearly states here: http://hotpursuit.needforspeed.com/game-info This is a lie -- EA is lying when they say this. This game is set in various cities (Dubai, Las Vegas, etc.) which all look identically awful. After playing Hot Pursuit for an hour, you will find yourself wondering whether humanity has gone down the wrong path.

    2 -- Cars. I like my 1997 Ford Taurus. It is a fine car for the job of commuting to and from work. The cars that I played in Hot Pursuit handle like refrigerators with elephants nailed to them, being pelted with other elephants. I say that after only playing two cars, because after an hour and forty minutes of playing the game, that was all I had. At the start of the game, you buy one car and then must earn money to get others. This would not be so bad if you had a decent car -- but you have to choose from a Mazda RX-8, a Camaro, a Challenger, and a Charger. I do not want to drive any of these cars. I can see them on my daily commute, but I would rather have my car, because owning a Camaro just says "I can't afford a Lamborghini," and that's exactly what it's like to play Hot Pursuit. It reminds me that life is just one big disappointment. You could say that I'm not being fair because I didn't play the whole game and unlock all the cars. But in order to get to the Pagani Zonda, I would have to slog through traffic jams for hours and hours and hours in a **** car, just because some executive say I have to. If I'm going to do that, I might as well just drive to work, earn money, and buy a real car. I got this game in order to enjoy driving supercars. I'm not saying that they should give you every car right off the bat -- I can appreciate unlockables. But they should at least give you one supercar to try out in the beginning, then let you unlock the rest. If I wanted to drive a Camaro, I could go out and buy one because they are not really that expensive. But I do not want to drive a Camaro -- I want to drive a Bugatti Veyron, and the only way I will be able to do that is in the fantasy land of video games. I have already paid for the game -- I do not want to have to do the equivalent of $2,000 worth of work (at my hourly rate) to start to have fun. At least on my commute I am not tantalized by supercars that I can't drive. I see a lot of Camaros, but I don't want them, so it's okay with me.

    3 -- Traffic. After heroically battling the traffic on my way home from work, I was delighted to find NFS: Hot Pursuit in my mailbox. Finally, a fun driving experience. After I popped it in, I was horrified to see that there is a game mode called "Rush Hour." In it, you must battle your way through a mess of 100 cars in order to get to first place. And, just like a real traffic jam, it's impossible to get around it. You have to play through every mode, on every track, to progress through the game. When I am sitting in a real traffic jam, I can at least try to relax and remind myself that it's not such a big deal if I'm a few minutes later than I had planned. I can listen to some pleasant music. In Hot Pursuit, by contrast, I must constantly try to drive like enough of an **** to push everyone out of my way and get to the front of the pack. What are we teaching our children? And the music is god-awful. At least there is an option to turn it off. Come to think of it, that is also an option for the game in general. Even in the regular racing mode, there is street traffic. If I lose a race, I want it to be because I did not race well -- not because I happened to get stuck behind a city bus, as I did during my commute only minutes before I started to play this game.

    Well, I'm out of characters, so check out my review on Amazon for the rest.    … Full Review »
  3. earthwormjimx3
    4
    While the people in Germany still accepts video games with any kind of graphics, the rest of the world have a high demand of those. Although i accept the graphical detail is quite considerable, especially in the buildings, they come short due to the short and bad track design, as well as a bad implementation of distance viewing, since you can't see incoming objects from away, leading to expect multiple crashes between objects, and the use of memorization more than skill, since the controls are also very bad. The Wii Wheel mode is irresponsive, and drifting is very hard to control. Even steering is hard, since, for example, turning left leads to push the car a little to the right before finally turning. ¿Have the cars been programmed basing on badly damaged real-life ones?

    The AI, is one of the worst implemented in a video game of this genre. You can easily overcome them, and their behavior is almos like the same as the non-competing ones, leading to an unavoidable abscence of challenge that makes the game like a time-trial only racing game, which is boring if the game intends to be a competitive one, and even so if it lacks online multiplayer or at least leaderboards, like their advanced counterparts.

    On the good side, there are power-ups, in pure Blur fashion. The variety of them includes waves that push cars outside of the road (or at least stop them with crashes), police pursuit transfers, which makes you able to make the police pursue other cars instead of you, among other power-ups. But with the other problems, they fall short, since the hard controls and car behavior makes you get the undesired power-ups, which makes you anger!

    The customization. Oh man, the customization! It's like it was designed for 3 year olds recently learning to customize things. You can't upgrade your cars with new wheels (only their outer metal designs), engines, etc. there's a paint mode to apply stickers to the car, but the controls are hard to remember, and this way of customization makes your car still boring, even when you can't share the designs online, or by a JPEG photo, no-thing!

    This game is (maybe) perfect for 6 year olds in classic controller or GameCube controller mode, who are starting to enter the franchise of Need For Speed for the first time, since there they will know the basics of racing in a very good way. Other people? Avoid it at all costs! Run far, far away if you see it! And if you have one, select between gifting it to a kid, or incinerating it in fire, a la Angry Video Game Nerd, as he did it in the chimeney with the NES version of "WInter Games"    … Full Review »
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