Need for Speed ProStreet (Wii)

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1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 3 Comments | Page 1 of 3

Though you probably haven't polished off 2005's Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and likely haven't even purchased a copy of 2006's Need for Speed: Carbon yet, EA wants to cram yet another Need for Speed game down your cramhole.

The once vaunted racing series currently suffers from a chronic case of Didn't the Last One Come Out Last Month Syndrome.

DTLOCOLM -- which is also sometimes also referred to as Madden-ification -- is a disorder that affects many games each year. The main symptom: an inability to distinguish itself in any remarkable way from what came previously.

The biggest difference is that ProStreet is not built around a model/actress in hot pants, as the two previous Need for Speed games were. To its credit, EA has changed up the formula this time, stripping out the model/actresses from Most Wanted and Carbon -- digitized versions of Josie Moran and Emmanuel Vaugier, respectively -- along with the perenially annoying, not to mention just plain misinformed, yo-what-up-dawg street vibe that has permeated the series' recent offerings.

ProStreet is EA's attempt to get back to basics. It's not the overcooked, overly ornate affairs that Most Wanted and Carbon both were. The idea here is less style, more substance. ProStreet is about smoking your tires, finessing curves and tinkering with your car. And it's a step in the right direction.

The game's Career mode starts you off with two gratis hoopties in your virtual garage -- one for speed, and one for drag racing -- and then turns you loose on what appears to be a sanctioned street racing circuit. Gone is the outlaw, 'Smokey and the Bandit' meets 'The Fast and the Furious' spirit found in recent Need for Speed games. No longer are you racing through rain-slicked city streets beneath shimmering neon, weaving in and out of traffic, with the cops on your tail. In ProStreet, from start to finish, you're confined to closed tracks, complete with grandstands, race officials and checkered flags.

Because of this, the game lacks the organic, go-anywhere feel of the recent NFS games. There's no faux city for you to tool around in, no shortcuts to learn, no canyons in which to race, and no special part of town where you're 100-percent certain you can lose the cops. And because of this, the game lacks any real sense of place. In ProStreet, races start -- 3, 2, 1, screech -- you drive, and when it's all over, you're kicked back out to the menu screen.

Races come in four self-explanatory varieties -- Grip, Drift, Drag and Speed -- with each variety being further divided into sub-varieties. But aside from Drag and Drift, which change up the game's control scheme somewhat, most of the time you'll simply be putting the pedal to the metal by holding down the gas button -- the 2 button on the Wii remote -- until your thumb cramps up.

In order to progress through the game, you'll need to participate in a series of Race Days -- discrete series of events -- centered around a specific location. On any given Race Day, you could be challenged to drive in a Grip race, two Drag races and a Time Attack race (get the best lap time). The idea is not to simply place in these races but to -- using the vernacular of the game -- "dominate." You need to win, and win big in order to dominate a particular Race Day. Dominate enough Race Days, and you'll be invited to one of the four elite racing organizations where you can square off against the game's top racers (or 'Kings,' as the game calls them). Races against Kings ostensibly function as the game's boss battles.