Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered

Genre: Arcade Racing

Players: 1-8 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit is actually the third game in the Hot Pursuit series, following Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. This entry in EA’s Arcade-style Racing games series was originally released on multiple platforms in 2010, with the game getting a remastered version on multiple platforms including the Nintendo Switch in 2020, with all the original game’s DLC included. For those unfamiliar with these games, players take the role of a street racer trying to dodge traffic and win races, or as a cop trying to chase down the racers and smash them as quickly as possible.

Graphically, this is a solid release of the game with a resolution of 1080p in docked mode and 720p in portable mode, with a 30FPS framerate for both (as opposed to the 60FPS framerate seen on other modern platforms). This framerate can get bogged down a bit in some of the busiest moments, but for the most part it’s pretty stable, which is especially nice given how extremely fast-paced this game is. I will note that in some of the introductory segments leading into a race, the resolution looks extraordinarily ugly for some reason, but this ugliness doesn’t seem to extend to the races themselves, which look just fine.

As for the gameplay, this is pretty good, straightforward, racing gameplay. Race, drift, boost, win… or play a cop and smash into racers to take them down. It’s fun, but not especially deep or varied, especially next to EA and developer Criterion’s other Switch remaster to see release this year, Burnout Paradise Remastered, which had a huge city to explore and a variety of different types of activities to participate in. Here, the game tries to shake things up, but it’s largely variations on a theme – are you racing four other cars or just one? Are you taking down speeders with just a cop car, or do you have specialized equipment to assist you? You unlock cars as you proceed in your career, but you can’t customize them at all beyond a paint job. It’s not bad, by any stretch, but neither is it extraordinary.

Before finishing up, there are a few more features to mention here – one the game has, and one it doesn’t. On the positive side of things, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit fully supports cross-play, which makes it easy to jump into a match with 7 other racers (though you’ll want to unlock vehicles in the campaign mode before doing so, or else suffer a disadvantage to those who did so), and online play in this game works like a charm. Unfortunately, while online play is great here, the game lacks any sort of local multiplayer, which is a huge disappointment in any racing game.

All told, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit is a solid Arcade-style Racing game that gets the core gameplay and visuals right, but is a bit lacking in the features department. However, for fans of fast-paced racing, this is a good port that’s well worth playing on the Nintendo Switch, so long as you want to play it alone or online.

tl;dr – Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered is an HD remaster of the 2010 Arcade Racing game that has you playing as either a street racer or a cop hunting the others down. This game looks good, plays well, and has good online play, but is lacking depth and variety in its content, and has no local multiplayer play. Still, if you’re looking for fast-paced racing on the Nintendo Switch, this is well worth checking out.

Grade: B-

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