THERE WAS a time when Need For Speed was a guaranteed chart-topper. Before there was Forza Horizon, all festivals and physics, there was this. A Fast and Furious analog with spoilers on its spoilers, every year exactly the same super-accessible arcade racer about underground tuner culture and corrupt cops. And we didn’t care that it became as formulaic as that other long-running bestseller, Call of Duty. Until one day, finally, we did.
grew too big and popular to sustain itself. The sales were too good for EA to start tinkering with the formula, but the yearly releases oversaturated us with cars in widebody kits and stories of betrayal told exclusively through the medium of checkpoint races. The world that emerges into has changed. in 2019 was the franchise’s most convincing attempt at reinvention, but it couldn’t nudge off its throne. needs to be something totally distinct to succeed.
