Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered (Switch Version)
Since its original release in 1994, The Need For Speed series featured the pesky police as an adversary to street racers everywhere. It would be the third entry in the series, Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit, that would allow players to become the cops for the first time. In the titular mode, Hot Pursuit focused on racers versus police as players could become one or the other. The racer's job was simply to finish the race and win without getting busted. It was the police's job to arrest the racers be it with vehicular force or through the use of roadblocks, spike strips, and helicopters.
The following Need For Speed titles would feature police as a staple until Hot Pursuit 2. It would be the last Need For Speed from that era to feature police as Need For Speed Underground favored the tuner car culture instead. Most Wanted brought back the police in full force with a fleshed-out system that, to this day considered one of the best racing games released. In 2010, the Hot Pursuit name was revived for the first time in almost a decade as a reimagining of the original Need For Speed.
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit was a return to what made the series great. It allowed players to pick their favorite car and tear through highways while avoiding police. There was no story mode, no upgrades, or cars to purchase. Everything that the player could unlock was earned through a natural in-game progression system. Much like Hot Pursuit 2, there are "two" campaign modes, one featuring the Police and the other featuring the Racers. Criterion Games at the time had an impressive physics engine that I felt the recent titles are severely lacking. Hot Pursuit served as the beginning of the "tap gas to drift" mechanic as seen in other arcade titles including Ridge Racer and similar games.
When I played over a decade ago, I and others compared it to Burnout, Criterion's flagship series, and there are several similarities between this and Hot Pursuit. Players can take out other racers as the police and earn points by doing so. Earning nitrous is given by playing recklessly, similarly to the aggressive play style of Burnout. There's even a difference in car type, with heavier cars being suited for off road shortcuts to compete with the sleeker exotics that grip to tarmac.
While the goal is to win races and defeat criminals as racers and cops respectively, there are other race modes to switch things up. Time trials exist for both racers and police except players get penalized for hitting traffic and making collisions as police. What I found amusing is that during actual pursuits, caution is thrown to the wind in favor of apprehending suspects. Racers can also use the same gadgets as the police can in certain races, which can be used against other racers as well as the police themselves.
There are exclusive cars for each campaign as well. Remember in Need For Speed Unbound when I was obsessed over the civilian Crown Victoria? I don't believe it's mere coincidence that the Vic featured in Unbound was originally featured in Hot Pursuit by the same developers, but it's cool that it exists in this game. It gives the player replayability to try cars in one campaign that they otherwise wouldn't in the other.
Everything is seamless under one map as well. The player can alternate between both career campaigns at any given time while also comparing their best times against friends.
So far, I've been describing the game with ample praise and you're probably wondering "That's all well and good, but this is the Switch review." I'm happy to say that for a rare occurrence on the Nintendo Switch, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered plays exceptional on the underrated console.
It's the best racer I played on the system and that distinction once was given to Wreckfest. Every photo used in this article, including my current thoughts up to this point, was based on the Nintendo Switch port and very little was compromised. The photos you see in this post is the same quality you're expected to see on the Switch.
After the previous racer I played on the Switch I was beginning to lose hope that a decent racer was accessible on the console. Usually games that play well docked failed to offer the same performance while portable and I'm happy to say that the game plays great on the Switch Lite.
Players looking for a decent racer on the Switch not named Mario Kart can look towards Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered as an example on what a port on the Switch should be. It also shows how ahead of it's time Criterion was in 2010 for the game to still hold it's weight in 2023.
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered is available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.