Before anyone can say anything, I know, I'm bad at racing games. I was bad at the ones you sat in at the arcades with an actual steering wheel, bad at ones on consoles with funny button configurations and control schemes, and I'm bad at ones that use accelerometer support to simulate a steering wheel, too.
Thing is, it was on sale I love you guys and gals, so I decided to bite the bullet, make a fool out of myself on video, and see what these newfangled touch racing games are all about. And that's exactly what I did.
Let's get the talk about the awesome graphics out of the way now. They're awesome (some of the best on Android, of course), but when your game is made by a huge studio that's used to producing AAA games, I'd expect nothing less. Still, racing (and subsequently crashing into everything in front of me) was still a visual treat, and that's to be commended.
Gameplay-wise, it's racing. Be default, automatic transmission is enabled, but you can switch to manual if you're feeling particularly skilled. The game starts you off with a little tutorial that teaches you how to do 180-degree turns easily and stuff, and let me say, had that not been there, I would have been even worse come recording time.
There's a couple of different options once you get out of the tutorial, like quick racing or playing through the career mode. Quick race is just what you'd think: you select some options based off of what you've got unlocked (what role you're playing, your vehicle, the time of day, etc.), and then you're off.
Career mode pits you against a computer-played adversary, whichever role you don't choose. You can pick between the cop and the street racer, and depending on which you choose, that tailors your mission objectives. More often than not, the cop is trying to catch the racer and the racer is trying to avoid being caught. Pretty straightforward stuff.
As you continue to race, you'll earn bounty (even if you lose), and after you collect so much bounty, you'll "level up" and unlock another, better car to use. Keep earning bounty and leveling up, and eventually you'll have the sweetest car in the game.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit also has a bevy of in-game achievements, like drifting for 25 seconds or getting five roadblock hits. Each achievement seems to unlock another, better tier of the achievement (like drifting for 50 seconds), so there's plenty to work on while you race around the world unlocking cars and earning cash.
Sure, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit might not be the newest game out on Android, but that doesn't detract at all from how solid a game it is. Awesome graphics, tight controls, lots of missions and careers to play, and achievements all make it worthy of your time and money.
We've got download links after the break.
