Need for Speed II

"Aside from racing as an outhouse, not much to offer here"

Need For Speed II offers 6 tracks: A standard oval, an Outback desert track, a forest-type track, a Pacific coast mountain highway, a Mediterranean coastline, and a Tibetan snow mountain (plus a password-unlockable track with takes place on a bunch of movie sets). Along with this, there are a good number of vehicles to choose from, including a Ford Indigo and a slew of password-unlockable ones, such as an outhouse (!), a tram, a log, and a crate, among others.

Sounds good, right? The problem is, Need For Speed II has two HUGE flaws that prevent it from being fun:

1) Graphics. Even though this game was made in 1997 and it should be cut some slack due to its age, the graphics are still horrible. The framerate is choppy as heck- its average is probably 10 frames per second. And the backgrounds are blocky, ugly, and have a gross color scheme. The 7 environments, as varied as they are, still are generic and little creativity is put into the twists and turns of each course. Gains points for the Hollywood course, which has sets from everything ranging from science fiction films to Jurassic Park, but otherwise, everything else is generic or bland.

2) Control. For some reason, Need For Speed II seems to have the touchiest hit detection on the planet. Cars crash and flip relentlessly with the slightest braze of a railing or mountain, and even driving slowly on tight corners won't make a difference- some crashes are unavoidable. You know how in Need For Speed III, there'd be high ramps you could fly off and land safely below? Try the same thing here, and you'll crash instantly. Powersliding is also needlessly difficult to do, as once you finish sliding around a corner, you manually have to push the control pad in the opposite way that you were turning to correct the steering. Thankfully, this is improved in III. On top of that, all the cars control exactly the same, aside from speed differences, so it doesn't matter what car you choose.

Add to that generic, forgettable music and little replay value. OK, so there are 6 courses, all of which are initially unlockable. Once you play through them (which takes about 20 minutes, if that), then what?? Not much, and that's why this title pales in comparison to NFS III and IV. GRADE: 3/10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/04