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1!!Entries in the franchise with YMMV pages:
2* ''YMMV/TheNeedForSpeed''
3* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedII''
4* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedHotPursuit'' sub-series
5* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedHighStakes''
6* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedPorscheUnleashed''
7* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedUnderground'' sub-series
8* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedMostWanted'' (2005)
9* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedCarbon''
10* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedProStreet''
11* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedUndercover''
12* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedShift'' sub-series
13* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedTheRun''
14* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedMostWanted2012''
15* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedRivals''
16* ''YMMV/{{Need for Speed|2014}}'' (2014 film)
17* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeed2015''
18* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedPayback''
19* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedHeat''
20* ''YMMV/NeedForSpeedUnbound''
21----
22* AluminumChristmasTrees:
23** The Seacrest County and Redview County Police Departments in, respectively, the 2010 ''Hot Pursuit'' and ''Rivals'' have impossibly large fleets of interceptor vehicles made up almost entirely of high-end exotic sports cars and supercars, including Bugatti Veyrons, Aston Martin One-77s and even ''one-off concept cars''. In fact, the real life [[UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}} Dubai Police Force]] boasts a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Police_Force#Exotic_and_unusual_patrol_cars similarly lavish police fleet]] that, yes, really does field [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qbv5AjX25E Veyrons]] and One-77s. Of course, because of the high value of these "super patrol cars" and the inherent risks of policing, they are [[TooAwesomeToUse mostly for show]] and only used for patrolling rich, low-risk tourist areas.
24** The Tokyo Metropolitan Police also rock a couple [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89vrYhwFLB8 Nissan 370Z NISMO patrol cars]], and it's not unheard of for other Japanese police departments to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBDdEgsgmZM retain sports cars in the fleet]]. Similarly, the Italian police have used a Gallardo 560-4 as an actual interceptor unit (which has since been retired and replaced with the Lamborghini Huracan). Unlike the Dubai exotic police fleet however, the Italian Lamborghini interceptors do serve a practical use in the form of emergency organ transport given how crucial it is for vital organs to be delivered to patients in dire need.
25* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[AwesomeMusic/NeedForSpeed Has its own page.]]
26* ArchivePanic: Because there are so many games of the franchise being released, it'll take a Garage full (or the price of a single multi-million-dollar supercar) to complete them, win the races and buy all of the cars.
27* AudienceAlienatingEra:
28** It's widely agreed that the series fell hard into one, but ''when'' it happened [[BrokenBase depends on who you ask]].
29*** Classic fans argue that anything after ''Hot Pursuit 2'' is CanonDiscontinuity, with some cautiously believing the series returned to form briefly with ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010 through ''Rivals'' before plunging back into the dork age with the 2015 reboot.
30*** Tuner fans, on the contrary, argue that the series fell into one either with or right after ''Carbon'', with a brief return to form with ''Undercover'' and ''Nitro'' (and for some tuner fans, ''Shift'' games) before diving hard back into the AAE until the ''2015'' reboot and ''Payback''.
31** However, most fans regardless of era preference are now considering the entire [[Creator/EAGothenburg Ghost Games]] era of ''Need for Speed'' from ''Rivals'' to ''Heat'' during [[MediaNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames the eighth console generation]] to be the nadir or mixed-bag of the franchise, with awkward ''VideoGame/{{Burnout}}''-style "brake-to-drift" driving physics ''being recycled over and over'' after the switchover to the Frostbite engine. Compounded to this was the aforementioned inability to pause the game in ''Rivals'', the online-only nature of the 2015 reboot, the loot boxes of ''Payback'', and the cringeworthy plots and characters of the rather brief single-player campaigns in all their games. It's gotten to the point that even many classic fans admit ''Rivals'' wasn't that good, and many ''NFS'' fans agree that Creator/PlaygroundGames' ''[[VideoGame/{{Forza}} Forza Horizon]]'' is now the open world arcade racing game king, and that Criterion--who have changed considerably since their co-founders left--have an uphill battle ahead of them.
32* BaseBreakingCharacter: Or rather, Base-Breaking ''Car'':
33** The BMW M3 GTR, as featured in ''Most Wanted (2005)'' aside from having more fans than detractors. The car [[HypeBacklash has earned some flak from the detractors]] while being viewed as a "souped-up variant" of the M3 [=E46=] with additional horsepower[[note]]The M3 [=E46=] has 333 horsepower at stock condition even though the M3 GTR has 493 regardless of the latter using a [=P60B40=] V8 instead of the [=S54B32=] Inline-Six engine.[[/note]] in which the latter in RealLife is notorious [[TheAllegedCar for its dubious reliability]].
34** The Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 2.8 from the 2015 reboot to ''Heat''. Some of them adore the RSR for [[InfinityPlusOneSword being one of the best cars available once it's fully upgraded]] while others view it as an [[HighTierScrappy overpowered abomination]] that "takes zero-skill to drive and should be [[{{Nerf}} nerfed to the ground]]" even though it's possible to beat it with other cars that are sufficiently competitive like the [=McLaren F1=] in ''Heat'' or at least with a good amount of skill to do so. However in ''Unbound'', the [=RSR=]'s no longer a meta as it's been heavily nerfed, making it less of an example above.
35* BrokenBase: ''Need for Speed'' has probably the most fragmented fanbase in all of {{Racing Game}}s. Basically, there are ''more than'' two main types of fandom:
36** The old school fans, which most of them grew up playing the first ''NFS'' titles in the [=PS1=]/Saturn/Windows 95/98 era. They praise the first titles for having good gameplay, climate changes (like rain and snow in ''High Stakes''), [[SceneryPorn gorgeous landscapes]] and super sport cars. In other hand, they despise the tuning era, often saying it was a blatant copy of ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' and the heavy focus in tuning and almost dominant urban areas locations ruined the franchise, with the tuning-free ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010 being a return to form.
37** The ''Underground''/Tuning fans, which most of them grew up playing ''Underground'' to ''Carbon'' in the sixth-gen console era. They deny the existence of first titles, claiming ''Underground'' was the first ''NFS'', ''[=ProStreet=]'' ruined the franchise, and the 2015 reboot was a step in the right direction. They despise the new entries of the franchise, like ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010 and ''Rivals'', and while they have varying opinions on the ''Shift'' games, and criticize ''The Run'' and ''Most Wanted'' 2012, they think both games still hold "the true series' [=DNA=]" unlike the others.
38** ''Underground''/''Most Wanted'' 2005 fans did not like ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010 for a lack of aftermarket customization, tuners, and a proper open world.[[note]]Although Seacrest County is one continuous environment, it does not have a proper free roam. The free roam is simply just screwing around in a car for as long as you like in single-player with no pursuits or other events on the map.[[/note]] Classic pre-''Underground'' fans, on the other hand, liked the game for those exact reasons. Both sides did have mixed feelings regarding the weapons (especially towards racers) and Autolog though. The flames reignited with ''Hot Pursuit Remastered'' in 2020, with ''Underground''/''Most Wanted'' 2005 fans complaining about a "bad" entry getting a remaster (with some review bombing on Metacritic),[[note]]the Switch release avoid said review bombing for the most part since Nintendo fans finally got both a proper ''Need for Speed'' entry on a Nintendo console for the first time since ''Most Wanted [[Platform/WiiU U]]'' in 2013, and a version of Criterion's ''Hot Pursuit'' to boot (not a weird soulless version of ''Nitro'' like the Platform/{{Wii}} got)[[/note]] while ''Hot Pursuit'' fans were pleased with that, although there were complaints about how just three cars were removed from ''Remastered'' (even though they were due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers circumstances]] [[{{Misblamed}} beyond EA's control]]). Though the addition of livery customization in the update might rectify some of the complaints from the ''Most Wanted'' 2005 fans, despite the lack of bodykits there.
39** ''Rivals'' also had issues that did not please various ''NFS'' fans. The frame rate was fixed to 30 frames per second all versions, which caused many headaches for PC fans (see PortingDisaster below). Car customization, although improved compared to the Criterion installments and ''The Run'', was still somewhat limited in the eyes of tuner fans. Also, for a multiplayer-oriented game, six players maximum in a session is also rather limited, and despite being a full-priced game, it lacks the ability to pause the game. It did fix several problems that were in ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010 though, such as making its county an actual open world and maintaining ''Most Wanted'' 2012's improvements to Autolog.
40** The 2015 reboot. Tuner fans looked forward to the game with cautious optimism, but the classic fans saw it as EA caving in to the tuner fans' apparent whining over the previous installments' lack of "rice burners". It didn't help that EA's marketing basically said that the "real" ''Need for Speed'' was what the tuner-era games stood for, and current series creative director Marcus Nilsson stated that the reboot would set the template for future entries in the series. All this meant that classic-style ''Need for Speed'' wouldn't come back for a some time.
41** As both classic and tuner-era sides have bitter rivalry with each other, some ''NFS'' fans tend to TakeAThirdOption and root for both gameplay styles, which is, surprisingly, not maligned among these two camps. Especially evident with the return of exotics since 2005 ''Most Wanted'', and police pursuits in most games since. Then there's even a small fragment of ''NFS'' fanbase who actually prefers the sim-style gameplay of ''[=ProStreet=]'' and the ''Shift'' games over the rest of the franchise.
42*** Even among longtime fans, some VocalMinority still beg for the playable police modes making a return in recent games after ''Rivals'', which the feature has been absent since the 2015 game, even as a side mode ala Chasedown Mode in [=PS2/Wii=] ''Undercover''.
43* CameraScrew: The ''Underground'' series and ''Most Wanted'' (2005) have a slo-mo jump camera. The jump camera would also trigger whenever you crashed into traffic hard enough to launch into the air. ''Hot Pursuit 2'', ''Most Wanted'' (2005), ''Carbon'', and ''Undercover'' all had slo-mo cameras for whenever you hit a police roadblock. Fortunately, in every game before ''Carbon'', all of these cameras can be turned off.
44* CharacterTiers: Car-based example: The series as a whole tends to divide cars into "Classes," putting similar cars into different classes (for example, putting high-performance sports cars like the Lamborghini Diablo VT and the Ferrari [=512TR=] in their own Class) based on performance. Each game has its own system of organization. {{Averted|Trope}} with the ''Underground'' series, the original ''Most Wanted'' and every game published by Creator/{{Ghost|Games}}, as the games don't feature any vehicle characterization tier.
45* ContestedSequel:
46** The big one is over the ''Underground'' era, particularly with its (and by extension, ''World''[='=]s) focus on aftermarket customization. Does modding the look of your car make it look like the most badass PimpedOutCar there ever was, or does it make a finely-crafted machine look like an ugly-as-Hell RiceBurner?
47** ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010. Older fans love it for basically being a throwback, gameplay-wise, to the first four ''Need for Speed'' games with a little bit of ''Burnout'' formula such as boosts and takedowns. The reception from (sixth-and-early-seventh-gen-era) fans ranges from indifference to dislike due to the lack of vehicle customization beside colors.
48** Before that, it was ''Need for Speed: Underground'', which threw out the countryside and natural SceneryPorn in favor of inner-city racing and also threw out million dollar exotics in favor of customizable JDM cars (although the exotics came back since ''Most Wanted'' 2005). However, the popularity of ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'', the JDM tuning scene, and MTV at the time introduced such a huge NewbieBoom that they ended up taking control of the franchise's identity fandom.
49** And going even ''further'' back, ''NFS II'' was this compared to the original, as it removed the cop chases and point-to-point tracks in favor of strict circuit racing. The backlash was strong enough that EA not only brought back cop chases in the first Hot Pursuit, but gave them far more importance than in the original (where they were mostly just a fun bonus).
50* CriticalDissonance: Happened many times.
51** ''Undercover'' was disliked by critics but really liked by tuner fans, who thought it was a more story-driven ''Carbon''.
52** The most controversial case was for ''Most Wanted'' (2012). Critics hailed it as the best racing game of 2012 '''hands down''', but it got a backlash from the tuner fandom (and also from longtime fans who saw it as an affront to the franchise for hijacking the name of the [[SacredCow 2005 game]]). The dissonance was so massive that Criterion Games was downsized to around fifteen employees, resulting in the later departure of its founders and a new developer (Ghost Games) taking the reins of the franchise for MediaNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames, which ultimately didn't work out so well for the ''NFS'' franchise.
53** While ''Hot Pursuit Remastered'' received weaker critical reception than the original release of ''Hot Pursuit'' (2010) for being a rather bare bones remaster, especially compared to other video game remasters released by then, it was still mostly positive. User reviews on Metacritic, however, have been much harsher on the PC, [=PlayStation=] 4, and Xbox One versions' Metacritic entries, with harsher criticism towards the bare bones remastering to the point of calling it yet another EA cash grab, as well as some players shouting their desires for a remaster of a "superior" earlier installment. Oddly though, the Switch version has been ''more'' positively received by that platform's players, since this is the first ''Need for Speed'' game on a Nintendo console since 2013's ''Most Wanted U'' (and a more complete version than that game at that, since ''Most Wanted U'' only got one of its four DLC packs as standard and never received the rest), and it's a version of the original Criterion version of ''Hot Pursuit'' instead of some bland version of ''Nitro'' like what the Wii version got.
54* DemonicSpiders:
55** The opponents' AI in ''Shift'' and ''Shift 2: Unleashed'' will '''slow down''' just to block you off, making overtaking a bitch.
56** Previously in ''World'', Rhino [=SUVs=] and road blocks, ever since an update to the game made it much harder to escape higher level pursuits. Players had to expect another of couple of each every ten seconds while escaping.
57* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Yes, street racing and running from the police looks fun, but it is extremely dangerous in real life. A lot of the newer games to have warnings before the game starts state that it is merely a video game and should not be mimicked in real life.
58* EvenBetterSequel:
59** ''High Stakes'' to ''III: Hot Pursuit''. Despite being a MissionPackSequel to the latter, ''High Stakes'' improves a lot in ''III''[='s=] mechanics and graphics, adds new gameplay modes and mechanics (like visual customization and tuning, although the former was limited due to hardware restrictions) and polishes those that already existed, and adds new tracks while (in the PC version) [[NostalgiaLevel retaining its predecessor's tracks]].
60** ''Shift 2: Unleashed'' to ''Shift'' 1, specially after the 1.02 patch which corrected the jerky handling for controller users.
61** Also, ''Underground 2'' to the first one, due to introducing an [[WideOpenSandbox open world]]. And ''Most Wanted'' (2005) to both ''Underground'' games, as they brought back the series staples such as supercars and police pursuits.
62* EventObscuringCamera: ''Hot Pursuit 2'' rotates the camera around the car when doing a major jump, making it impossible to see what's ahead until you land.
63* FanNickname:
64** ''Shift 2: Unleashed'' gets the ''Need for Speed'' name attached to the beginning by fans anyway since it still uses ''NFS'' branding, giving it the lengthy title of ''Need for Speed: Shift 2 – Unleashed'', in reference to the logo, among other things.
65** The 2015 reboot had a few.
66*** Shortly after its release (though now more rarely) it was called ''Need for Speed: Underground 3'', despite Ghost Games explicitly stating that it's not.
67*** PC gamers and PC Gaming Wiki call it ''Need for Speed'' (20'''16'''), since it did not come out on Windows until that year.
68* FanonDiscontinuity: Almost every entry in the franchise falls into the "discontinuity" for some fans. For oldschool ones, it's everything after ''Hot Pursuit 2'' (although they accept the existence of ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010, and maybe ''Most Wanted'' 2012 and ''Rivals''). For ''Underground'' fans, everything after ''Carbon'', but they accept the existence of ''Undercover'' and ''Nitro'', and believe that the 2015 reboot is what the franchise needed. They also wanted more recent franchise developers like (of all studios) Criterion Games to stop making ''Need for Speed'' games, which in the case of that developer actually did happen.
69* FandomRivalry:
70** ''Need for Speed'' versus ''VideoGame/GranTurismo'' versus ''VideoGame/{{Forza}}'' (''Motorsport'' and ''Horizon''). They are the big three racing game franchises, bar none.[[note]]''VideoGame/MarioKart'' doesn't compete with these three; it's [[MascotRacer more of its own thing with its own set of competitors]].[[/note]]
71** ''NFS'' versus ''VideoGame/TestDrive'' during TheNineties.
72** ''NFS'' versus ''VideoGame/MidnightClub'' during TurnOfTheMillennium.
73** In 2012, between Criterion's ''Need for Speed: Most Wanted'' and Playground Games' first ''Forza Horizon''.
74** The current era (the 2015 reboot onward) goes up against ''Gran Turismo Sport'' and ''Forza'' (especially ''Forza Horizon'', but only during that series' off-years) per the norm, plus ''VideoGame/TheCrew'' 1 and ''[[VideoGame/TheCrew2 2]]'' (although the fans of the ''Underground'' era -- which the reboot took its overall gist from -- tends to [[FriendlyFandoms get along just fine]] with ''The Crew'' series' fandom, although there are the more rabid fanboys which take the trope to its logical conclusion). ''VideoGame/{{Driveclub}}'' also competed early on, but lost out to everyone else, not helped by its developer Evolution Studios folding and closing roughly a year and a half after the game's release.[[note]]Ironically, most of the personnel of Evolution would later go to Codemasters, who in turn were later brought by EA and put in charge of assisting Criterion in developing future ''Need for Speed'' games.[[/note]]
75* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: The full page is [[Funny/NeedForSpeed here]].
76* GameBreaker:
77** ''The Need for Speed'' had three game breakers, one for each [[CharacterTiers car class]].
78*** Class C had the Toyota Supra Turbo, which was really a Class B car put into Class C due to its low top speed and to avoid overcrowding the B-class. It did 0-60 mph in 5.0 seconds flat, when its competitors - the [=RX-7=] and the [=NSX=] - did it in 5.5 seconds and 5.8, respectively, and had responsible handling ''and'' traction control. Its stats are so beefy that its C-class peers have a hard time beating it, and the Supra rivals or even ''surpasses'' most B-class cars! [[note]]The Corvette ZR-1 and the Porsche 911 do 0-60 in 5.2 seconds, and the former has unresponsive handling and the latter is a rear-engined, rear-wheel drive car. Read, it's extremely twitchy in turns.[[/note]] The only time a Supra can be defeated by B- and A-class opponents is in long straightaways, [[AchillesHeel where its weak top speed shows]].
79*** Class B had the Dodge Viper [=RT-10=], which is to Class B what the Supra is to Class C. 0-60 in 4.8 seconds versus its peers' 5.2, and handles ''much'' better than its rivals. Though it also lacks the top speed advantage, its acceleration and handling give enough of an advantage over opponent cars to make winning B-class races significantly easier.
80*** Class A had the Ferrari [=512TR=], simply because its rival, the Lamborghini Diablo, suffers from heavy understeer while the [=512TR=] doesn't. The only places a [=512TR=] loses to the Diablo are, just like the Supra, in long straightaways where the Diablo's higher top speed wins. Other than that, the [=512TR=] will almost always be topping the charts in races, especially because the Diablo is often [[OnlyICanKillHim the only car able to compete with it]], outside of an [[BadassDriver extremely skilled]] Supra or Viper driver.
81*** Outside of those, the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Warrior]] is a deliberate example given to you for beating the tournament at least once. It accelerates so fast, and has a top speed so high, that [[TheWorfEffect even the 512TR and the Diablo are completely helpless to keep up with it]].
82** The bonus car [=FZR 2000=] of ''Need for Speed II'' is the fastest car to ever have appeared in the series. Its top speed is rivaled by some of the most powerful cars in ''Rivals'' and ''NFS'' 2015 (although, with the "pioneer" cheat, it becomes significantly faster), but its acceleration is humongously powerful [[note]]It goes from 0 to 200 mph practically in a blink[[/note]] and its handling puts that of the [[SkillGateCharacters Ford Indigo and the Lotus cars]] to shame. It says enough that its brakes only really have to be used when jumping would make it leave the track boundaries or crash into a wall due to how impossibly long they are with the [=FZR 2000=].
83** The [=McLaren F1=] can be considered a Game Breaker for the entire series. Given its then-unrivaled top speed, great acceleration and very good handling, it often took [=GT1=], concept or bonus cars or tracks without long straights to have something realistically stand a chance against it, and even then, its possession of world records were often uncontested. Even in modern games, where significantly more powerful cars exist, it is still a top contender due to its amazing handling or great tuning potential on games that allow so, only struggling in very long straights.
84** The [[DifficultButAwesome Nissan 370Z]] (Z34) was this in ''Undercover'' even in the patched version. While being a JackOfAllStats for a Tier 3 car early in the game, it can invoke this when fully tuned (despite it's sluggish handling). As a result, it's fast enough to humiliate the Tier 1 cars including the '''BUGATTI VEYRON!''' However, the 370Z recieved a {{Nerf}} in newer installments (While it becomes this again as in ''The Run'').
85** In ''Most Wanted'' 2012, the Everyday car class contains the Audi A1 Clubsport quattro, a pocket rocket with 496bhp and a 0-100km/h time of 3.7s.
86** The Koenigsegg One:1 systematically slaughters all of the other vehicles in ''Rivals''. It has the highest top end speed in the game, it has very strong acceleration and great handling, ''and'' it is rather bulky for being a hypercar. The best thing? '''''It's a FREE DLC car.''''' Yes, it might be unlocked at the end of the game, but at that time it's more than certain you can use this vehicle without screwing up.
87** In the 2015 reboot, everyone and their grandmother uses the Lamborghini Huracán and Aventador, the 2015 Ford Mustang GT, and the 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 2.8 (including [[PaletteSwap Magnus's "277" and Nakai-san's "Stella Artois"]]), as they have the overall best performance in the game when fully upgraded.
88*** The 911 Carrera RSR 2.8 in particular has been by far the best car in each game from ''2015'' to ''Heat''. On stock parts its top speed is usually nothing to write home about, but it has always the best handling and best acceleration out of the box thanks to its absurdly lightweight chassis. Once you buy it in ''2015'', ''Payback'' or ''Heat'' it will likely be the only car you'll be using from that point onwards, particularly in ''Heat'' where it even got ''BUFFED'' in its best areas. In ''Payback'' it was joined by the Volkswagen Beetle and the Koenigsegg Regera, but both received sizable nerfs in ''Heat''. And finally in ''Unbound'', the [=RSR=] has recieved a huge, painful nerf where not only its top-speed is capped in 225 MPH but its acceleration and handling have become much less effective. As result, the car will now choke when attempting to compete with far more powerful cars like the Regera and the (recently added) Bugatti Chiron in S+ Class (as the latter two can reach more than 240 MPH while leaving the former in the dust).
89* GenreTurningPoint: [[BrokenBase For better or for worse]], the ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedUnderground Underground]]'' games and ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted Most Wanted]]'' 2005 not only changed what people think ''Need for Speed'' is, but what arcade racers using licensed vehicles should be.
90* GoddamnedBats:
91** In the Black Box installments (mainly during drag races), the Creator/{{Criterion|Games}} installments (although for them, [[VideoGame/{{Burnout}} it could be considered usual fare]]), some races in ''No Limits'', and the Ghost Games installments (remember that several Ghost Games employees originally came from Criterion), the oncoming traffic appears to know exactly where to place themselves to be an obstacle.
92** Cops in the 2015 game especially fall under this for those going for the prestige medals. Not only do they swerve in front of the player, but they prevent the player from immediately restarting in the case of a mistake.
93* GoodBadBugs:
94** In ''Rivals'', if you trigger Turbo and ''immediately'' start an event after that, the boost provided by Turbo will overcome the car's brakes, and you'll begin the event some distance beyond the start line and traveling at a small, but not insignificant, speed. It can help a lot for getting a few extra seconds on your opponents.
95** A rather infamous one in ''Undercover'': If your tires get punctured during a police chase, you can go to settings, switch damage off, then back on, and the tires (alongside any other damage received by your car) will automatically regenerate. While most people usually shrug off any other damage to the car since they're still driveable, regenerating punctured tires can be quite useful since they almost always ensure getting busted by the police.
96* HilariousInHindsight:
97** ''High Stakes'' had a TakeThat towards {{Rice Burner}}s in its opening cinematic, in which a riced-out Honda Civic {{Expy}} challenges a Porsche 911 to a race. When the race starts, the Porsche takes off while the Civic expy [[TheAllegedCar barely moves an inch before its engine explodes]] and a Corvette and two Diablos pass it too. Considering that EA would experiment its best ''NFS'' sales when they moved the franchise towards tuning culture with ''Underground'', just 4 years after ''High Stakes''...
98** "Fever for the Flava" contains the line "I got the green glow under my car", and it was featured in ''Hot Pursuit 2'', the last ''Need for Speed'' game pre-''Underground''. EA Black Box, who developed the [=PS2=] version, probably took the note.
99** ''Undercover'' had a mission titled "Payback" where you take down Nickel, a black guy. ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedPayback Payback]]'' features a black protagonist Mac.
100* ItsTheSameNowItSucks:
101** Since the release of ''Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit'' 2010, the game drew some ire from various fans due to its drifting mechanics being similar to ''Burnout Paradise'''s and other reasons such as the [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks lack of]] [[BrokenBase aftermarket customization]]. This carried over to ''Most Wanted'' 2012 in particular, as it was much closer to the open-world ''Burnout'' game than ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010.
102%%** What some say about ''Carbon''.
103* MemeticBadass: The pizza traffic car from ''Most Wanted'' (2005) became this after [[WhatCouldHaveBeen being originally slated to reappear in]] ''[[WhatCouldHaveBeen Carbon]]''[[note]]It only appeared in the early [=PlayStation=] 2 demo[[/note]], and the modding community taking advantage of putting it in every Black Box game as a playable vehicle like the aforementioned ''Carbon'', ''Undercover'' and ''[=ProStreet=]''.
104* MemeticMutation:
105** [[SuddenlyShouting "I SAID RIGHT NOW!"]] [[labelnote:Explanation]]A line uttered by Officer Danny Shaw in the reveal trailer for ''Heat'', which made rounds within the community because of the line's overly dramatic delivery. It helps that it appears to be a ShoutOut to the '''"EVERYONE!"''' meme from the 2005 ''Most Wanted''.[[/labelnote]]
106** [[TakeThat pfft nerds]][[labelnote:Explanation]]The NFS Twitter account's reply to a poorly worded tweet by Toyota UK which explained the brand's absence from ''Heat''. Toyota's tweet has since been deleted from the backlash that ensued, particularly because when one looked up the list of current active series that have Toyota/Lexus vehicles in them, two of them (''VideoGame/InitialDArcadeStage'' and ''[[VideoGame/WanganMidnight Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune]]'') [[{{Irony}} involve illegal street racing]], which ran counter to what was asserted in the tweet, that Toyota "does not want to be associated with street racing". Recently, Toyota only allows Japanese game developers to feature the said manufacturer's cars, much as how Porsche did when Electronic Arts started their exclusive license from 2000 to 2016. [[/labelnote]]
107** '''''Whoa, Black Betty! (Bam-ba-lam!) Yeah, Black Betty! (Bam-ba-lam!)'''''[[labelnote:Explanation]]Somehow, "Black Betty" by Spiderbait (which is featured in ''Underground 2'') has recently become a meme among the fanbase after [[SensoryAbuse an obnoxiously loud rendition]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-a2WLrLnJ0 of the song]] was played in one of [=KuruHS=]' streams [[JumpScare and inevitably jumpscared]] the said streamer off guard.[[/labelnote]]
108** 510 [[labelnote:Explanation]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeRnez3di1I The trailer]] for the 2020 remaster of Criterion's ''Hot Pursuit'' features someone challenging his friend to beat his time of 5:10.42 in the event ''Hotting Up'', which said friend does with a time of 5:09.78. This trailer was perceived as a challenge to the fans that still have the original game to beat that time, which one Youtuber not only managed to achieve, with a time of 5:09.59, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nuDThAHGcg but they did it with the Mazda [=RX-8=]]], a car from the slowest performance category on the racer side (The [=RX-8=] is a Street Series car, whereas the event uses the 2nd-fastest Exotic Series).[[/labelnote]]
109* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010 gives us that F1-style roar during the turbo sequence. Just [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkC5Z9AesV4 listen!]] It came back for ''Rivals'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1LPujFVhh4 too.]]
110* {{Narm}}: The narrators of ''Rivals''' campaigns. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z60oe3UZb84 Here's a taste.]] May overlap with NarmCharm, but YMMV.
111* MyRealDaddy: The now-defunct EA Black Box, for tuner fans.
112* NightmareFuel: [[NightmareFuel/NeedForSpeed Has its own page here]].
113* ObviousBeta:
114** The console and PC releases of ''Undercover'' were shipped with severe frame rate issues. Absolute death in a high-speed racing game. The [=PS3=], PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game at least got a patch that (mostly) fixes the frame rate issues, but ramped up the difficulty of the races as well. ''[=ProStreet=]'' had some framerate issues, too, but it didn't make the game unplayable.
115** The Xbox 360 version of ''Shift'' [[http://web.archive.org/web/20091122051957/http://freakbits.com/xbox-360-crashes-accessing-playstation-store-0927 tried to access the PlayStation Store.]]
116** The 2015 reboot was released on consoles without even a manual transmission option, which was a standard feature even in arcade racing games before the Criterion era. Some players even found a non-functioning "Semi-adjustable Gearbox" part, suggesting transmission tuning was cut. The PC version was delayed by 4 months to prevent the porting issues ''Rivals'' had. By the time the PC version came out, every version of the game was updated to include a manual transmission option, but other problems came to light: gear ratios for most cars were not only un-adjustable, but wildly inaccurate, and most cars ''magically grew'' extra gears when power upgrades not related to the transmission were added. A ''Civic'' can have up to 8 speeds in this game.
117* OldGuardVersusNewBlood: Comparing the first two eras, the new blood overtook the old guard.
118* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Burnout''-like physics (bar NitroBoost) was not introduced in the series by Creator/CriterionGames, but already appeared in ''Need for Speed II SE''[='=]s Wild (the way cars crashed, the extreme speeds and the long jumps) and Arcade handling modes (heavy drifting). Keep in mind this was before ''VideoGame/{{Burnout}}'' even existed...
119* PortingDisaster:
120** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with earlier games in the series, which was less of a poor port and more of the console not being good enough to keep up with a PC. For instance, the Platform/PlayStation version of ''Need for Speed II'' was very similar in both graphics and gameplay to the PC version, but as more games were released those ports [[CantCatchUp could not catch up]], up until ''Porsche Unleashed'', which was basically unrecognizable.
121** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with ''Hot Pursuit 2''. Though the [[Platform/NintendoGameCube GameCube]], Platform/{{Xbox}}, and Windows versions all look ''much'' worse than the Platform/PlayStation2 version despite all of them being more powerful, as well as having less content and worse gameplay, this is not because of a porting disaster, but rather because the [=PlayStation=] 2 version was developed by a completely different company--Black Box's debut ''NFS'' title for that matter--whereas the rest were developed by EA Seattle as their last ''[=NFS=]'' title.
122** Some PSP versions of ''NFS'' games, while drastically different, can be considered a big downgrade compared to console counterparts. ''[=ProStreet=]'' PSP in particular is the worst offender since it throws out the plot for a generic career system. ''Shift'' PSP version also gets a major flak by many fans (especially players who get used to console versions) for recycling ''[=ProStreet=]'' plots into a PSP title, and can easily get tired quickly save for ThatOneBoss.
123** While not exactly a port as such, the [=PlayStation=] 2 and Wii versions of ''Undercover'' are considered by reviewers as nothing more than just cash-ins for fans who don't have a more premium system, and therefore, the superior version. The visuals are worse than ''Carbon''[='=]s, despite being two years younger, the frame rate is (amazingly) worse than the 360/[=PS3=] versions, and the game's landscapes aren't actually new; they're actually just various roads and highways from both ''Most Wanted'' 2005 and ''Carbon'' clobbered together. On top of that, it still suffers various problems that griped the superior versions (i.e. the glaring, shiny street effect). The only saving grace the original lacked was the ability for players to drive cop cars in a minigame trying to bust street racers around, similar to those in ''Hot Pursuit'' titles.
124** The Wii version of ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010. Bear in mind how the game was praised for dragging the series out of the stale tuner street racing theme and returning to its roots. The Wii version is effectively ''Nitro'', but without a cartoonish style and several new courses and cars from the more mainstream versions. Everything else however? Nearly identical. You can still modify the look of your car, which, given the car selection, is tragically hilarious.
125** The PC version of ''Rivals'' takes this up to eleven. The cutscenes are unskippable and the frame rate is hardlocked at 30 FPS... on a platform that can easily handle such a game on 60 FPS or higher. What's worse, if someone tried to force the FPS caps off on the PC version, the game loses control of the physics of the car, ''effectively making the game unplayable.'' [[Creator/TheCynicalBrit TotalBiscuit]] shares his thoughts on the PC port [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDA37BmvNwM&list=UUy1Ms_5qBTawC-k7PVjHXKQ here.]] Fortunately, [[http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_Rivals according to the PCGamingWiki]], it ''is'' possible to set the game to 60 FPS without this double speed issue with two command lines, with the caveat that the game will run slow for the rest of the session if it dips below the user-defined threshold.
126** The 2015 game's PC version falls into it in spite of Ghost Games' efforts, [[DownplayedTrope though not too much]]. The biggest issue is that the interface is ''very'' uncomfortable when using a keyboard (to the point it's not even the default controller option), with questionable choices like getting to the objectives menu by pressing Tab instead of Escape, or getting into events by pressing [=PgDn=], and you only press the Enter key in the splash screen. It also makes no use whatsoever of the mouse for menu navigation (which while not new for the series, the interface could have taken advantage of it), and you cannot change the game settings once you start playing. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And the Xbox One controller shows up during the first loading screen the game shows after loading]]. It's not to the extent of ''Rivals'', but PC players get the worst experience of the game out of all platforms unless you own hardware that let you play it as if it were a console game (e.g. joysticks).
127** ''Need for Speed Payback'' also suffers from lags and stutters in higher settings and especially if excessive amount of lights (such as police chases or in city areas) are presents. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-emFeuXLYc It even lags and stutters in an RTX build!]]
128** Downplayed with the PC version of ''Hot Pursuit Remastered''; although it finally got all the original DLC for the first time, the textures are ports of the lower-texture ones from the original [=PlayStation=] 3 and Xbox 360 versions. Thankfully, a fan has provided [[https://nfsmods.xyz/mod/2246 a mod]] that restores the original PC version's higher-res textures.
129* RetroactiveRecognition: Music/MickGordon, one of the composers for ''Shift 2: Unleashed'', ''The Run'' and ''World'' would eventually work on the original score for ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' and ''VideoGame/DoomEternal''.
130* ScrappyMechanic:
131** There's ''artificial'' input lag in ''The Run'', making going too fast actually detrimental if you don't know the track well enough.
132** Some games discourage players from replaying a race to earn money, resulting with no rewards as in ''Underground 2'' and ''Undercover'', or pathetically low payout like in ''Carbon''.
133** The incredibly unforgiving crash physics of ''High Stakes'' (on the [=PlayStation=] version developed by EA Canada) and ''Underground'' hardly give you control over your car. You'll just have to hope to get back on your wheels as soon as you can.
134* SequelDisplacement: To put it bluntly, this is what tore up the fanbase. The ''Underground'' games and 2005's ''Most Wanted'' became so successful that it changed people's perceptions of what the franchise is and is not. Unfortunately, the problem was that there was already an existing devoted fanbase beforehand. When EA went back to the classic style in ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010, the older fans were mostly pleased, but the newer fans (which seems to be the majority of the current fanbase) were not. EA tried to rectify this with the ''World'' MMORG released the same year, but since it was a mediocre AllegedlyFreeGame that (although initially somewhat popular) didn't receive that much attention from the fanbase or video game journalists, it didn't really work and was shut down in July 2015. Ghost Games' 2015 series reboot took cues mainly from the second era's games as a result.
135* SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer:
136** Car customization to the point that it, above all other aspects found in the series, is what groups of fans affiliate the franchise with.
137** Police pursuits were the original gold saucer for the franchise, as fans would just race with cops simply for the thrill of the chase.
138* SilentMajority: Possibly for the Criterion installments. Mention ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010 or ''Most Wanted'' 2012 on a forum or in the comments of a news posting or a Website/YouTube video about ''NFS'' and [[FlameWar you'll get some heated reactions from the tuner side of the fanbase]]. However, both those games still sold well (''Most Wanted'' 2012 even outsold 2011's ''The Run'', Black Box's last game in the series), they both made WebVideo/WatchMojo's list of the [[http://watchmojo.com/video/id/16010/ Top 10 Need for Speed Games]],[[note]]''Hot Pursuit'' 2010 at #8 and ''Most Wanted'' 2012 at #6, although ''Hot Pursuit 2'' and ''Most Wanted'' 2005 ranked higher at #3 and #2, respectively. The top 5 were wrapped up by Black Box-developed installments however.[[/note]] and during the 2014 Steam Holiday Sale, ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010[[note]]The game was released on Steam before EA switched to using their Origin service for new PC game releases until 2020.[[/note]] was put up against ''VideoGame/SlenderTheArrival'' and ''VideoGame/HaloSpartanAssault'' as a Community Choice vote for a bonus discount and won, and in 2020, it was announced that a remaster of the game (the first ever in the ''NFS'' series) would be released.
139* SongAssociation: To be expected when you have an EA soundtrack in your game. Music/SnoopDogg? Spiderbait? The Buzzhorn? Music/{{Bush}}? Hot Action Cop? Disturbed? [[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedUnderground Lil Jon]]? [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Bitchin'.]]
140* SoOkayItsAverage:
141** Some say this about ''Most Wanted'' 2012. [[CriticalDissonance The professional critics]], however, hailed it as the best thing since sliced bread.
142** ''Rivals'' got lower review scores than the above-mentioned title, but it is still considered a good arcade racer. The writer of [[http://www.channelworld.in/news/need-for-speed-puts-the-fast-and-the-furious-back-into-street-racing this article]] shares this sentiment. It wasn't that ''Most Wanted'' 2012 and ''Rivals'' were bad (they were perfectly competent games themselves), it's just that--despite ''Most Wanted'' 2012's surreal cutscenes--they lacked ''personality'', which the ''[[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious Fast & Furious]]''-inspired ''Underground'' games had in spades.
143* TearJerker: [[Tearjerker/NeedForSpeed Has its own page here]].
144* ThatOneBoss:
145** Earl in ''Most Wanted'' 2005 served as this for a lot of people, usually due to the aforementioned RubberBandAI, because at that stage of the game the cars available are not as maneuverable as they should be for his final course, so although the player will usually outpace Earl for the vast majority of it, when the player gets to the last 15% or so of the course the rubber-banding would kick in and Earl would accelerate enormously, and if the player made even the tiniest mistake in turning the ridiculously sharp corners--which would almost always happen--Earl would be going so fast that the player would find it impossible to catch up in time.
146** Darius, the FinalBoss of ''Carbon''. His car is an Audi Le Mans Quattro (Audi R8 Concept Car) which has all of the advantages that most of the other cars don't and requires the player to use almost perfect skills with a tier 3 car (likely a Porsche Carrera GT, a Dodge Viper SRT-10, a highly-tuned Nissan Skyline or a highly-tuned Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, etc.) that's very competitive.
147*** All the BossBattle in Canyon are this as they're scripted from ramming them off and easily catch you up in the second run.
148* ThatOneLevel:
149** The Miami circuits in ''Shift 2: Unleashed'' are really awful. The curbs on gentle curves can spin your car out with ease and even with the skill to avoid spinning you'll be fishtailing for quite a while. Even with Traction Control, Best Line and ABS, you'll still get rammed into the wall from other racers bumping into you from the side.
150** In the first ''Shift'', the tight Tokyo tracks are problematic since the other AI racers will relentlessly push you over and almost ruin your winning chances (think of them as the same tracks from ''[=ProStreet=]'', but in reverse direction). Not to mention '''The Green Hell''' Nurburgring tracks are bitches to complete with the AI racers driving aggressively. Made worse by the that that ever since ''Underground'' 1, the RubberBandAI got more annoying by each installment.
151** Mystic Peaks in ''Need for Speed II'' is one of the most difficult circuits in the series, with a lot of hard turns (some of them being ''blind'' turns), jumps in which you actually have to slow down in order not to leave the track or collide hard with a wall (more obvious in Wild mode) and very tight space that does not leave much opportunities to overtake. Excellent driving skills are needed here, especially in Simulation mode, and even then you may have to resort to excellent-handling cars like the Ford Indigo and the [[GameBreaker FZR2000]] to not do an EpicFail.
152** Any late-game Interceptor event in ''Hot Pursuit'' 2010 can become this, thanks to [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the computer's cheating bastardry]]. The racers have infinite ammo for their weapons and are slowed down much less by your own weapons than they are in Hot Pursuits; for instance, spike strips do damage but barely slow them down, while they can plow through road blocks with minimal loss of speed. The nitrous system for police means it's hard for you to earn nitrous to catch up with them, while one of your primary means of getting nitrous (slipstreaming behind racers) is inexplicably disabled. To make matters worse, you're stuck with what weapons the event gives you, so you might have a loadout that's incredibly poor for chasing a single car; good luck stopping a Bugatti with nothing but road blocks and spikes. They're much better in ''Rivals'' due to several small tweaks in gameplay, including the ability to restock weapons at repair shops and a lack of weapon restrictions.
153** The Nitrocide: Nevada Highway raceday event in ''[=ProStreet=]'' counts as well, even for the experienced players. The lineup of cars running every race in the said event include the entire Boxcut crew (with one of them running a ''Pagani Zonda F''), two of the hard hitters from Ryo's Apex Glide team, and two random street racers with cars that can go up against them on equal grounds. And that's not even counting the highway track itself which is one of, if not the hardest speed course in the entire game, with narrow, bumpy, and shaky cam-inducing roads and street poles making fun to OHKO any player.
154* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Throughout its history, ''NFS'' games have been known for being among the best-looking racing games for their time.
155** Sometimes, it's the little details that make them stand out. ''Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit'' and ''Need for Speed II: Special Edition'' with Glide support not only had convincing looking road reflections while it was raining, but the headlights of other cars were even stretched like you've seen many times driving behind someone in the rain.
156** Hell, even some of the games' ''menus'' can look good. Case in point, ''[[http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/167574-need-for-speed-ii-se-windows-screenshot-main-menus.png Need for Speed II]]''.
157** The 2015 reboot in particular looks damn close to a live-action film, with ''seamless'' transitions from live-action footage to in-game engine visuals.

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