YMMV / Need for Speed: Shift

• Demonic Spiders: The opponents' AI in both Shift and Shift 2: Unleashed will slow down just to block you off, making overtaking a pain in the ass.
• Even Better Sequel: Shift 2: Unleashed in comparison to Shift, especially after the 1.02 patch, which corrected the jerky handling for controller users.
• Fan Nickname: 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 long title of Need for Speed: Shift 2 – Unleashed, in reference to still using the franchise's stylized "n" logo, among other things.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Slightly Mad Studios developed these games for a franchise which was trying to get away from being stereotyped as The Fast and the Furious copycat (and succeeded for a short while). Nine years later, they developed Fast & Furious Crossroads, an actual FnF game, and it led to a critical bomb that somewhat cracked SMS's reputation (not helped by the third Project CARS' game's questionable design choices and quality problems).
• Obvious Beta: The Xbox 360 version of Shift tried to access the PlayStation Store.
• Spiritual Successor: Project CARS to Shift 2: Unleashed. Both made by Slightly Mad Studios, both having virtually the same gameplay style.
• That One Boss: Of all the rivals is no other than time attack rival, Chris Rado. And dear God he is extremely brutal and punishing, even more so on even the easiest difficulty. His tuned tC is no slouch of being a rice burning Lightning Bruiser that he sets the fastest time with little to no effort at all. And no, a Works conversion to match his time won't even help you.
• That One Level:
  • 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 the reverse direction). Not to mention the tracks of "The Green Hell" Nurburgring itself are a pain in the ass to complete, with the AI racers driving aggressively. Made worse by that that ever since the first Underground, the Rubber-Band A.I. got more annoying with each installment.
  • 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.
  • Ambush Canyon is probably a racer's worst nightmare. The track is very narrow and very full of unexpected surprises that'll throw your car off the track. Its nighttime variant makes the nightmare a total black terror.
  • The Endurance Challenge of Champions literally takes this. It is a Marathon Level of two races in Nürburgring Nordschleife with five laps each one in day and other in night. The track itself is one of the hardest tracks in the entire motorsport in gaming, combined with aggressive AI and the awkwardly handling of this game will make this event incredibly frustrating even in the easier difficulties. Oh!, and if you're driving the Speedhunters version of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII which makes it a Game-Breaker, in case of the PS3 version there are occasions that the game will crash when racing in the night making this event Unintentionally Unwinnable with this car.
  • The Drift events can also take this especially in the two last events which are teeth-gnashingly difficult to even achieve a decent drift score. And you must achieve the high score if you want the Ford Mustang Falken Tires.