The Craving for Speed series of games is the best-selling and most successful racing franchise in the history of computer games. To date, the number of sold copies of the entire list of NFS games reaches 200 million. With all the diversity and experiments of the company, all games have common rules enshrined more than two decades ago. The player is given the opportunity to control a virtual car and participate in races, where the main goal is only one - victory.
NFS Games List
As mentioned earlier, the first part of the legendary series was released in 1994 under the name Need for Speed and is localized in Russia under the name "Need for Speed". A complete list of NFS games in order:
- "Need for speed" - 1994.
- "Need for Speed II" - 1997.
- "Thirst for Speed III: Hot Chase" - 1998.
- "Need for Speed: High Stakes" - 1999.
- "Need for Speed: Porshe Unleashed" - 2000.
- "Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2" - 2002.
- "Need for Speed: Undergrounds" - 2003.
- "Need for Speed: Undergrounds 2" - 2004.
- Craving for speed: Most Wanted "- 2005.
- "Need for Speed: Carbon" - 2006.
- "Need for Speed: Pro Street" - 2007.
- "Need for Speed: Undercover" - 2008.
- "Need for Speed: Shift" - 2009.
- "Need for Speed: Nitro" - 2009.
- "Need for Speed: World" - 2010.
- "Thirst for speed: Hot pursuit (reboot)" - 2010.
- Shift 2: Unleashed "- 2011.
- "Need for Speed: The Run" - 2011.
- "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" - 2012.
- "Need for Speed: Rivals" - 2013.
- "Need for Speed: No Limits" - 2015.
- "Need for Speed" - 2015
- "Need for Speed: Payback" - 2016.
- "Need for Speed: Edge" - 2018.
If we talk about the series as a whole, then we can talk a lot about the ups and downs of EA. In the case of a comparison of the games in the series, you will notice that the first and last parts are already little connected. One thing remains unchanged: each of the NFS games list is like a racing simulator with arcade elements.
From rise to fall
The appearance on the shelves of gaming stores a conceptually new look at computer racing has revolutionized the way gamers view this genre. The first two parts relied entirely on the charm of sports competitions and fully played out their role as simulators.
Already from the third part, it became clear that the company is undergoing many changes and the market requires more mass product. In subsequent parts, there are a lot of innovations that rely on racing with the police. This made a considerable diversity in the gameplay, which, together with the new car tuning function, simply fascinated gamers of the late 90s.
The gaming industry has never stood still, and now the players are not enough interesting gameplay and new mechanics. Games with an interestingly worked out plot were gaining popularity in full, which the racing genre could not boast of. But even here, ingenious developers have distinguished themselves. The first attempts to make an interesting story were shown during the games Undergrond and Underground 2. At that time, they were limited to short videos at the beginning and at the end of the game, as well as in-game SMS.
The peak of popularity for Need for Speer came at the end of 2005 with the release of the Most Wanted part. It was for the first time that professional videos with the participation of real actors were involved in it. The game sold at that time a record number of 16 million and instantly gained the status of a cult. The company did its best to repeat the success of the legendary game, which, unfortunately, it failed. Experiments were conducted to return to professional racing, which were also unsuccessful.
Need for Speed franchise today
The series is still afloat, although it no longer produces bestsellers. Attempts to break into the online games market with parts of World and Nitro only strengthened the fall of the series, although they continue to repel multimillion-dollar budgets. With all the failures of recent years, Need for Speed is still one of the most significant franchises in the world of video games.