The newest entry in the racing series seems to go back to its roots. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=18737 In the Nintendo Booth I was given a quick one race demo of the upcoming Need for Speed: Nitro which is being built exclusively for Wii.
I played the game with only the Wii Remote, one of the many options for control. Unlike Mario Kart and Excitebots, I held the Remote pointed forward and twisted my wrist left and right to turn. Regardless of the awkward setup the game controlled quite well. Being that I have played most racing games with the Wheel or seesaw controls, this scheme felt very fresh.
The racing was fast-paced, simple, and arcade-like. Over time the series has seemed to depart from this initial formula that it became popular with in the first place, so it was nice to see Nitro return to its roots. As I raced around the track I had to try and stay in higher places in order to claim zones of the track, which were in turn tagged with my logo. I also had to avoid cops and do some slight drifting to keep on the track.
Nitro boosts were important to stay ahead of the competition, as well as grabbing wrenches every so often to avoid my car's destruction.
Visually the game was obviously nowhere near Shift, the other new title in the series for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but for a Wii game is looked well and offered some nice textures and interesting light reflection. The fast movement of the game helped it avoid looking aliased which was also nice.
I walked away from the game much more excited than I was going in. The controls were definitely the most pleasant surprise, which was accentuated by the huge array of other options, covering every control method possible on Wii.