The Need for Speed series seems to be taking a different direction than the one many of us are used to. It’s grittier, more realistic–a far cry from the arcade goodness of games like Hot Pursuit 2 and Most Wanted. While a lot of people have bought in on this it’s still a direction that just as many folks aren’t happy about. Look on forums, in YouTube comments, etc. People are clamoring for the pre-ProStreet games to make a comeback.

That’s why we’ve come up with a synergistic solution: a new title that utilizes older game assets: Need for Speed: Challenge. It’s been done with Need for Speed: World, a MMO racing game that’s exclusive to the PC. It merges the cities from Most Wanted and Carbon together and provides an open-world, role playing-racing experience. Challenge would be something similar: all of the Micheal Bay story elements stripped out. Yep, it’s just raw, adrenaline fueled racing. The difference is that Challenge wouldn’t be an MMO. Rather than a persistent-world game, it would be a single player free roam racer with multiplayer race events.

What should change:

Start with Carbon – No two NFS fans can agree on which pre-ProStreet game is the best, but the fact of the matter is that Carbon has the most capability-wise to build from. It’s got the vast majority of the customization features from the Underground games, and adds EA’s Autosculpt feature which allows players to dynamically shape parts of the car. It’s got Most Wanted‘s epic police chases as well. Race-wise all of the modes from Underground to Most Wanted are there aside from Drag, which can be added again. It’s also got a togue-like chase down a canyon. It’s the perfect base for something truly wonderful.

Sprinkle in some World Need for Speed: World wouldn’t exactly make a perfect transition to consoles with its role-playing elements, but bringing in the races and gameplay world from the game is a perfect example of reduce-reuse-recycle. EA would totally go green with game assets. It trims down the development budget drastically, too, which means more money for licensing cars and adding other goodies.

Focus funds on car licensing – As much as a great pack of music would be, out of the box we’d like to see licensing costs be directed towards getting the most cars in at an Xbox Live Arcade per-unit price. Music could come from indie artists who will license their tunes on the cheap. Purists who want their classic EA Trax soundtrack could be given a Speed Tunes Pack as DLC. And as long as we’re talking sheer cost of licensing, let’s focus on cars that don’t cost and arm and a leg to license. We’d rather have two Chevys, a Honda and a Pontiac than only one Lamborghini. Expensive-to-license cars can be offered as DLC. We hate to throw out a perceived quantity-over-quality focus, but there are plenty of great cars can be licensed at lower costs.

Simplify – Again, we’re not knocking the evolution of the new Need for Speed games, it’s just that we’re talking Xbox Live Arcade. Realistically there wouldn’t be a budget for live actors over CG backgrounds telling the story. Even if there were money to do it there’s no way it’d fit in the 2GB limit. Let it be focused on winning races, not some epic story. If the player needs some sort of progression the staple of text messages/voicemails can be used alongside engine-based driving cutscenes.

What should stay the same:

Old-school physics – The physics system for the series was supposedly rewritten for Undercover, providing more “realistic” physics. That might be fine for some, but those on who want the UndergroundCarbon era back want the arcade physics back, too. Sure, EA Black Box perfected the system in later games, but it just wouldn’t be what the fans would want. We want to take a turn at a super-realistic speed. We want our Chevy Cobalt SS to somehow magically do over 200 MPH when fully upgraded even though that’s totally impossible. As great as the new NFS games are they just aren’t arcadey enough, and that’s what we need.

Runnin’ with speed – Again, we’re not taking digs at the new games in the series, but NFS games prior to 3-4 years ago were about going stupidly fast while a dozen cops try to push you into a spike strip just meters ahead. It’s that white-knuckled adrenaline rush that made so great. That sense of Speed is what the series is all about, and cops have always been a huge part of that.

DLC, DLC, and more DLC – Hey, we’re realists here. We get that we can’t get 50 cars, a huge world and killer gameplay for 1600 MSP or less. That’s why we’re requesting (and calling) DLC packs. And once again we don’t need every car rebuilt from scratch. Start with cars that are already set up for that era of games. It’ll keep costs down and create a Need for Speed: World-style economy that helps to keep EA’s bank in the plus while giving players a budget game where they can pick the cars they want to expand with. Problem solved.

Why it would succeed:

Rebuilding a game using familiar assets immediately attracts fans–if Need for Speed: World is any indication. It puts players into an environment they can immediately jump into, one that that has the cars and customization that players crave. There’s a general buzz on the web that players want the 2000’s era Need for Speed games back; giving them Challenge at a budget price would not only drive sales, but history has shown that XBLA games that tie in to a retail series often increase interest in retail games. To top it all off reusing existing assets lowers development costs, and given that all Need for Speed games since Most Wanted have existed on current-gen systems there’s little core code to write. It’s cheaper to develop, and it doesn’t need Micheal Bay-esque epic moments. Just a raw Challenge without the bells and whistles for 1600 MSP.