Need For Speed: Hot Import Nights (Arcade) is an arcade alternative release of Need For Speed: Hot Import Nights developed by various third-party developers such as SEGA, Namco Limited, Execraft and Ghost Games, and published by Electronic Arts.
This arcade game features the same mixed story plot crossover between Need for Speed: Underground 2 and Need for Speed: Carbon, with the original characters are made by Seven Arcs Pictures the creator behind Lyrical Nanoha series, as well as the vehicles are Auto Modellista art style which marked itself apart from others of the same genre with cel-shaded graphics, which gave a hand-drawn and cartoon-like appearance.
Overview[]
In this arcade game version is fairly similar to Need for Speed: Carbon, but it has some similarities to the newer NFS games (such as Unbound) too. It has vastly better graphics than the previous games in it's saga, but the vehicle designs are Auto Modellista art style, even using some of the manga style effects for Nitrous and Tyre sounds from Initial D The Arcade. The car system is fairly similar to the one present in Carbon, with Tuners, Exotics and Muscles, however, it uses the letter tiers from C, B, A and S indicates overpowered performance capability.
Gameplay[]
The arcade rendition of Need For Speed: Hot Import Nights plays almost the same as the original game, but using the driving physics from various arcade racing games such as Initial D The Arcade and high speed physics from Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6, but uses the collision physics as player car hits the traffic vehicles or a wall hard enough from NFS Underground 1 Arcade.
This arcade version features only three race modes: Circuit, Sprint, and Top Speed run (Drift in Japanese version only), with a brand new tracks expanded from Carbon and Underground 2 (from Highway, all the way to the specific location where the finish line takes place e.g. C1 to Bayview's Outer Ring as the finish line location, or as the circuit race, from C1 to the specific location to drive through and looping from the C1 again as laps). Players can jump in and compete against computer opponents or local friends across a networked series of cabinets or online. Also this arcade cabinet has ability to connect to and play against the players from other racing arcade cabinets such as Initial D The Arcade cab and/or Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6 cab, but the starting race is mixed and can only be linked between this arcade cabinet and Initial D The Arcade cab or Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6 cabinet one at a time (as cars from NFS Hot Import Nights against the cars from Initial D the Arcade either 1 or 4 opponents played, all are always at standing start in the starting line. While the cars from NFS Hot Import Nights against the cars from Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6 either 1 or 4 opponents played, 1 player is standing start in the starting line while the WMMT6 players in the cabinet are always rolling start at 120 KM/H, making the non-WMMT6 player always starts at the last place due to fast speeds from the Character Drivers' bonuses especially with Extreme PLUS upgrades). However, you can be linked and race against the players, even during their races in different arcade cabinets, still can be entered. Included in each cabinet, is a force-feedback steering wheel, as well as a 6-gear manual shifter that can be used if preferred over an automatic transmission. Also the cabinet's steering wheel has two additional buttons: the left button is the Speedbreaker, while the right button is a Nitrous.
Just like Initial D The Arcade or WMMT6, the players are also able to set up connected cabinets for tournament play, and can partake in local-run and national competitions. The cabinets can also be connected to the internet, allowing players to view their best times and see how they rank against others. Players are able to enter online using Banapassport or AiME card, and can also customise their vehicles via in-game garage as well as changing characters and or adding special car accessories and interior modifications. Similar manner of player data in Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6, the player data is stored on game's servers instead of on the card (the card is used only for player authentication) the player can have up to 200 cars in their profile.
Characters[]
Similar to playable characters in Need For Speed Payback, players take on the role of multiple main characters. These character drivers are only you get if you have a Banapassport or AiME card. If you don't have a Banapassport or AiME card, you'll play as a Guest with generic driver without voice lines or personality, and also don't having any performance bonus for the chosen vehicle. Once you play the game and scan the card for the first time, you have to select 1 character driver, each of these has a different attributes bonuses, which adds their chosen vehicle's performance, so the player can mix-and-match with different cars or characters to remedy the cars' weaknesses. Also characters are different voice lines and personalities depending on their situation of driving, during racing events. Also the player can create a generic driver avatar with custom outfits and names which are similar manner of the character customization from the Initial D arcade games, but they always treated as Custom type and they don't have a vehicle's performance bonuses unlike the main characters.
Just like the cars' stats, the playable characters has also their stat bonuses of Top Speed, Acceleration and Handling, and broke up into four attributes: Balance, Power, Cornering, and Hybrid.
- Balance: This type of attribute is a Top Speed oriented bonus, but gives a decent Acceleration and Handling bonuses. Characters with Balance bonuses such as Chiron, Coop, Royce, Ruka, Wolf, etc.
- Power: This type of attribute is a high raw power of Acceleration and good Top Speed bonuses, but gives a low Handling bonus. Characters with Power bonuses such as Angie, Jesey, Marie, Sara, Spark, etc.
- Cornering This type of attribute is a turning corners of high Handling bonus, but gives a low Acceleration and Top Speed bonuses. Characters with Cornering bonuses such as Brights, Elise, Jeyson, Josh, Kenji, etc.
- Hybrid: This type of attribute is a mixed up high either Top Speed, high Acceleration or Handling bonuses, but low either these said stats. Characters with Hybrid bonuses such as Axle, John & Nancy, Lewis and Tetley.
If any character drivers drive a favorite car, it grants not only a custom body kits, aero sets and always but locked default color scheme for their specific characters' cars, but also a permanent Extreme PLUS bonus. The Extreme PLUS grants the chosen favorite cars a plethora of special attributes than a full tuned upgrades. As a result, the car's performance has a 5 phases of upgrades and only get when you beat the boss racers throughout the playthrough.
Extreme PLUS bonuses
- Improved car's Acceleration, Top Speed and Handling. (from Phase 1 to 4)
- Enhanced RPM up to 11500 and red line was 11000. (from Phase 1 onwards)
- Enhanced drifting and handling performance similar to OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast's drift. (from Phase 1 onwards)
- Enhanced Nitrous performance. (from Phase 3 onwards)
- Maximum car's Acceleration, Top Speed and Handling performances. (Phase 5)
This car Extreme PLUS feature is unbalanced and overpowered for their favorite characters cars, and can lead to this unfair advantage for competitive PvP races. For example, the player cars in WMMT6 or Initial D AC without Nitrous racing against the player's car in NFS HIN with Extreme PLUS (plus with Nitrous), the NFS HIN Player's Car is way the fastest and always zoomed in the lead up to 2000+ meters way from the other players and they fell in second place or below. Even fully upgraded tuned non-Extreme PLUS cars, they're outdistanced away from the Player's Extreme PLUS Car, and stay in the lead. When the NFS HIN player drove well enough, this will be a similar manner of the unfair Rubber Band AI in racing games, but human controlled player rather than the game's AI CPU. Thus making the race unwinnable for non-Extreme PLUS cars no matter what faster than the player's Extreme PLUS cars and racking up as many as race losses as possible as opposed of getting many wins as possible. The only way to race fairly by racing against the player's car in NFS HIN with Extreme PLUS with their car with Extreme PLUS, so non-Extreme PLUS cars in Initial D the Arcade and WMMT6 are useless against them.
Cars[]
- Main article: Need For Speed: Hot Import Nights/Cars
Cars in Need For Speed: Hot Import Nights arcade are the same as from the orginal game. Much like in Need for Speed: Carbon. The game have notable inclusions in its car roster, such as Japanese Tuner cars, American muscle cars and European Exotic Cars. All cars are categorized in performance tiers and car categories:
- Tier C - Low performance capabilities
- Tier B - Moderate performance capabilities
- Tier A - High performance capabilities
- Tier S - Overpowered performance capabilities
- Exotic - Highest top speeds
- Muscle - Quickest acceleration
- Tuners - Best handling
Cars from Initial D The Arcade and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6 aren't have any performance tiers or car categories, and those from the respective arcade cabinets doesn't have any Nitrous or Speedbreaker functions. Thus making the race unwinnable for cars from Initial D The Arcade and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6 as they racing against the cars in NFS Hot Import Nights, especially the character drivers' favorite cars with Extreme PLUS bonuses.
There are 3 matchups of cars against others cars from the respective racing arcade game cabinets:
- Cars from Initial D The Arcade are the slowest and only focuses on the cornering tracks, but they're too slow against the cars from Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6 or cars in Need For Speed: Hot Import Nights arcade because of their lowest driving speed. Even fully tuned car, Initial D The Arcade cars are still slow against the WMMT6 cars and does not have a Nitrous or Speedbreaker features, making the race almost unwinnable against the WMMT6 cars or cars in NFS Hot Import Nights especially with Extreme PLUS bonuses.
- Cars from Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6 are faster and only focuses on highway tracks in straights, but they're bit difficult to turn in corners due to their faster driving speed. However, they're no match to race against the character drivers' favorite cars with Extreme PLUS bonuses from NFS Hot Import Nights. Even fully tuned car, WMMT6 cars are still slow against them and does not have a Nitrous or Speedbreaker features, making the race almost unwinnable against the cars in NFS Hot Import Nights especially with Extreme PLUS bonuses, but still winnable race against the cars from Initial D The Arcade.
- Cars in NFS Hot Import Nights are the middle between and they can drive around in cornering tracks or highway tracks in straights, but the driving speed is almost the same as in NFS Hot Import Nights and character drivers' favorite cars with Extreme PLUS bonuses are almost unbeatable if the player drive well, making the cars NFS Hot Import Nights with Extreme PLUS bonuses nealy always winnable against the both cars from Initial D The Arcade or WMMT6. Also cars in NFS Hot Import Nights including with Extreme PLUS are have Nitrous or Speedbreaker features.
Region Differences[]
Japanese exclusive[]
The only Japanese version of NFS Hot Import Nights changes the numerous characters from the non-Japanese version, but the story and gameplay are the same, it has new tracks and the new event mode called Drift Mode which is only available in the Japanese version.
The changes from non-Japanese version are as follows:
- The Bushidoshi characters such as Zack, Yuni, Riku, etc. are replaced by the brand new character Kazuya, Sakura, Takaru, etc. as well as original story plot.
- The T.F.K. characters such as Royce, Senna, Jeyson, etc. are replaced by the brand new character Ronnie, Verona, Recano, etc. But the story plot is the same as non-Japanese version.
- The tracks themselves are take place in entirely Japan such as Hokkaido, Osaka, Tokyo, etc. with highways, downhill roads and street roads which directly inspired by Initial D and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune games.
- Boss Racer and crew names from non-Japanese version are replaced by the names based on the Sengoku Era except for Danica and her NASCAR crew and Darius and his Stacked Deck crew.
- The 21st Street nitrous' velocity power nerfed a bit, but long lasting duration, making the 21st Street drivers almost less powerful, but still valuable in competitive driving game.
- The Mezzanotte nitrous velocity power buffed a bit, but short lasting duration, making the Mezzanotte drivers almost more powerful as the non-Japanese version for competitive driving game.
- All character drivers including boss racers are Japanese voices.