Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed box art

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Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed

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Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed

Jul 28, 1996

Port of The Need for Speed

3.45 average rating based on 104 ratings

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Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed, later released in Japan as Over Drivin’, is a 1994 racing video game first released on the 3DO and then ported to MS-DOS, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It is the first installment released in the Need for Speed series. The premise of the game involves racing in sport cars, including several exotic models and Japanese imports. The Saturn version expanded the content with three additional closed-circuit track courses, for a total of six tracks available at launch, and also allows users to select the time of day which is not seen in … More
Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed, later released in Japan as Over Drivin’, is a 1994 racing video game first released on the 3DO and then ported to MS-DOS, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It is the first installment released in the Need for Speed series. The premise of the game involves racing in sport cars, including several exotic models and Japanese imports. The Saturn version expanded the content with three additional closed-circuit track courses, for a total of six tracks available at launch, and also allows users to select the time of day which is not seen in older versions. Less
Developers
EA, Electronic Arts
Publishers
EA, Electronic Arts
Franchises
Need for Speed
Series
Need for Speed
Platforms
Sega Saturn
Genres
Racing
Themes
Action
Release Dates
Jul 28, 1996 Full Release (Worldwide)
Sega Saturn
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User Stats
238
In Collection
30
Wish Listed
3
Playing
42
Backlogged
How Long Is Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed?
Main story: 1.8 hours
100% completion: 0.0 hours
Total completions: 3
Yungbeck
Yungbeck gave Jul 16, 2025
Yungbeck gave Jul 16, 2025
Speed Needed

Humble beginnings for this long running series does indeed do the job, but leaves room for improvement. One thing promised that it delivers however is SPEED. It feels fast and the cars are responsive enough to where you can improve your skills to grab that 1st place finish or that elusive fastest track time.

Alpine

If you drive past cows without saying "cows" you're a serial killer.

There's classic Time Trial, Head to Head, Single Race and Tournament modes. Level design is wonderful and varied, with not much, but some stuff to look at along the way. Eight different cars can be tried out and tuned/customised to your liking.

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I played the Playstation version today and I think I played the PC version back when I was a kid. I believe my granddad had it, which is pretty rad. Overall I enjoyed my time with the original Need for Speed, while it may not have aged like parmesan, it laid the foundation for the series and the many, many sequels to come.

[3.3] / [5]

Bounty_Hunt3r
Bounty_Hunt3r gave Dec 17, 2020
Bounty_Hunt3r gave Dec 17, 2020
The Need for Speed
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version

So I'm mostly confined to my bedroom due to a foot injury and I try find some older/less hardware needy games to play on a laptop to survive the days. I always wanted to play the older entries of my favourite franchises, so I gave a chance to the Original NFS via a little DosBox magic.

While it wasn't the best time I had these days, I can see why people liked this back in the 90's. There aren't many cars or tracks, but If you had a friend by your side to play with and beat each others records and mess around, this was probably fun. I did some races with a Ferrari and a Supra, and the controls are horrible and so is the graphics, but what can I say, it was a great game, it just isn't anymore. I'm thankful though, because it laid the foundation for an arcade racing franchise. It had cops, supercars, exotic locations, crashes, so everything you need, it just needed a little polish that the many sequels provided to perfect the recipe.

MantaOrlando
MantaOrlando gave Mar 27, 2025
MantaOrlando gave Mar 27, 2025
Humble beginnings
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version

And they started expanding from the first game onwards. Well, until Blackbox had too little development time and closed.

Mixplit
Mixplit updated their status Apr 7, 2022
Mixplit updated their status Apr 7, 2022

Disc version is from PC Gamer Classic Games Collection disk volume 1 July 2,000. Full games not just demos. Full disc contents: X-COM: UFO Defense , Wing Commander, Alone in the Dark, Terminal Velocity, Duke Nukem 2, King's Quest, Descent, Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed, Ultima Underworld, Links, The Secret of Money Island.