Need for Speed: Most Wanted (mobile)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted in mobile form built on the extremely successful console and PC entry that made the combination of street racing and police chases famous. EA Mobile transferred this concept into a simplified but recognizable form — the player raced on city streets, earned respect by beating rivals, and had to evade police cars trying to stop them during a pursuit. Controls on the numeric keypad reduced driving to steering, acceleration, and using nitro for a speed boost, with the player gradually working their way up to duels against the most dangerous rivals and their signature cars. The game also kept the motif of a fictional police pursuit heat level, albeit in a simplified form.

The game's atmosphere drew on nighttime streets lit by streetlamps and the colorful lights of oncoming traffic, which looked very appealing on phones of the era and evoked the feel of nighttime street racing known from the original. The game also carried over the core motif of rivals who had to be defeated one by one to earn their cars or respect on an imaginary street racer leaderboard, letting the player work their way up to becoming the city's most feared driver. Cars could also be upgraded between races, giving the player a sense of gradually building their own street-racing legend.

Thanks to the enormous popularity of the original console game, its mobile version was guaranteed interest from players who wanted to carry the beloved brand in their pocket. Critically, the game was regarded as a successful, if necessarily simplified, conversion of the original's important elements to limited hardware. Today it serves as a reminder of an era when major console titles routinely received mobile companion versions for players without access to a console, offering an interesting glimpse into the marketing strategy of publishers at the time.

Why play it: For players who knew the console original and wanted to carry the beloved racing brand in their pocket — a simplified but faithfully executed conversion of the era's hit.