E3 2012: Hands on with Need For Speed: Most Wanted for iOS and Android

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit was one of EA’s slickest racers to date, and Most Wanted looks like it’ll continue this ultra-polished form of mobile racing.

As might be expected from one of EA’s big franchises, this year’s edition shifts the graphical splendour into a higher gear, with real-time reflections and visual damage the two biggest new draws from an eye-candy point of view.

Seeing the bumper of a severely scratched Porsche 911 hanging limply from the rear of the car after a ‘kiss’ from a cop’s cruiser may be crushing in real life, but it’s amusingly satisfying in game.

As with the console version, Most Wanted takes place in the fictional city of Fairhaven, with the track on the hands-on session taking place within the city limits – diving into tunnels and screeching through the wide American roads.

The team at EA Mobile has been in constant contact with Criterion, so while the tracks and city itself aren’t going to be identical across versions, the look and feel of the game should be similar.

In fact, the demo Porsche 911 had the number plate ‘Burnout’ added at Criterion’s request, which fans of the company’s games should appreciate.

On track

Autolog appears to play a lot more of an important role in Most Wanted than previous games, with leaderboard-chasing pushed to the forefront thanks to an XP system called Speed Points.

There is, of course, still individual friends times and challenges for you to beat, too, although EA couldn’t confirm to me whether this new entry will be limited to just Origin this time around.

Likewise, the company didn’t confirm to me if the Android version of the game would be hitting Google Play at around the same time as iOS, however it did confirm that a version for Google’s mobile OS is planned for the future.

We’ll see if Need For Speed: Most Wanted can keep ahead of the law when it launches for iOS in the autumn/fall.