NFS Heat Takedown (Arcade)

The street racing, cop-dodging action of the Need for Speed series feels like the exact kind of fast-paced action that an arcade racer thrives on, NFS Heat Takedown not even the first time the franchise has been adapted for arcade cabinets. However, while it does adapt elements from its console counterpart Need for Speed Heat, it also seems to be a somewhat low effort attempt to do so with some surprisingly lean offerings in general.

 

NFS Heat Takedown is presented in a sit-down arcade cabinet, the player utilizing a built-in steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake pedal to control one of five supercars during a race. The vehicles available are certainly a sleek bunch, a Porsche 911, Ford GT, and options from Corvette, Lamborghini, and Nissan giving you a bit of variety in appearance and ability despite it being just a handful of cars compared to the home console offerings. Having a small selection of vehicles isn’t as important as the amount of tracks though, NFS Heat Takedown featuring only 5 unique courses it arranges in what it calls the Pro Cup. The player will need to pay for every race in this cup even if they get first place although there is a consistent scoring system so you don’t need to win every race to necessarily place first. You’re up against seven other cars but the cabinet can be linked up to up to three others to allow for four human participants, but the paltry amount of unique courses does feel like it will be a sticking point for players who might otherwise be tempted to return to the cabinet regardless of if they’re going alone or racing friends.

Since NFS Heat Takedown features night time street races, it can be a touch hard to differentiate the tracks on offer. All of them are sprints meaning there are no laps to worry about, but there aren’t too many defining features to really help make any of the courses feel distinct. There is one track that links together a fair few hairpin turns back to back while another instead features multiple boost jumps in a row, but otherwise it’s easy for the city backgrounds or grassy outskirts to blur together and as a result it’s hard to even recall which track includes which feature. Tracks can also feel like the finish line comes up at a surprising time as well, the courses not establishing the strongest build-up in the time they last.

 

Luckily, NFS Heat Takedown does have other factors that spice it up so you aren’t going to be left high and dry by its nearly interchangeable tracks. One of the most important elements of making this high octane racer feeling satisfying is the responsiveness of your vehicle. You can drive at incredibly high speeds and spot a turn coming and hook into it with ease thanks to the steering wheel finding a solid spot between the player needing to get a sense for how much to turn it and that not being too much. You do feel like the one in control of how cleanly you take the turns and need to feel out the drift, the player able to avoid collisions with guard rails and even able to keep the gas pedal pressed if they’re able to anticipate a turn well. The vibrating seat does make it feel more intense as well, the fact you’re driving with something approximating reality making pulling off clean maneuvers more satisfying then if they were just control sticks and buttons.

You are given one very important tool for effecting your success in a race in NFS Heat Takedown though, that being your Nitrous. Nitrous can give your car an incredible boost of speed, adding more strategy to the driving as finding times to activate it makes this more than a test of driving ability. The Nitrous will also build up as you drive, getting full refreshes when you hit jump boosters so that you’ll have the means to give yourself a surge of speed quite often. This couples well with the responsive controls to boot, the player needing to identify moments where they need to account for available nitrous before attempting turns. NFS Heat Takedown lets you take down other racers if you hit them with enough speed and the right angle too, although if your car is totaled either by other racers or through your own errors, you are put back on the course surprisingly quickly. In an effort to keep it competitive, the car will even spring to life pretty close to the other racers, something that makes sense to keep the race competitive but also perhaps disincentivizes being more aggressive with other drivers since they won’t be out of the race too long.

 

The big flashing red and blue lights on the cabinet tops though signal something you should fear far more and could benefit a lot more from taking down. Cops are patrolling the streets you’re racing on, and when they spot the action, they start to try and take you and the other racers down. Once a police officer has started their chase, you’ll start seeing more obstacles to your success like roadblocks, but with a burst of nitrous you can seemingly disintegrate the blocking cars if that’s how you choose to use your speed boost. Cop cars on the road will also try to ram you and pull you over, and when they bust you, you’re taken out of the race for a few seconds. You are going to be placed a bit close to the action just as you would should you be totaled, but if a cop car has busted you, it’s likely already forced you to a stop or impeded your speed enough that the delay feels like more than just a short countdown before you are put back into play. Since you often come across police cars along the course, even the first place player has to contend with them, and it helps to start pushing back against players who might have otherwise ran away with the race. It’s not too oppressive either, perhaps a bit to its detriment as the short courses also mean you can shake the cops rather quickly, but it is a nice way to add some adrenaline back into the action if you do pull ahead of the other drivers.

THE VERDICT: While its course offerings are a bit underwhelming, the game control and other elements that impact the action in NFS Heat Takedown mean races do have enough energy to make playing this arcade racer an entertaining time. Nitrous management pairs well with needing to learn the feel of how much to turn the wheel to navigate the course, and while the police aren’t always the most potent, they do provide a sudden complication to factor in as you start weaving through roadblocks and need to avoid the cops racing alongside you. The races do blur together so it’s hard to point at many unique moments during the Pro Cup, but it is at least an adrenaline packed blur.

 

And so, I give NFS Heat Takedown for arcade machines…

An OKAY rating. Track design in NFS Heat Takedown isn’t necessarily poor, it just often feels like it’s letting the other elements do the work when it comes to adding some excitement to the races. They’re set up to introduce the police as a frequent factor, they offer different moments to renew your nitrous, and they’ll give you enough turns and obstacles so that you’re always keeping the wheel moving, but it’s much more memorable when you’re plowing through a blockade rather than that blockade feeling like it was positioned in an interesting way. The course feels like it’s there to host take downs and heated police chases rather than offering too much itself, which means you are getting a decent platform for the aggressive racing style but also not finding much stimulation when you’re away from the pack or the cops have been shaken successfully. The Pro Cup’s design is probably the most egregious element of the game, it clear that you have to pay for each race because of how few are on offer so no freebies for first place as a result. More diverse tracks would make buying back in feel more meaningful, but the city streets lack that special spark to make them memorable. It’s almost pure sensation at play here, the effective elements more about control and speed than content, but for most people who sit down and want to play a quick race at an arcade, they won’t find themselves disappointed with how the sprints pan out.

 

While the police chases of NFS Heat Takedown will help it stand out a touch from other driving cabinets in the same arcade, it also isn’t likely to be one of the memorable racers kept around for people to keep returning to. It may have high octane street races with a stylish look and some responsive controls, but your heart will still likely be won by some racer with more personality, flair, or track diversity. This street racer plays it a little too safe with its track design, so don’t be too surprised when an arcade operator swaps it out for something that better motivates repeat visits than this street racer that plays it surprisingly safe.