Two years ago acclaimed British developer Criterion took a stab at one of Need for Speed’s most established imprints: Hot Pursuit. The results were fantastic; it was a game that pushed the arcade racer forward in new, exciting directions, providing unprecedented levels of connectivity, and was a major shot in the arm for the series.

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Thankfully, following on from the disappointment of last year’s entry The Run, Criterion is back in the driving seat, turning its perfectionist’s gaze towards another title from the franchise’s past. This time it’s Most Wanted receiving the makeover and the results occasionally approach the sublime.The first thing that impresses you about Most Wanted - and there are many highlights to choose from - is the sheer quality and craftsmanship of the game. It’s evident in most aspects of the game. It’s been constructed with a fastidious attention to detail. You’ll emerge from winding tunnels into blinding light; flecks of dirt and blades of grass will cling to the screen should you choose to go off-road; the music quality will dip and static will accumulate on your Sat Nav when you venture underground; the warm sunlight skims off rainwater that has pooled on the uneven, cracked tarmac. They’re all little touches – testament to time and energy – but when they all combine, as they frequently do, the result approaches something quite sublime. And you’ll still be able to appreciate it all tearing down the highway at 150 miles per hour.You get the impression that Criterion is rather proud of its achievement. Each race is prefaced by an introductory video, which showcases the city it has built from the ground up. Some are surreal vignettes in which police cars fall from the sky or perch on the ceiling of car parks like flies; others are snapshots of the city itself, showcasing its urban beauty.Things in the distance don’t bear up to the same scrutiny but it’s a more than acceptable tradeoff, since every side of Fairhaven – every sewer and flood drain, bridge and road – is accessible to you right from the beginning, without a single intrusive loading time. This is open-world gaming at it’s most seamless. Different sections aren’t crudely welded together with lengthy loading times. You’ll only be pulled out of it when you change cars, enter a race or switch to multiplayer and it never takes more than a few seconds.But this is a driving game of course, so inevitably it comes down to the cars. And in keeping with its sandbox aspirations, you're able to drive nearly every one of its 41 vehicles right from the start, from the mundane Lancia Delta to the most desirable Aston Martin V12 Vantage. To drive them you don’t have to win races or accumulate points or buy tokens; you just have to find them. Some are hidden on rooftops or down back alleys; some are hiding in plain sight.When you find a new car it’s equipped with stock components: basic tyres, a basic chassis and transmission, and no nitrous exhaust. You upgrade your car by accumulating Speed Points, which you earn by transgressing the law, setting off speed cameras, bursting through billboards, evading the police. But the fastest way to net some serious Speed Points is by entering street races.Each car has five races open to it, ranging from easy to hard. The races themselves are fairly varied: there are straightforward circuit races, sprint races and Speed Runs, in which you’ll have to maintain an absurdly-fast average time while weaving in and out of traffic. Place well in the races and you’ll receive perks such as off-road tyres, a reinforced chassis (so you can burst through roadblocks), or different gear sets, depending on whether you want a higher top speed or faster acceleration.Modding is easily done via Easy Drive, the game’s persistent on-screen menu. It lets you upgrade your car using the D-pad, change your car and set a route to new race. It again furthers that open-world feel. Criterion is smart enough to know that nothing is more antithetical to the open-world experience that it’s trying to create than drilling down through a series of static menus.In addition to straightforward races, there are also Ambush events in which you’ll have to evade the boys in blue. Part of the fun of Most Wanted is antagonising the authorities. Initially you’ll feel restricted to the roads and highways of Fairhaven, but the races show you different sides to the city. There are two ways in which you can lose the fuzz: keep on running for the horizon and hope they can’t chase you or break the line of sight and hide under a bridge, like Ryan Gosling in Drive.But police interference isn’t limited to Ambush events. They’ll get involved in most races, attempting to ram you off the road or into oncoming traffic; dropping stingers right in front of you; or blocking entire intersections. As your ‘Heat’ level increases they’ll employ faster cars to chase you down and even call in SWAT teams. And this is where your mods can give you a slight advantage – if you need to plough through parked SWAT vans or SUVs you must equip a reinforced chassis and the powershot exhaust, otherwise your car will crumple on impact. However, modding on the move isn’t all that easy and the risk of crashing into an obstacle while trying to change to re-inflatable tyres isn’t really worth it. And while Kinect allows you to access Easy Drive more easily, during the fast-paced races of Most Wanted it’s still a bit of liability to mod mid-race.The spectacular is well within reach of even the novice in Most Wanted. Cars handle brilliantly. Once you master drifting and how to use nitrous bursts effectively, you’ll be competitive in most races. Harder races aren’t intimidating with practice and a range of mods unlocked. Slow and steady won’t win you races in Most Wanted; only insanely fast and audacious will.Races in Most Wanted begin not from a static racing line, with you patiently waiting to hit the gas, but from a rolling start – you’re furiously thrown into the middle of the race and that’s pretty much emblematic for the game itself. The opening credits end with an invitation – a robotic-sounding woman’s voice says, “What happens next is up to you.” And that’s part of the game’s central weakness. It provides so much freedom that some will find it rather aimless. When you can drive and upgrade a Lamborghini Gallardo right from the beginning, the motivation to do it all again with a hatchback quickly evaporates. Some many of its pleasures are immediate, not rationed nor deferred.Saying that, there is a very loose narrative of sorts: you’re tasked with becoming the city’s most notorious racer. When you earn sufficient Speed Points you’ll be able to challenge one of Fairhaven’s ten most wanted racers. They drive the most desirable cars in the game – from the real-world Bugatti Veyron to fantastical concept cars – and the races are akin to boss fights, periodically testing your skills and knowledge of the city’s streets. (Incidentally, each race is preceded by the most stunning introduction.) Beat them by successfully take down their vehicle and you’ll take their car as a prize. It’s the main incentive to keep on racking up those Speed Points.That incentive is bolstered by the game’s approach to multiplayer. You’ll be able to drive around a private version of the city with friends, smashing into each other with Ballardian glee, or run through ‘setlists’, which comprise of races as well as challenges – who can make the biggest jump or execute the longest drift, and so on. It’s a lot fun and, as with the main game, it’s all seamless and flowing. Events are linked by mini-races as players attempt to get to the starting point before the rest. But if multiplayer isn’t your sort of thing Criterion has subtly woven competition into the very fabric of Fairhaven. Billboards will carry the face of your friend who burst through it at a higher speed, for instance. It’s subtle but very effective.

The Wii U version of Most Wanted is a very faithful port of the original. So if you want to tear around Fairhaven, becoming the city’s most notorious street racer, this version is as good a place to do it as any.

Criterion's touted that they’ve been able to bring to the PC version’s enhanced textures to the Wii U, (thanks to the available 1GB of RAM compared to the 512MB available to Xbox 360 and PS3). The truth is I was hard-pressed to notice the difference from the existing console versions. It looks great, but isn’t a noticeable step up. Likewise, it's unimpressive that Most Wanted U includes the first piece of DLC – the Ultimate Speed Pack – as part of the package. Despite the exciting title, it’s a superficial expansion at best. It adds five extra cars, 25 new challenges, and 70 more milestones.

The real extra content that distinguishes this version from its peers comes from the integration of the Wii U’s GamePad. It’s used in a variety of ways, some of which work better than others. The ability to use the gyroscope to steer cars, for example, is really more of a disadvantage in such a high-speed racer. It’s just too crude and imprecise to be much fun.

Far more curious is the Co-Driver mode. Criterion has said it’s their attempt at giving Most Wanted a more "Nintendo feel" – they even refer to it as the ‘father and son’ mode. It’s a type of asymmetrical co-op: one player's in charge of driving the car, using either a Wiimote or Pro-Controller, while the second player mans the GamePad, granting them near god-like control over key aspects of the game. With a simple tap of the touchscreen, the second player can take control of car away from the other player or instantly turn day into night. The GamePad also shows a more expansive, detailed map, allowing them to direct the driver toward places of interest, such as jack spots or challenges.

The GamePad is much more powerful than that – it can also remove other vehicles from the roads and even make police cars spin wildly out of control. Another tap can fix badly-damaged cars, removing the satisfying challenge of finding a garage in the middle of an intense race and trying to thread your car through it at 90mph.

Despite the magnitude of these powers, the second player’s role is really little more than that of an overseer. They can choose to be benevolent, increasing road visibility and removing oncoming traffic, but such is their lack of real involvement, it’s far more likely they’ll use these powers for mischief.

It’s worth stressing, however, that this extra functionality is optional, not obligatory. Players who want to enjoy Need for Speed: Most Wanted in its original form can do so on Wii U, but having what is effectively a cheat mode so close at hand might prove too irresistible for some.

Considering the extent to which GamePad has been utilised, it’s all the more puzzling that the Easydrive menu – how you select challenges and mod your car on the move – doesn’t take advantage of the hardware. The D-Pad is still used to cycle through various submenus. It’s a real shame since this interface – which has to be used so frequently – could have really benefitted from the use of a touchscreen.

While these new additions may have imbalanced Most Wanted U in some respects, they’ve also created a sandbox of greater possibilities and accessibility. One of the recurrent criticisms Most Wanted received on its initial release was its lack of structure – nearly all of its delights are there to be enjoyed right away. I found myself driving around for hours, achieving very little. It was frantic and desultory, but it didn’t really matter since the abiding experience was so much fun. Most Wanted U is perhaps the most capable version of that sandbox, giving players more control of the environment and objects within it, but in the process it may have removed some of the challenge that also kept you coming back to the streets of Fairhaven.