This product is like new. At NexWave Games, like new means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
Need for Speed: Shift for PlayStation Portable
Need for Speed: Shift for PlayStation Portable puts you into an international racing competition as a rookie driver. The World Tour takes you through places including San Francisco, Tokyo and Paris. You choose events from a calendar and earn Tour Points to unlock new races. Ten Race Kings defend their positions at the top. Beating them gives you a chance at a direct showdown in which you can win their car. The PSP release has its own campaign with street circuits, drift challenges and several kinds of races.
You collect cars by winning races and learn which vehicle suits each course. Continuing to drive the same car builds Loyalty with its manufacturer. This earns improvements to things such as the engine, handling and nitrous. You can also change colours and liveries. During a race, you need to distribute your limited nitrous charges and decide where an extra burst of speed will make a difference. Alongside ordinary laps, there are elimination races, time trials and challenges requiring controlled drifting. A separate Quick Race lets you directly select an unlocked car and track.
You play the career alone. For local ad hoc races with two to four players, every participant needs their own copy and a PSP with wireless networking. Party Play works differently: up to four players take turns driving a time trial on one PSP with one game. You do not need to connect a second system for this. Saving progress requires a Memory Stick Duo; additional systems, games and memory cards are not included.
Region and language
Our PlayStation Portable games are European editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
You receive the physical UMD edition. You need a PSP with a UMD drive to play it; a PSP Go cannot play this disc.
Manual
Need for Speed: Shift for PlayStation Portable includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Need for Speed: Shift
Electronic Arts released Need for Speed: Shift in 2009, during a period when the racing series was exploring several directions. Shift appeared alongside projects such as Nitro and World, each serving different audiences and hardware. Different development teams also worked behind the same Shift name. Slightly Mad Studios made the game for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, while EA Bright Light developed the PSP release. That handheld version received its own career and event structure instead of carrying over every circuit and system from the larger console versions.
The PSP campaign built on Need for Speed's tradition of street racing and car upgrades. Its events are presented as an organised international competition. Race Kings, Tour Points and manufacturer loyalty give you different reasons to race events again. The handheld version uses locations such as Paris and San Francisco, with separate challenges involving speed, drifting and overtaking. This makes it important to distinguish this Shift from the console game of the same name, which became particularly known for its cockpit presentation and circuit-focused driving experience.
Bright Light supplemented the portable design with short Quick Races, local wireless races and Party Play on one system. Playing your own music from a Memory Stick Duo also fits this approach: the manual explains how to use MP3 files as a soundtrack. The combination of an ongoing career and individual races follows earlier PSP releases of Need for Speed. Within that line-up, Shift chooses a world tour with rivals and unlockable cars rather than using a freely explorable crime city as its starting point.
Similar games for PlayStation Portable
Need for Speed: Underground Rivals on PSP also centres on street racing and improving cars. There you collect points for parts and work on your vehicle from a garage. Shift organises progression around an international calendar, Tour Points and duels with Race Kings. Both let you drift and tackle different racing challenges, but Shift adds manufacturer loyalty: regularly driving the same car gradually earns upgrades.
Juiced: Eliminator on PSP links street racing to respect, money and your own crew. You also make decisions about risky bets and races for ownership of cars. Shift likewise lets you earn new vehicles, but mainly uses events and victories over Race Kings for this. There is less emphasis on managing a group of drivers. Instead, its Loyalty system rewards getting to know one manufacturer better through regular use.
Burnout Legends on PSP also offers fast car races with boost and several event types. It deliberately puts collisions centre stage: Takedowns eliminate rivals and Crash challenges revolve around chain reactions in traffic. Shift mainly asks you to weigh up racing lines, braking points and drifts to win events. A collision can cost you position, but creating a separate spectacle of destruction is not the main objective. You also collect and improve recognisable cars through your career in Shift.
Ridge Racer on PSP also uses drifting corners and nitrous to give races pace. Its handling encourages long, flowing slides, and its circuits connect to earlier Ridge Racer games. Shift divides its career between locations, different event types and ten rivals. It also asks you to consider the strengths of individual cars. Manufacturer loyalty and liveries give collecting vehicles a different role there.
WipEout Pure on PSP also offers short races in which knowing corners and maintaining speed make a difference. However, you control floating anti-gravity craft on futuristic tracks. Collected weapons can hinder opponents or be converted into energy for your ship. Shift sticks to cars, asphalt and a nitrous supply that you distribute over a race. The difference therefore lies not only in the setting, but also in the tools you use to try to close a gap.
