The Need for speed series has been around for a long time with Need for Speed for the original Playstation. Need for Speed: Most Wanted 5-1-0 is the 17th game in the series.

The premise of the game revolves around making it big in the "streets" and pimping out your ride with visual and performance upgrades like new spoilers or a new nitrous tank. The story involves winning races to and earning respect to be able to challenge the top 15 racers on the black list, and eventually achieving the goal of being number 1 on the black list.

In the beginning of the career mode, three cars are available to choose: the Golf, Cobalt SS, and the Mazda3. One you pick a car, the racing begins. To challenge the first black list leader, you have to win a certain number of races in the order you choose, and once completed, challenge the black list racer. Now you rinse and repeat for all of the 15 black list racers. This is the main problem of this game; it lacks variety and is very repetitious. Every race you win, you unlock a new visual upgrade or performance upgrade which you then apply to your car every single race. The schedule of this game is race, apply upgrades, race black list racer, and repeat.

The tracks offer even more repetition. Many tracks are repeated over and over again. This game doesn't offer a free-ride mode like the console version of this game or the race type variety, nor the decent rewards for beating one of the black list racers. Instead of getting rewards for beating the blacklist, the game rewards you with another extra race in which if you win, you get another mediocre upgrade. They haven’t left off the police chases, but the police serve nothing more than an annoyance because it does not affect your race because the AI is extremely easy and there is a car in your way for what seems every mile or so. Even the black list racers don't seem to pose a challenge.

The game isn't all bad, it does offer a wide variety of cars to unlock and the upgrades also allow you to customize your car to your style. The controls are smooth and responsive, although the using the d-pad proved to be better than the analog stick, although for different people it might differ. Even though the tracks are repeated over and over again, more than the nagging of a parent telling you to do your chores, the levels do offer some variety although it doesn't seem like it when you go through the same levels over and over.

Another plus is the soundtrack that offers more than 25 songs. The graphics are also good for a PSP game and is what you expect from EA. They are crisp and clean and you can even distinguish the signs over the road, although the rearview mirror doesn't actually show the cars, it just shows the lights, which look the same for every car. Overall the graphics for this game are above average.

That brings me to another good thing about the game, the online play. With EA's online play, you can make a username and race against people around the nation and even compete for the best ranking. A downside to the online play is that a lot of people want to play with the upgraded cars and if you're a beginner, you will have trouble playing online. The online play does allow you to make a custom match with your rules in which you can make the game ranked or unranked and choose whether you want to race with stock cars or upgraded cars. There are always people online to race with and once you get bored of the repetition of the AI, you will find some fun online.

EA brought out a mediocre game to the Need for Speed franchise. The game gets repetitive within a day of playing, but is good for intermittent fun racing your "pimped" out ride either online or in the career mode.