Characters / Need for Speed

Ever since the introduction of story mode in Underground (Porsche Unleashed if you count its side story mode), Need for Speed features a variety of well-known and memorable characters for each game. Some of the characters' cars and some characters themselves also appeared in later games for generations to see.

Due to size issues, all character pages have been organized to their respective eras.

Here is an index of sheets for the characters that appeared in each of the installments throughout the franchise.

---

• Classic Era^Description The classic era games, which had a focus on racing exotic supercars in scenic environments, generally didn't feature a story mode; however, the first game, The Need for Speed, featured an opponent and a policeman as characters who interacted with the player, and Porsche Unleashed featured a side story named Factory Driver.
  • The Need for Speed
  • Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed
• Black Box Era^Description With EA Black Box taking over the development of Need for Speed games from that time, they focused less on semi-professional exotic racing on scenic roads in favor of customizable import tuners and street racing. Underground became the first-ever Need for Speed game to introduce story mode, which would become a mainstay feature in later installments.
  • Need for Speed: Underground (1 and 2)
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)
  • Need for Speed: Carbon
    • Main Version
    • Own the City
  • Need for Speed: ProStreet
  • Need for Speed: Undercover
• Autolog Era^Description After the decline of EA Black Box following Undercover, EA decided to give the development duties to several developers, such as EA Montreal, Slightly Mad Studios, and (mostly to) Criterion Games, who later introduced Autolog, a new social interaction system. During its first time, Criterion took an approach of revisiting the classic Need for Speed games featuring exotic cars and high-speed police chases. At the same time, there have been virtually little to no characters in Criterion's installments due to a near-lack of storylines.
  • Need for Speed: Shift (Shift (PSP) and Shift 2: Unleashed)
  • Need for Speed: Nitro
  • Need for Speed: The Run (including Wii/3DS version)
  • Need for Speed Rivals
• Need for Speed (2014 film adaptation)
• Ghost Games Era^Description After Rivals, Ghost Games took charge of the development of the franchise, taking various aspects and features from previous games and applying it to their games. This era ended with Heat, after which Ghost Games has been relegated to an engineering support studio and renamed as EA Gothenburg, while Criterion Games took over for future Need for Speed titles.
  • Need for Speed (2015)
  • Need for Speed Payback
  • Need for Speed Heat
• New Criterion Era^Description After Ghost Games's departure, Criterion Games once again returned as the main developers of the franchise. Criterion took a new approach of using the concept from Ghost Games as well as applying their own concepts from their past games, hoping to capture the franchise's spirit to the new generation.
  • Need for Speed Unbound