The one where everybody owns a Porsche.
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (released as Need for Speed: Porsche 2000 in Europe and Need for Speed: Porsche in Germany and Latin America) is a racing video game released by Electronic Arts in 2000, and it is the fifth installment in the Need for Speed series. The game is notable in that unlike other Need for Speed titles, it consists purely of racing Porsche road cars, from 1950 to 2000. The PC version also expanded the visual customization from High Stakes, such as individually changing the bumpers and other parts.
The PC version is notable for being the last game in the series developed by EA Canada.note Eden Studios, which would later develop the first two Test Drive Unlimited games for Atari, made the PlayStation version, with this game being the last Need for Speed game on a fifth-generation platform, which has several differences compared to the PC version. Unlike the previous four Need for Speed games, Porsche Unleashed was not released in Japan.
Separately, a Game Boy Advance version of the game developed by Pocketeers was released four years later in 2004. Instead of EA, however, the GBA version was published by Destination Software in North America and Zoo Digital Publishing in Europe.
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed features examples of:
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Inverted. If you bought a used car, repaired it, and sold it, you would make a profit every single time. There was also an infinite supply of used Porsches as well, meaning that
you could have all the money you wanted for the price of grinding the menus. - The Alleged Car: The 356 models, mostly the pre-A variants, as many share a performance on par with an old Volkswagen Beetle and barely reach 100 mph.
- Annual Title: Being released in the year 2000, this was taken advantage of when the European release was titled Need for Speed: Porsche 2000. Also doubles as Advanced Tech 2000.
- Another Side, Another Story: Porsche Unleashed has an unusual variant: the main career mode "Evolution" has no plot whatsoever, having you simply upgrade, tune and race your cars throughout the progress, but the "Factory Driver" mode assigns you as an official test driver doing various missions from delivering cars to compete with other test drivers on given courses, with Mission Control providing some text on them.
- Artistic License – Cars: Each of the convertible's roof retracts absurdly faster than in Real Life. A retractable roof takes around 20-30 seconds to fold it.
- Artistic License – Geography:
- The road in the Monte Carlo courses is actually wider than the real life counterparts.
- The Autobahn has no barriers or guardrails that divide the two opposite sides of the road.
- For Auvergne try visiting a village in that region. You will barely see roads wider than 2-3 lanes and many of them are inaccessible for public transport.
- Battle in the Rain: The Autobahn track has you around the German highway during rainfall.
- Bonus Dungeon: Completing the last tournament for each era unlocks a special bonus event. You're given the featured race car to compete in this event and if you win, the car is yours to drive for free. These are one-time events, and if you quit during the race or choose to decline the event, your chances of getting this car is gone for good until you have to wait at a certain era before the said cars are available for purchase.
- Citadel City: Auvergne takes you through the highly fortified but ruined medieval town. This track has multiple branching routes for you to choose once when you enter inside the town.
- Cool Car: While in Need for Speed games this is a given, this is especially in force here, where you're driving nothing but Porsche cars.
- Copy Protection: In the PAL PSX version of the game, if playing either via emulator (preferably psxfin) or playing backwards compatibility in modern PlayStation consoles (PlayStation 3 for example), the races end after reaching a very few meters away from the starting race without chance to count as completed in Evolution Mode. If playing as Quality, the quality ends shortly after that and when the race starts, the cars get conjoined together and they thrown away and in Factory Driver, after reaching a very few meters away from the starting race, it suddenly restarts immediately to the starting point. Colliding into a traffic in "Try Car" mode, the player loses the control of the car and the game can't be paused.
- Design-It-Yourself Equipment:
- You can give the Porsche cars a custom car & interior color, as well as fitting it with stripe vinyls and a racing number. It's the last NFS game to feature customization before it was Put on a Bus for a while.
- Some of the cars in the lineup allow you to also change the cars rims and its bumpers, particularly for cosmetic purposes. The 911 models on the other hand an be fitted with custom engine lids (or trunks). One particular example is you can replacing a 993 Carrera's standard engine decklid with its active rear spoiler, with the whale tail and wing combination from the 911 GT2 of the same generation. Another is you can replace the Porsche Boxster's roof for a hardtop one or a Speedster decklid.
- Developer's Foresight:
- The various 911 models with an active rear spoiler (964, 993, and 996 Carrera models, as well as the 996 Turbo), as well as the active rear spoiler on the Boxster and Boxster S, are deployed at the appropriate speed.
- When you press the horn button, you can clearly see your Player Character honking their horn. Future racing games outside of NFS would barely see this kind of detail.
- Downloadable Content: The PC release offers 4 cars: the 911 GT2 (993), the 911 GT3 Cup (996), the 928 GTS and the 959. All being available to download through its NFS website at the time. note
- Everybody Owns a Ford: The game is titled Porsche Unleashed for a reason. No points for guessing the only brand of cars you get to drive.
- Excuse Plot: The game actually predates Underground in featuring a storyline (albeit only as a side story) in Factory Driver side mode, but it consists mainly of a plethora of Driving Tests and Training Stages to test your skills.
- Improbably Cool Car: The race class cars (935, 911 GT1, 917K and the 550 Spyder) in Real Life are built for circuit racing that are not meant for the streets.
- Level in Reverse: All of the tracks can be ran in reverse. Even they also have mirrored versions as well... and also can be ran in reverse.
- The Lost Woods: The Schwarzwald track takes you in to a German forested road shrouded with lots of trees and tight turns.
- Market-Based Title: The game was released as Need for Speed: Porsche 2000 in Europe and simply as Need for Speed: Porsche in Germany and Latin America.
- Metropolis Level: Since most of the tracks in the PC release is set in rural and mountainous locations, there's one level that is set in the city of Monte Carlo (and the only track to be in circuit form).
- Model Museum: When opening the garage or dealership menu you can interact with the car and admire its detail of its time, such as opening trunk, bonnet, doors (and viewing its interior) a well as folding of convertibles' roof.
- No-Damage Run: Some of the Factory Driver missions require you to complete it without hitting anything. These missions almost always involve a last-minute vehicle delivery, or giving one of your fellow employees a ride to a destination. A single dent cause the damage and time HUD to turn red, meaning that even if you beat the time, you're still gonna be a one way ticket to nowheresville.
- Optional Traffic Laws: The game has you race around the track where traffic is present. Police are an exception as they only appear in Factory Driver mode.
- Speaking of Factory Driver, assignments that require you to deliver a car to its destination within a certain amount of time can be really unrealistic, as these require you to break speed limits or go to areas inaccessible to the public. While the pre-mission briefings are justifiable, there is absolutely no excuse to do so in Real Life.
- Orbital Shot: No matter where in the PC release, the game's menu will always show a 360 shot of the garage.
- Palette Swap: There are loads and loads of variants for each Porsche model. Many models (mainly the 356, 914 and 911) would have coupe, convertible, hardtop or targa top variants, as well as numerous generations with each alone the said variants. Factory Driver mode unlocks special liveries for the 911 Carrera RS 2.7, Boxster and the 911 Turbo (996).
- Police Are Useless: The PC release has cops featured in Factory Driver mode, but only appear as an obstacle. They won't even attempt to bust you, even if your car is stationary. Averted in the PS1 release since the cops play a role where you have to escape from them for an amount of time.
- Product Placement: Perhaps the ultimate example of this in the Need for Speed franchise in regard of cars: An entire game exclusively dedicated to cars of one brand, Porsche.
- Scenery Porn: The game's PC release depicts lots of beautiful scenery across Western Europe.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Alps. In fact the track itself is literally slippy and slidey, thanks to its snowy section filled with icy roads that makes you car lose lots of traction. Klaus in one factory mission lampshades this.Klaus: We have set up a run in the Alps. Be careful, though. The fresh snow makes for excellent testing conditions but can be very slippery.
- Vanity License Plate: This game (like the previous High Stakes also did) allows the players' profile name to appear on their license plates.
- Version-Exclusive Content: The PC and PS1 release each have their own exclusive content, as these said versions are developed by two different companies. For starters, their choice of Golden Era race cars: the 917K "Short Tail" for the PS1, while the PC gets the almighty 935/78 Coupe "Moby Dick". Also, the Downloadable Content cars for the PC release mentioned above are already available in the PS1 release.
- World Tour: Apart from the Scenery Porn as mentioned above, the PS1 release features race courses set in five different countries: France, Germany, Japan, Scotland and USA.
