As a Wii exclusive, Need for Speed: Nitro is unlike other race games in EA's long running, multi-platform series of Need for Speed titles. It is a brand new game, but it certainly shouldn't be confused with Need for Speed: Shift, the other new Need for Speed game found on Xbox 360 and PlayStation3. Nitro is all Wii and all by itself.

First off, it looks like a Wii game; a left-handed compliment if there ever was one. That is, while it looks race-ready and does offer a good sense of madcap race-and-chase at surreal speeds, Nitro is curbed by standard definition resolution and limited processing power. Vehicles and environments both have a look of antiquity that's almost embarrassing. It's not ugly, but certainly chunky and roughly hewn, with the 30-odd "licensed" vehicles looking more caricature than replica.

That said, Nitro plays to its graphical wimpiness with a distinctly toy-like theme, a virtual Matchbox and Hot Wheels sort of thing, and to that end it serves gameplay very well.

As it turns out, gameplay is Need for Speed: Nitro's primary strength. It plays like a good old fashion crash-bang-smash-'em-up race game, an "arcade" racer in the tradition of mainstays like Cruisin' USA - or first generation Need for Speed games for that matter. Except Nitro doesn't take itself too seriously; it's less slick, more bumpercar-ish.

And though settings can be adjusted to modestly challenge race aficionados, Nitro will never be mistaken for a driving simulation - it's just too sloppy, an exercise in automotive hyperbole gone amuck.

Instead, it's primarily an all-ages racing game that has "quality time" for fathers and sons written all over it. This is most evidenced by the various control schemes, which includes classic thumbstick driving controls, Wii Wheel-ing and, most cleverly, a simple, one-hand Wii Remote control (Wii-mote) scheme. The latter has you holding the 'mote upright like a flight stick or pointed forward like a proffered candy bar, rotating your wrist to steer, A and B buttons for gas and brake, and giving the thing a shake or twitch for turbo... er, "Nitro."

What's more, control options include a "driving assist" that will ease a wayward car back on course should, say, the 6-year-old at the helm not quite understand the physics of over-steer, techniques for breaking out of a 4-wheel drift - or driving in general, for that matter.

And more to that, Need for Speed: Nitro is at its best as a multiplayer game with both cooperative and competitive modes and no real losers per se. For example, in the rip roaring Elimination race mode, last-place drivers are eliminated every thirty seconds, but that affords them second life as a cop car wreaking havoc on everyone else. Great fun.

The single-player modes available are serviceable, but not particularly deep nor as high-fivin' fun. As a game played with two to four players, on the other hand, Need for Speed: Nitro is a game that parents can gladly suffer for the low-pressure opportunity to hang out with kids. And for kids who aren't quite up to speed with the whole "driving" thing, Nitro does well to deliver smash-bang racing at dizzingy speeds and not too too much wall jamming frustrations.

For gamers old enough to expect some visual lavishness, technical minutiae and bang-on controls from their racing games, well, they probably aren't looking to the Wii to feed the need in the first place.