Buckle up, Skyline lovers, Need For Speed ​​Unbound’s new underground-inspired drag and drift races have just arrived

Good news, people who love it when video games bring back things that people loved many years ago in the hopes that you’ll still love them now that you’re much older. NFS Underground-inspired drag and drift events arrived in Need For Speed: Unbound today, May 21, as part of the latest update for the most recent entry in the series.

We initially learned that these modes would be coming to the game via the release roadmap in February, which outlined a year of in-game content designed to help celebrate 30 years of NFS this December. Now, though, since they’re actually there, there’s more information about what they look like, so let’s get to it.

As noted in the blog post announcing its arrival, Vol. 7: Drift & Drag brings these two classic modes to Unbound, with a few changes designed to bring them up to date with what racing games can do in 2024.

Drift racing, for example, comes with a “revised management model for drift builds”, which aims to give you more control over your slides and make slidey boy mastery a little more advanced than it wasn’t in the days when you just had to flip through your slides. rolling into a corner and desperately trying to stop the rear end from looping over you.

Drag racing events, meanwhile, appear to resemble those of Underground, with an emphasis on “manual gear changes, strategic lane changes to avoid obstacles, and perfectly timed nitrous boosts”, which will all ring a bell. for veterans.

In addition to this, the update adds “The League” to Unbound, it is a progression system “inspired by the Underground which enriches the solo player experience in Free Roam, by allowing players to challenge the Rival Racers throughout the volume head-to-head. direct the competition to win their cars”. This will include community-focused elements designed to get people working together to unlock new boss racers that you can challenge for cool rewards. This sounds fun enough in theory, but we We’ll have to see if it achieves its goal of giving Unbound something a little more like a vivid street racing scene to delve into.

Finally, on the nostalgia side, there are new PVP playlists featuring classic NFS Undergound cars that you’ll definitely recognize – as well as one to unlock via the Premium Speed ​​Pass. Oh, and the two new cars arriving as part of the update are the BMW M3 Competition Touring and Ford Mustang Dark Horse, which aren’t very classic NFS per se, but come with rare customs designed for help contribute. with retro vibes.

So this is it. We’ll see if this update ends up bringing a number of us old-school NFS enthusiasts back to Unbound. Be sure to let us know below if you’re considering dusting off your old RX-7 or 350Z.