Basically, this is a single player racing game, they added multiplayer as a tacked on afterthought just so you can say "Hey, I want a multiplayer racing game, this says 2P on the back of the cover, let's be bamboozled into thinking this an actual multiplayer game and buy it."
You can get a couple of laughs from buddies at the canyon mode but that's about it. There are no AI drivers allowed in multiplayer, so it can often be a very boring experience. On Wii it has lag issues at even only 2 cars on screen and this is not meant to be a multiplayer experience. When you win there isn't even a victory celebration programmed into the game, just a tiny menu dialogue displayed. Half of the tracks you can't even play in multiplayer, drifting tracks are not allowed in 2P mode.
The atmosphere of this is very repetitive, each city and track looks the same with repetitive purple arrows that look exactly the same on each corner. Each track is at nighttime, all of the tracks look the same. There are basically 2 different areas (yeah, I know it's technically 4, but it really feels like 2)...Canyon, Casino area, Expressway area, and Asian area. But all of these look basically the same with minor variations.
The physics model in this game isn't realistic, and also slides around uncontrollably at low speeds of 60-90 mph. In real life, most cars do not slip and slide at only 90 miles an hour on a highway. Most cars can take 75 mph turns without drifting out of control and crashing into walls like this game.
You will crash into walls a lot due to the unrealistic physics and also the bad Wii mote controls. Mostly this game feels like it was unfinished, even the menus have a couple "What" moments where you go to edit the controls, but it edits P1 instead of P2 even though you are using the menu of P2. And you can't seem to change the camera mode of P2, like you have to pause the game in order to edit the camera mode of P1, P1 and only P1, and it is missing a basic button where you can't just change the cam while you are driving.
None of the tracks are really anything to write home about. There is a couple Canyon ones and a Casino track that has a good setup. Most of the tracks it all blends together and you can't really see where you are going, so you crash constantly. Also you crash a lot due to the bad controls and mediocre physics model.
In my opinion, the Need for speed series has been going "downhill" (Funny metaphor because this game is about "going downhill in a canyon".) The old Need for speeds used to have colorful and cool tracks, and now it's becoming ghetto and urbanized.
But mostly, the car has no damage model, so you will get a lot of un-spectacular crashing into walls like a mediocre form of bumper bowling, where your car doesn't even get the slightest scratch or dent. Once you get good, if you get good, the constant crashing into walls will stop happening, but then it will just feel like a boring experience with the very monotonous scenery and levels.
Now, the actual quality of the humans in this game is remarkable, the CGI actually looks like real people. The story doesn't make any sense, possibly on the level of a B- movie or C movie. First of all it is cops with magic EMPS that stop cars with some magic EMP field...ok. Then there is this guy riding your ass like um....Ok...Doesn't make any sense...nothing about it feels like how real gangsters operate. Who wrote the script of this game?
Anyway, the single player seems ok...never really got into it, just seems like a watered down kind of GTA. I would give this game a 6, it's not really a game to get hyped about, but not so bad that I would return it to the store.