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Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit

TitleNeed for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
First release1998
DevelopersEA Canada, EA Vancouver
PublisherElectronic Arts
PlatformsPC (Windows), PlayStation
Genreracing video game
Also known asNeed for Speed III: Poursuite infernale
Players1–2 players
Co-opYes
ESRB ratingE Everyone
Releases
PlayStation: 1998-03-25, 1998-03-25 (NTSC), 1998-04-15 (PAL)
PC (Windows): 1998-09-23
Wikidata IDQ1139007

In the third major installment of Electronic Arts' Arcade racing series, there are several modes of play available. You have the standard race, with one big difference - now there are traffic cops out to ticket you for your excessive speed. Alternatively, you can take your turn with the radar gun and attempt to pull over speeding computer or human racers. Returning to the flavour of the original Need for Speed, this adds a new Pursuit mode, where you must out run the cops through fast, open area tracks, while also out-lasting the rest of the pack. Another new mode is knockout, where you race through all the tracks, and whoever is last after each race is knocked out. The winner is, of course, the one that lasts the distance. Almost every course in the game has one or more shortcuts. The cars include Ferrari 550 Maranello, Ferrari 355 F1 Spider, Italdesign Scighera, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Lamborghini Countach, Jaguar XJR-15, Jaguar XK8, Aston Martin DB7, '98 Corvette C5, Mercedes SL600 and the Mercedes CLK GTR.

Description: TheGamesDB (community-contributed, no licence stated; internal use only) Facts from Wikidata (CC0), gaps filled from TheGamesDB. Only retro platforms tracked by this site are listed; the year is the earliest release date recorded on Wikidata.
Sources
Wikidata (Q1139007) · last updated 2026-09-27 · CC0
TheGamesDB (1012,73135,112620,124177) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only
TheGamesDB (20361,79578) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only
Image credits
Box art (1): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded, NTSC release) · © Electronic Arts · internal use only. TheGamesDB page
Box art, Artwork (2): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded) · © Electronic Arts · internal use only. TheGamesDB page
Screenshots (1): Source: libretro-thumbnails (upstream libretro-thumbnails (art by developers/publishers; see repo README)) · © Electronic Arts · internal use only.
Logo: EA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (“Need for Speed III Hot Pursuit Logo.png”)
Sprites
No sprite sheets yet. Find sprites on The Spriters Resource ↗ /
Videos
PSX Longplay [379] Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
World-of-Longplays · PlayStation version · longplay · 1:59:41auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:41 UTC
PSX Longplay [041] Need For Speed 3 Hot Pursuit
By Urien84 Longplays · PlayStation version · longplay · 1:30:59auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:42 UTC
"Auto-matched" videos were found automatically (title + platform match via the YouTube Data API) and may occasionally be wrong. Videos are hosted by YouTube (embedded via youtube-nocookie.com; nothing loads from YouTube until you press play) and belong to their channels.
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