OVERNeed for Speed Most Wanted's PC version gets a native Android recompilation, with online play
The developer behind NFSU2 Android Evolved has a third Need for Speed game running natively on Android. NFSMW PC Android Evolved, by codepdbh, takes the PC version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) and translates every function of its x86 speed.exe ahead of time into C with a patched pcrecomp, then builds it with the Android NDK. There's no emulator, Wine or JIT involved; Direct3D 9 rendering goes through DXVK on Vulkan. It's a separate project from the same developer's NFSMW Android Evolved, which is based on the Xbox 360 version.
How far along it is
The project README lists racing, police chases and saving as fully playable in the author's testing, and LAN and online races have been played across two phones using a replacement server for EA Nation. The arm64 build is listed as playable on a Galaxy S25 Ultra, a Redmi Note 8 and testers' phones. The 32-bit ARMv7 APK builds but hasn't been tested on a device yet.
What's new in 0.1.7
- The game's graphics options now stick between launches. Most Wanted keeps them in the Windows registry, which only lived in memory on Android; they're now saved to
android_registry.datin the game folder. Resolution and anti-aliasing are left to the launcher so a setting that crashes one phone can't crash every launch. - If the launcher's driver test says a custom driver is missing features, you can now choose Play anyway instead of being sent back to the system driver.
- The 0.1.6 crash at startup on MediaTek MT6835, MT6899 and MT6893 chips no longer shows up in reports. A sideways rear-view mirror and camera zoom issue, an audio crash on an MT6789 and a blue screen on an MT6765H are still open.
What you need
Android 10 or newer with a Vulkan 1.1 GPU, and your own PC copy of Most Wanted copied into an nfsmw folder in internal storage. No game files are included. The same developer also released NFSU1 Android Evolved for the first Underground, now at 0.2.5; both are in our ports directory. Release notes are in Spanish. If you try it on a Retroid, AYN or Anbernic handheld, send us a compatibility report. Source: nfsmwpc-recompiled on GitHub.