Need for Speed: Underground review (PS2)

Need for Speed, Smash ‘n’ Grab, Salt ‘n’ Shake. All funky little phrases, but only one of them has ever had a game franchise named after them. A shocking omission in these days of Chu Chu Rocket, Yuke Yuke Troublemakers and Ikaruga. Personally, I want a game called 'Nip and Tuck' to be made.

Need for Speed originated on the 3DO console and it is a widely held belief that that very first game is the best of the lot. Many Need for Speed games have been released since then and it is starting to rival Only Fools and Horses in the 'Most Repeated Series Ever' category.

But enough cynical talk. Just because EA want to be rich doesn't mean we should bear a grudge against them.

Arcade Goodness

As you would expect, the game is an arcade style racer with a fairly simple handling model. As is par for the course there are cars to unlock, upgrades to die for, modifications to make you look like a girl and custom paint jobs to make you puke. The game obviously took a rather jealous glance at the two Burnout games during its production and fancied itself as a worthy contender. I thought Burnout was a fun girl to have a drink with. I asked Burnout 2's parents permission for her hand in marriage. I told Need for Speed Underground to take her make up off and stop trying so hard to impress me. I found her rather dull.

Underground has you taking part in illegal street races and taking on challenges from other illegal racers. Winning earns you cash and with this you can upgrade your car and make it look rather groovy. The cars are all 'boy racer' types and by making it look better you can earn more respect during your races. However, I got sick of these types of cars years ago when my college car park was chock full of them. And really, adding a spoiler to your car to earn 'respect' - who gives a flying toss? It's like adding in a feature to an FPS to clip your toe nails.

At first glance, the graphics are really rather nice and detailed. Your own car and the opponent cars look suitably shiny as you race and the scenery is very nice as well. However, you soon realise that it is all a bit of a con for the most part, as all the other vehicles that make up the traffic are extremely plain looking and box like. It's as if they have been cut and pasted from a PS one game. Much of the scenery and trackside detail is also rather sparse as well and whilst the buildings that tower up in the distance look quite good you can see that they are merely cardboard-cut outs that you couldn't ever actually drive up to and so the illusion of racing in a big city is broken.

Frame by Frame

Perhaps the most annoying thing is the frame rate. It is not the smoothest of games by any means at the best of times, but it is more than playable. However there are frequent bouts of slowdown during a race which is just a blooming nuisance.

EA have managed to sign up a whole host of musicians to provide music for this game and most genres are covered. Rob Zombie, Crystal Method and BT are all present and you can choose which genres you can listen to throughout the game. The car sound effects are pretty good and convey the whole boy-racer feel of the game fairly well. There is lots and lots of speech by all the various characters in the game and the voice acting is of a decent enough quality.

The main problem with this game is that you always seem to be racing around the same few tracks. The whole thing takes place in one city and is always at night. This leads things to get repetitive rather quickly and victory is often dependent on luck. There is also no real incentive to take big risks with your driving and to try to squeeze in between a rapidly closing gap. Burnout awarded you with a boost meter if you succeeded and a spectacular replay of your crash if you failed. Underground might give you a replay of a very tame and pathetic crash if you are lucky.

Drifting Away

Drifting and power sliding in this game just aren’t anywhere near as fun as they should be and when you hit something head on you simply don't get the feeling that you hit anything more than a damp cardboard box. The game also seems to want to keep you moving all the time and it sometimes feels like your car is being pushed sideways when you collide with something. Anyone who has played a snowboarding game and hit a tree or a log at a low speed will probably know what I mean.

At the end of the day, this game has been released at the wrong time. Other racing games released around the same time include F-Zero GX, Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Project Gotham Racing 2. Whilst they are all different types of games, those three are some of the best in their genre. With this Need for Speed game, the original Burnout game looks and plays better and can be picked up for a tenner. Burnout 2 totally and utterly outclasses it. EA have managed to release a game that is no better than average, but it could have all been so much better if they had tried.