New: 1338 - Need for Speed: Underground (U)

[sQa5r]

Yeeeahhh dude!!!

 

[shaunj66]

Big review coming soon...

 

[Woxxy]

i like it! the music in it is pretty cool for a gba-game
the graphics are awesome for a gba (you freaking 11 years old who complain about the graphics must realize, there was a time when z-buffering and anti-aliasing couldn't be done in real-time)
the cars feel a bit heavy, but it's just like real cars and once you upgrade your car, it feels better immediately

this should be considered as one of the best racers for the gba, period.

 

[berlinka]

By the way, I HAVE a flash2advance cart and I played it on my gameboy advance, and still it totally SUCKS. How can anyone say it's the best racer around. It's simply bullshit. Crazy Taxi has better framerate than this. When I played Top Gear Rally, then I was impressed so my expectations of NFS were very high. But I compare this to a very low class PC-racing game from the period '90 - '92. It's VERY BAD! Maybe you guys like to unlock sttuff and get further, but for me the feeling of realism counts in a racing game, as I opened a topic about this issue a while ago, it dealt with the issue that realism is hard to find on a gameboy. My opinion changed much when I played Top Gear Rally, due to the cheer of realism and feeling of the game. But this is my worst gaming-nightmare! I cannot and will not accept this cheap stuff. Bwreeegh

 

[Vizenzo]

Is good

 

[Opium]

By the way, I HAVE a flash2advance cart and I played it on my gameboy advance, and still it totally SUCKS. How can anyone say it's the best racer around. It's simply bullshit. Crazy Taxi has better framerate than this. When I played Top Gear Rally, then I was impressed so my expectations of NFS were very high. But I compare this to a very low class PC-racing game from the period '90 - '92. It's VERY BAD! Maybe you guys like to unlock sttuff and get further, but for me the feeling of realism counts in a racing game, as I opened a topic about this issue a while ago, it dealt with the issue that realism is hard to find on a gameboy. My opinion changed much when I played Top Gear Rally, due to the cheer of realism and feeling of the game. But this is my worst gaming-nightmare! I cannot and will not accept this cheap stuff. Bwreeegh
Realism with Top GearRally?? please the physics were much much worse then they are in nfsu. In TGR the cars drove like they were gliding across a smooth surface.

In case you didn't notice, you didn't buy nfsu so you have no right to complain what so ever.

QUOTEI cannot and will not accept this cheap stuff. Bwreeegh

Very simple, don't play the game if your so against it. Go cry somewhere else because your naive nature is not wanted here.
No one is forcing you to like the game, you can have your own opinion but you are totally out of line.

 

[Emudude]

Does anyone have a patch to remove the "groan" intro screen? Mode7 strikes again.

 

[dice]

(haven't played the game yet)

The graphics arn't as bad as The simpsons road rage is it?

 

[Woxxy]

if you want realism, buy a car, for heavens sake!
i use my gameboy to get away from reality, but i guess some people just can't get enough of that sweet sweet reality

 

[ronin_in_tears]

Does anyone have a patch to remove the "groan" intro screen? Mode7 strikes again.

Here you go

 

[Emudude]

Thank you for the quick response ronin_in_tears.

 

[ronin_in_tears]

np, emudude. My pleasure

 

[Mr. Nintendo]

I played it a little while ago and I personally don't like it. . . I can't control the car right and I'm sliping and sliding all over the place. Another for my recycle bin.

 

[KrAjO720]

thx for the intro remover!!! anyway, after i played it, i could say it is a good game, but nothing from other world... i mean it is good, but most of the people might have thinked it was better

 

[berlinka]

Okay Opium, I'm not getting why I'm 'out of line' for saying this game is totally SHIT! And sorry for saying, but telling ME I'm naive sounds quite stupid for someone who wants decent and very balanced opinions on this forum, so why don't you just let me have the right to warn those innocent little children who DO want to buy the game that they're havve to be careful with their expectations.

So in brief: Me not like the game, and am very dissapointed and feel that in stead of bringing
REAL quality the marketeers want to bring in BIG dollars with LITTLE effort.

And sorry for saying but I am not offending the people here, but you are by saying I'm not wanted here. Well who is out of line I'd like to ask! JEEZ

 

[Evil Tenant]

Ow, a lot of people like this game and a lot of people hate it. I'm a part of the "hating" team.

EDIT - Changed my opinion. Now I just dislike it.

 

[Brekelefuw]

i flashed it on my xg cart/ez flash and it wouldnt save. i tried it with and wituot that v_124 patcher but no luck. any suggestions

 

[shaunj66]

Need for Speed: Underground - Review by shaunj66

Presentation:
There is a very nice opening intro, which shows the graphical capability of this games engine. And it shows it off very nicely. The camera spins around the car whilst the car is decorated with several different decals and body parts. After watching this I was already impressed.

The menus are presented very nicely; they are clear, easy to navigate and have large clear text. The menus are straight forward and to the point, it doesn't take long before you're playing the game.
The ‘Select a Car’ and ‘Customise Car’ sections show the car stationary, whilst the camera spins around the car. The menu is at the top of the screen, and the different options can be scrolled through by pressing left right and can be selected with ‘A’.
Luckily though, the camera can be manually rotated, allowing you to view the car from various different angles. This is done by holding down the ‘L’ button, and holding and pressing left or right to spin the camera around the car, or pressing up or down to zoom in and out of the car. You can also press and hold ‘R’ whilst pressing up or down to move the camera up and down over the car. This will allow you to get a much better view of the cars roof and hood.

So, now we’ve been through the menus and selected our car, let’s move on to the actual game...

Graphics:
Now this is where a lot of people are going to complain. First of all let me say, yes; the textures are quite low. But who's going to spend a lot of time looking at the textures? This game is all about speed, and you are going to be cruising through the levels at a high speed. And secondly, this is a Gameboy Advance we are talking about here. You can't compare it to the PC and console versions, it's just not fair.
You’ll need to try this on actual hardware, if you are going to play it on an emulator you will probably feel quite disappointed, especially if you are maximizing it to full screen; of course it’s going to look terrible - it wasn’t designed for that.

At first, it took me quite a while to get used to the graphics, I found I was bumping into walls quite a lot, but after half an hour or so of play, I really started liking the graphics and the engine. It's quite unbelievable to see this kind of graphics on the Gameboy Advance.
The frame rate is VERY impressive, I have noticed very few slowdowns, and even when it did slow down it didn’t affect the game play at all.
The engine renders the buildings and surroundings very nicely and the draw distance is great. I don’t think I’ve even seen a single building half-rendered like in other 3D racers for the Gameboy Advance, although there are a lot of corners in the tracks which may be hiding them.
The buildings are tall and highly detailed, with many different textures to give a proper feel of a city. There are also lots of tunnels and buildings to drive through which make a nice change to the streets, and also, there are lots of slopes and tall hills which makes the race a lot more interesting, it’s not just a linear race through a flat city.
The cars... basically, they look great! They are highly detailed; much more so than the levels. They look true to their real life designs, and can be HIGHLY customised with over 200 parts. The car you are racing, obviously, is fully 3D and it looks great as you drive around the tracks. Swerving from side to side as you turn around tight corners, and almost lifting off the ground as you go over slopes. Unfortunately the car is ‘grounded’ and doesn’t physically come off the road surface, but this isn’t really a problem as it very rarely would do anyway, the tracks give almost nothing in the way of ramps, which isn’t a problem at all. It’s not a rally game.
Your opponents and the city traffic are also 3D, although they are not as detailed as your own car. Your opponents also look great and their cars are customised in a number of ways.

There are two view modes in the game - 'Chase' or 'Bumper'. Chase is the default camera mode, which is the standard camera mode for any racing game. And Bumper gives you a view from the bumper of your car. This mode improves the frame rate of the game by a fair bit, as the engine doesn't have to render your car. It's quite fun to play in this view mode as it gives the game a much faster feel, but I personally prefer Chase mode. It's nice that they added this feature to the game. A lot of racers on the Gameboy Advance that I've tried don't have this option, but I suppose this being a fully 3D game made it a lot easier to change the placement of the camera.

To conclude the graphics review, I have to say I was very impressed. Pocketeers did a fantastic job, and this is proabably the most impressive engine I've ever seen on the Gameboy Advance. And hopefully, the engine won't just be used for the two Need for Speed titles, I'm sure they are going to be used for other racing games and possibly adapted for use in other upcoming games of different genres.

Sound:
There are a total of 4 music tracks. Yes. Four. Unfortunately they could only have this many music tracks because of limited cartridge space (according to a Pocketeers developer). The music does have lyrical vocals though and are performed by top bands, which were also featured on the PC and console versions. The genre of music fits the game very well.
The music sounds great on the Gameboy Advance, but only having four tracks disapoints me a little bit. I personally wouldn't have minded if they had removed the vocals and had just instrumental music. I'm sure that would have allowed them to accomodate a lot more music tracks onto the cartridge. Nontheless, it doesn't really matter to me, as I personally don't like the music anyway! So the options to control the volume of the music or sound effects was a definite bonus for me (and I'm sure many others will appreciate it too).
Unlike the PC or console versions of Need for Speed: Underground, there is no 'EA Trax' feature to allow you to choose which music track is playing, so you are stuck with whatever track the game decided to play.
The sound effects are superb! The engine roars and car noises are very good, and are simulated very nicely. Tires squeal as you turn tight corners and you get to hear your car smash when you hit a wall (which hopefully, won't be too often!).

Overall, the music and sounds are great.

Controls:
The controls in the game are your standard Gameboy Advance racers controls. 'A' to accelerate, 'B' to brake, 'R' for handbrake and left and right to steer. By default the controls are set to 'Auto' which is your standard automatic controls. You also have the options of 'Basic' and 'Adv' (advanced), in which you can change gears using the 'L' and 'R' buttons.
The controls are great, simple, very responsive, and have a great realistic feel to them. The controlling differs a lot between the different cars in the game, to give you a more simulated feel of each car. So it may take a while to get used to each cars controls.

The cars in the game do seem to have quite a good suspension system as you turn corners and go over slopes, also the cars do 'feel' quite heavy, but of course, you can change this by customising your car with various body parts to lighten it.

Great controls!

Gameplay:
Here's where the game really shines through!
There are two options - 'Quick Race' or 'Go Underground', 'Quick Race' is just what it's called! A race just for fun, you have four options - 'Circuit', 'Sprint', 'Drag' or 'Drift'. I won't go into these modes as you should already know how they're played. And they are played just like the PC and console versions of the game.
'Go Underground' is the main mode of this game, where you make your way through the Underground leader board, challenging the people above you, and being challenged yourself by people below you! Winning challenges such as circuit races against your opponent will win you cash/credits, and will unlock parts to customise your car with. Great challenges here!
There is a lot of content crammed into this 64mbit cartridge! There are 14 different and highly customiseable cars, about 24 tracks and another 18 which are reverse tracks, over 200 parts to customise your car with, such as bumpers, hoods, roofs, rims, vinyls, tinted windows and vinyls and finally there are plenty of challenges in the Underground mode!
Onto the circuit races, I was really suprised at the length and scale of the tracks in this game! They are huge! And the tracks are really fun, there are lots of different areas throughout the tracks, including things like narrow passages, hills, 'u-bends', tunnels, buildings to drive through, parking lots and straight long roads - perfect to catch up to your opponents on! Although there is no on screen map to tell where you are, the hud is already quite cluttered. The AI in the game definitlely gives you a good challenge, apparently they use a catch-up/fallback system which allows them to provide a fair challenge whatever happens in your race. In my opinion the AI is great, I haven't had one experience to complain as of yet. They seem to be quite easy in the first few races, but believe me, they do get much harder as you progess through the game.
There is also a multi-player function, so you and up to three other mates can link up (providing you each have a copy of the cartridge) and challenge each other to a game! I haven't tried this yet, but I hope to soon. I can imagine it being quite fun as long as there is some indication on the hud as to where your opponents are on the map...

Great gameplay, so much to do, so much fun, and so many challenges!

Replay Value:
The replay value seems to be another positive part of this game. There are lots of tracks, and reverse tracks, 14 different cars to unlock and customise, with hundreds of parts that need to be unlocked, there are tons of challenges to complete, and many differenent game play modes. And a multi-player mode!

I haven't been playing this for long enough to give a definite conclusion on the replay value but I'm sure that Need for Speed: Underground will keep you entertained for quite a long time!

Conclusion:
Presentation: 9/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 7/10
Controls: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Replay Value: 8/10

I've been waiting for Need for Speed: Underground on the Gameboy Advance for a long time since it was first announced, and after playing it I do not feel disapointed.
Before you go criticising this game saying “Eww! The screenshots look disgusting!”, “The graphics suck!” and “I can’t control it properly!”, why don’t you try playing the game for a little longer? All games take a while to get used to and this is one of them. Give it a try for half an hour or more, then judge it.
I personally think this is one of the best and most realistic racing games on the Gameboy Advance I have played, and is a worthy racing game that lives up to the quality of the Need for Speed series. Great work Pocketeers!

Overall: 9/10

~shaunj66

 

[kevspage]

I agree totaly , very nice game . When you go in Bumper view you can realy see how good the physics are

 

[Brekelefuw]

ya i really think this game has potential. but i cant save aarggghh