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IGN Review of Need for Speed: Carbon - Own the City
It seems that with every Need for Speed game that sprouts up for the Nintendo DS, Electronic Arts hands the portable project over to a new team for a new take on porting the console design. Pocketeers had a fair run for Need for Speed Underground 2 on the Nintendo DS, but for the next year that studio was ousted for Sensory Sweep's terrible dual-screen rendition of Need for Speed Most Wanted. Clearly not satisfied, EA Canada went with its faithful DS team in the UK, Exient, for Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City, a spin-off design based on the console racers released this generation. It's Exient's first racer but it definitely doesn't feel that way -- though there's nothing here that'll encourage players to cruise the streets on the DS instead of the bigger systems, this portable racing game is solidly developed with high energy and a fantastic sense of speed. And it at least gets the awful taste of last year's Most Wanted out of our mouths.
Exient is best known for its work on the Nintendo DS renditions of FIFA and Madden -- with the exception of FIFA Street on the system this handheld development team manages to pull off a solid job of producing the dual-screen versions of the bigger console games. This is definitely true for the case of Need for Speed Carbon on the system. Honestly, after the mess that was Need for Speed: Most Wanted DS, Exient didn't have a whole lot to live up to. But the team managed to leapfrog over last year's game and even outdo the original Need for Speed Underground 2 with a fun and frantic design.
The subtitle "Own the City" for the Nintendo DS game notes that this game, though lifting its style and ideals from the game released on the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, and soon the PlayStation3, it's its own design. It also lays out what the game's all about: with each victory in the underground racing circuit, you take back portions of the city from the skilled rivals. There's a story here about surviving a carwreck and getting back into the game, but honestly it's not all that interesting -- it's nice that the development team wanted to give some life to the handheld game, but this comic book-like plot just didn't really seem to gel as it's told through its bland text-based speech bubbles.
But beyond the boring story is a really solid and decently- developed racer. The game is fast-paced with a solid graphics engine running at 60 frames per second and pulling off some visual trickery, like motion blurring and fish-eye stretching to increase that sensation of speed. The look of the environments falls in line with what Pocketeers did in Need for Speed Underground 2, but Exient's visual tech and style bumps up the quality from EA's racer released on the DS two years prior. But as good as Carbon looks on the Nintendo DS, a racing game's nothing if the cars don't handle properly. That's why it's a good thing this racer pulls off fun driving with an incredibly high energy level. Though Carbon uses a whole line-up of licensed cars that behave differently, they're not based in reality -- Carbon is, like the rest of the Need for Speed series, an arcade racer that's way more exaggerated than your sim-style games like Gran Turismo.
Since the Nintendo DS lacks an analog stick, the designers add a little more touch control to the D-pad steering: if you need a softer turn, mashing up while steering left or right eases a looser arc than if you simply pressed left or right. Likewise, down on the D-pad with the turn with offer tighter control. It's nice to have the option and certainly gives the player a bit more control to their vehicle, but it's not something that comes all that naturally, especially in a D-pad controlled game where the turns fly towards the player at a gazillion miles an hour. Besides, that's why God gave us powersliding: tap the brake, hit the turn and slide around with as little loss in speed as possible.
Carbon introduces the ability to bring a "wingman" into the action. An attacker can ram a lead opponent and open up the first place position. A drafter will zoom in front of your car and award NOS boost if you can manage to stay within his drafting field. It's a cool option for the single player mode, though the drafting teammate seams to be far more beneficial to the player than the attacker...especially when you unlock the rather cool "rewind time" option where you can pull a "Prince of Persia" moment and reverse the race a few seconds so you can save yourself from a poorly handled turn. The AI of these computer controlled teammates is a little wonky, as a helper will occasionally hinder the player's progress by ramming them out of commission simply because they zoomed in a little too tightly.
As fun as the game is, and as good as the game looks, there are still the same Nintendo DS limitations in Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City. The impressive visuals still suffer from low-res texture work and a bit of pop-up in places. Crashes, a frequent occurrence in the races, are relatively lame -- cars seem to flip over unharmed in a canned, unsatisfying sequence. And the soundtrack, a huge leap above the previous two games with actual licensed and digitized MP3-like tracks, aren't really integrated into the design; they play over the action, but the music has not been made a part of it. Go from race to menu and the same song will be playing uninterrupted...it just sounds awkward and just a little unpolished.
On the same token, there are enough bells and whistles in the design to show us that a team was dedicated to making this a viable racing game. There's a huge assortment of customization options given to the player, including the ability to make custom tags using the in-game art program. The big addition is the single-cart multiplayer mode so that four players can sample the arcade racing with only one copy of the game. Of course, all the courses and vehicles open up if everyone has a card in their system. It's just really handy to get a fun, if just a little simplified, multiplayer rendition without the expense of four copies purchased.
©2006-11-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exient is best known for its work on the Nintendo DS renditions of FIFA and Madden -- with the exception of FIFA Street on the system this handheld development team manages to pull off a solid job of producing the dual-screen versions of the bigger console games. This is definitely true for the case of Need for Speed Carbon on the system. Honestly, after the mess that was Need for Speed: Most Wanted DS, Exient didn't have a whole lot to live up to. But the team managed to leapfrog over last year's game and even outdo the original Need for Speed Underground 2 with a fun and frantic design.
The subtitle "Own the City" for the Nintendo DS game notes that this game, though lifting its style and ideals from the game released on the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, and soon the PlayStation3, it's its own design. It also lays out what the game's all about: with each victory in the underground racing circuit, you take back portions of the city from the skilled rivals. There's a story here about surviving a carwreck and getting back into the game, but honestly it's not all that interesting -- it's nice that the development team wanted to give some life to the handheld game, but this comic book-like plot just didn't really seem to gel as it's told through its bland text-based speech bubbles.
But beyond the boring story is a really solid and decently- developed racer. The game is fast-paced with a solid graphics engine running at 60 frames per second and pulling off some visual trickery, like motion blurring and fish-eye stretching to increase that sensation of speed. The look of the environments falls in line with what Pocketeers did in Need for Speed Underground 2, but Exient's visual tech and style bumps up the quality from EA's racer released on the DS two years prior. But as good as Carbon looks on the Nintendo DS, a racing game's nothing if the cars don't handle properly. That's why it's a good thing this racer pulls off fun driving with an incredibly high energy level. Though Carbon uses a whole line-up of licensed cars that behave differently, they're not based in reality -- Carbon is, like the rest of the Need for Speed series, an arcade racer that's way more exaggerated than your sim-style games like Gran Turismo.
Since the Nintendo DS lacks an analog stick, the designers add a little more touch control to the D-pad steering: if you need a softer turn, mashing up while steering left or right eases a looser arc than if you simply pressed left or right. Likewise, down on the D-pad with the turn with offer tighter control. It's nice to have the option and certainly gives the player a bit more control to their vehicle, but it's not something that comes all that naturally, especially in a D-pad controlled game where the turns fly towards the player at a gazillion miles an hour. Besides, that's why God gave us powersliding: tap the brake, hit the turn and slide around with as little loss in speed as possible.
Carbon introduces the ability to bring a "wingman" into the action. An attacker can ram a lead opponent and open up the first place position. A drafter will zoom in front of your car and award NOS boost if you can manage to stay within his drafting field. It's a cool option for the single player mode, though the drafting teammate seams to be far more beneficial to the player than the attacker...especially when you unlock the rather cool "rewind time" option where you can pull a "Prince of Persia" moment and reverse the race a few seconds so you can save yourself from a poorly handled turn. The AI of these computer controlled teammates is a little wonky, as a helper will occasionally hinder the player's progress by ramming them out of commission simply because they zoomed in a little too tightly.
As fun as the game is, and as good as the game looks, there are still the same Nintendo DS limitations in Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City. The impressive visuals still suffer from low-res texture work and a bit of pop-up in places. Crashes, a frequent occurrence in the races, are relatively lame -- cars seem to flip over unharmed in a canned, unsatisfying sequence. And the soundtrack, a huge leap above the previous two games with actual licensed and digitized MP3-like tracks, aren't really integrated into the design; they play over the action, but the music has not been made a part of it. Go from race to menu and the same song will be playing uninterrupted...it just sounds awkward and just a little unpolished.
On the same token, there are enough bells and whistles in the design to show us that a team was dedicated to making this a viable racing game. There's a huge assortment of customization options given to the player, including the ability to make custom tags using the in-game art program. The big addition is the single-cart multiplayer mode so that four players can sample the arcade racing with only one copy of the game. Of course, all the courses and vehicles open up if everyone has a card in their system. It's just really handy to get a fun, if just a little simplified, multiplayer rendition without the expense of four copies purchased.
©2006-11-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved