Need for Speed: Underground 2 for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

For a system that's only been around for six months, it's a little odd to already have three street racing games vying for your handheld dollars so early in the Nintendo DS's life. Need for Speed Underground 2 was announced well before the system's launch, but it spent a little more time in the oven during its development cycle, releasing a significant difference after the console renditions' time in the sun. The final product is a decent demonstration of the Nintendo DS' 3D capabilities, and does a fine job at offering a solid, balanced racing experience on the handheld. Its real weakness is that Need for Speed Underground 2 doesn't go above and beyond in its features and presentation. It's perfectly comfortable as a "solid" design.

Need for Speed Underground 2, developed by European studio Pocketeers, has spent the past few years on EA's racing franchise, but in a much smaller format in the form of Game Boy Advance renditions of Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, Need for Speed: Underground and Need for Speed Underground 2. When faced with the task of bringing the series to the Nintendo DS, the team looked to the design it created for the Game Boy Advance instead of attempting the free-roaming structure of the console game. The DS version, naturally, plays better than the edition the team's created for the GBA thanks to the DS system's strengths in 3D, but the team could have put a little more effort into the wow factor to make it stand further apart from its previous handheld effort. It's fun, but just a little too straightforward and routine.

This racing game handles very well with the digital D-pad, and pushes a lot of variety in the different style of races. You've got standard races against three computer opponents, time trial challenges for solo racers, a drag race design to test out players' shifting prowess, and a pretty clever "Own the Zone" racing challenge. Own the Zone segments each course into separate parts, and players claim that portion of the track by earning the fastest time at the start and end of that zone's perimeter. Opponents can steal the zone away if they get the faster time, and the map on the lower screen keeps track of which zone is owned by which player. It's a neat addition to the racing series that definitely builds up variety in the design.

The designers spread out all of these challenges in a structure that's allows players to freely select any mode. So, if you really wanted to, you can race all of the Circuit Modes, then all of the Own the Zone challenges, then all of the Drift drag races. But since the competition gets increasingly fierce in each of the game modes, there's no way you'd be able to complete one particular mode on its own; you have to sample each mode in order to earn the necessary points to upgrade your vehicle high enough to beat the computer opponents in the later levels.

But even with these options, the game still lacks some elements that would have made the good ideas great. In "Own the Zone," for example, the lower screen doesn't give the important information, like how much time you missed stealing the zone from the other racers. The second screen does a good job keeping track of other racers, but with the added screen real estate the developers could have offered up other handy details, like how many seconds ahead or behind the opposition you are, or what the current best lap time for each of the four in-game racers are. The game also focuses on vehicle customization, but it never immediately shows how buying certain parts will improve the vehicle's speed or handling capabilities, so you'll just have to assume that buying a better part for your engine will make it go faster. And oddly enough, this is one of the first 3D racing games to not include any sort of replay mode, so you won't be able to relive some particularly stunning moments in the races.

This isn't to say that the game doesn't impress, because the team pulled off a pretty stunning 3D engine on the DS system that really offers a great sense of speed. Track designs have a decent flair with tons of shortcuts and different terrain to zoom across, and the engine provides the designers enough leeway to provide city buildings and other structures to add a little character to the courses. The race moves at a blazing 60 frames per second, adding to the peppy pace of the challenges, especially when you score some of the faster vehicles in the game.

This silky smooth framerate definitely makes the Nintendo DS version stand apart from the rest of the games in the NFSU series; the downside is the lack of texture filtering, lighting effects, and motion blurring of the console and PSP versions. Object pop-up is also an issue in many of the tracks; though track objects and computer opponents stay on-screen as long as they're within eyeshot, you'll see the skyline suddenly appear out of nowhere as you speed down the streets at 150 miles an hour. It's a graphical "glitch" that's a throwback to previous generation console games, and hopefully as developers get used to the limited DS hardware this pop-up element won't be an issue in future product. And since the game is based on the concept of racing "underground," all of the races take place at night. And the Nintendo DS LCD screen's not exactly friendly to dark environments; some objects tend to blend in with their surroundings, and it's a little hard to see certain hazards, like parked construction equipment, because the texture work's using a similar color palette as the textures around it.

Touch screen elements are used subtly in-game, providing the user more direct control over their nitrous for a boost of turbo. To get an extra jolt of speed, all that's needed is a tap on the on-screen button. But since the L trigger provides players with a standard turbo boost, the touch screen boost control seems a little silly. The lower screen does enable players to use two nitrous tanks at the same time, but that's about all the touch screen-specific control you're going to get. The touch screen does, however, give players a cool art program to create decals to customize their vehicles doors and hood with their own design. As good as this program is, it's a little clunky in interface; whoever decided to put the irreversable "delete all" button right next to the paint canvas needs to be run over a few times. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally wiped out my creations simply because my stylus accidentally slipped onto that button.

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