| Need
for Speed Underground - PS2 (Version tested), PC, Xbox, NGC, GBA
Ah, the smell of hot
babes and dirty oil deep in your nostrils. Set in the murky world
of illegal street racing, NFS Underground plops you into the shoes
of an up and coming Dominic Toretto type (that’s Vin Diesel
from out of The Fast And The Furious).
As you’d expect from a Need for Speed
game, there is a range of cars to choose from. This time around,
you’re lucky enough to have your pick of exotics such as…
the Ford Focus!? Don’t illegal street racers have any shame?
How can you satiate your urge for surge in something your mum
uses for her supermarket run? Well… by winning races and
earning the cash to buy parts, paints, pants and all manner of
vinyls and decals to tart up with your car with. Customisation
is half of this game, and if you like fannying around trying to
create the ultimate dream machine, then you’ll be in Hotrod
Heaven – there are more unlockables than you could shake
a gearstick at.
”Tsch! Look at that. No indicator. And if I hit him, it’ll
be my fault”.
With sponsors, manufacturers and various evil
megacorps all after a piece of you, choosing the hottest gear
will boost your reputation no end. Or, if you feel like it, you
can just slap the nastiest looking vinyls and colours on your
car and make it look like you crashed it through a Dulux factory.
The choice is yours.
One thing is clear – developers Black
Box certainly know how to make the PS2 sing and dance. This has
got to be the fastest road racing game available today. I haven’t
felt such a feeling of sheer speed recklessness since my mate
Dicky declared at 9:45pm that he could get us from Durham to a
pub in Whitehaven before last orders, and then proceeded to do
just that. Blasting through oncoming traffic on a two-lane road
at 150mph (in the game, not on the way to Whitehaven) gave me
such an unparalleled adrenaline rush, I was sweating and my arm
and neck were aching from gripping the pad so tightly.
Well, which one would you save in an emergency?
If you get the chance, take a look at the street
lights as you blaze by. Yes, that’s the street lights. I’m
not joking. The effect is so impressive, you’re guaranteed
to wipe out at least once because you’re not watching where
you’re going. Actually, all of the lighting makes this one
remarkable-looking game – from the Cityscape, which has
more neon than the Las Vegas strip, to the elaborate Chinatown
area. And then you get your first nitro upgrade…
The game isn’t perfect. The drag races
are really just the best-looking reaction tests you’ve ever
seen, and the drifts are a boy racer’s tyre-bursting wet
dream - but, once is enough. Having the races set in just one
city works both for and against the game. At first, it seems a
bit samey, but then it becomes ‘your city’, and as
you get to know your way around it, you start to go all-out in
the risk-taking department. It’s a big help that your car
tends to bounce off everything unscathed, but then this is Need
For Speed, and not Need For Realistic Damage Physics.
RODENT CASH RATING -
Pay no more than thirty sheets.
 "Step
on it, mamma!"
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Have a gawp at some fast
cars
Soup up that hotrod
in the real world, like
A highly original blend of pop-cultural phenomena
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