Warning: Review does not include lingo any more.
Make no mistake; if you've played any of the NFSU games, you've played this one. Many of the best features that were planed before the release of this game (i.e. rivals) were removed, as was the free roaming feature from NFSU2. With all these changes, NFSU: R lies between 2 thresholds. On one side, those who hated the free roaming modes of NFSU2 will love this game and, on the other side, those who want something fresh and new are likely to be disappointed by NFSU.
Graphics: 6/10
Man, this game is butt ugly for a PSP racer. The car models feel horribly "plastiky", as if they were taken straight out of an anime or from a Matchbox toy-set. While they do look decent, the edges of all of the cars are noticeable and the details could've used some more work.
The tracks and special effects don't fare all that better. The lighting effects are miles behind those in Wipeout Pure and the tracks all look bland and pretty much repeat the same tired tileset, over and over again. The framerate is fairly solid and the game only rarely bogs down, and when it does, it isn't really all that detrimental to gameplay.
What really ends up hurting NFSU though is that it's neither as pretty nor as articulate as, say Wipeout Pure nor is it as smooth or well animated as Ridge Racers making it look by comparison, much worse.
Sound: 7/10
The sound effects in NFSU: R are pure bliss. From the precise sound of every shift to the screeching of the brakes NFSU doesn't miss a beat with its sound effects.
As far as the music goes though, it's really a matter of taste… and mine are a little more developed than what EA might think. The combination of horrible rap tracks (Riders on the Storm Remake anyone?) to the already-standard punk rock and alternative tracks that EA keeps pushing on us; it all sounds just very ho-hum. If you're into this kind of stuff it'll sound enjoyable, otherwise the soundtrack of the original is still miles ahead of any of its sequels.
Gameplay: 5/10
Within the first 20 minutes of play I found that NFSU: R's biggest attraction isn't the racing model, but the actual career mode. The best part of this game is the career mode with its real life cars and tons of upgrade options. You'll probably spend hours on this mode as each championship has 4 races, all with 3 levels of proficiency, which in turn makes for some 100+ races. With each advancement more parts become available, which can be used to either enhance the car's drivability, speed or acceleration or to visually tune it.
Now, the career mode in Rivals isn't without faults, one of the biggest ones being that it's very linear. The only way to collect credits is to complete every race, multiple times, until your eyes bleed from seeing the same scenery 20 times over. The other, unique, aspects of the NFSU gameplay (making it on the cover of magazines, etc.) were also removed thusly rendering visual tuning fairly useless in the long run and making a simple diversion for the car enthusiast.
The actual racing itself is, however, very, very, average. If you've played one NFSU game, you've played them all. The cars handle in their typical arcade fashion making huge drifts or building-leaping-jumps fairly common. The AI isn't all too bright and usually relies on sheer overpowering to defeat his opponents, while at the same time the absence of drafting or the totally useless shortcuts make beating the computer a simple exercise in perfect driving. The controls, whose faults are highly overplayed, are fairly accurate and offer the kind of precision you'd expect from this kind of game. At every push of the button the cars react well, although sometimes way too dramatically, and the PSP's nub is about the only decent way of controlling the car. NOS also makes a return for all the obvious reasons.
NFSU games have always lacked a well made list of cars, and Rivals is no exception. There's a preponderance of "rice rockets" and muscle cars with most European manufacturers left in the dust. Hell, not even the trusty Golf or the M3, cult classics in the street racing genre, make an appearance. As expected, the cars all handle nearly the same, with minimal differences between the cars in the same class. One big advantage of the car selection however is the real-world-aspect of the collection: Other than Midnight Club 3, Rivals is the only game to feature real life cars on the PSP.
As expected, the tracks are as boring as they were in the last 2 entries in the series. Underground games are really lacking one track-design essential: Variety. All of the tracks are either recycled from other games or, in the better of the two cases, are remixes of new segments with old segments from NFSU. Worse yet, all tracks take place in the same city, under the same basic tileset at ... you guessed it, night. Fortunately though, the actual layout is fairly good, covering all aspects of a track from hair-pin turns to straight-aways and even shortcuts. Oddly enough though, these shortcuts are far more detrimental to your race than they are helpful!
Rivals' boasts a few modes, besides the standard career mode, but nothing you haven't seen before. There's a quick race mode, a time trial mode, etc. The multiplayer modes are also surprisingly bare. The most fun I've had was with the Party Mode, which has you pass the PSP around to up to 3 other players while you each try to beat the best time on a specific track. This mode would be much improved if there wouldn't be a severe garage limitation, whereby you can only use the cars in the host's garage.
NFSU: R also has very little in the way of innovation, or even changes to the NFSU formula, for that matter. There are a few more cars and a few new segments of track along with the aforementioned Party-Play. Some features that were touted before release, like active rivalries within the game, are absent or so underplayed that I haven't seen eye to eye with them.
Multiplayer: 4/10
The Party Mode is fun, like mentioned above but it has huge limitations. The other modes are fairly dead-beat and require another PSP within proximity. Ironically (or not so much) this is hard to do in Easter Europe so I can't possibly say that the Ad-Hoc feature was of much use to me.
Overall: 6/10
NFSU: R is a decent racer that has one big advantage: A real career mode. Now, if someone could take the cars from this game and the career mode, add better graphics and sound and a decent racing engine they'd get... well, they'd get GT4 Mobile.
As should you, unless you're REALLY desperate for a street racing game with real cars, stick with Burnout Legends.