Need For Speed Underground is simply an awesome game. The main feature that NFSU advertises is the customization and for good reason. The customization possibilities are simply endless. You can customize large things such as the color of your car and the decals/ vinyls on it, all the way down to the color of your brake calipers, the type of exhaust pipe you have, and the color of your rims on your tires. There are million of combinations, and I have spent more time ‘pimping my ride’ then I have actually racing. The graphics in NFSU are also top notch. With the million of possible car visuals, the game does a great job. Throughout the entire game, I never experienced any lag or slowdown. The car models look great and are accurately done. When you use your boost, the landscape blurs very realistically. The City is also very well created with some cool details that don’t add to gameplay but are cool nonetheless. Gameplay is also well done. The controls are easy to pick up, yet work well through out the whole game from start to finish. The game utilizes the simple trigger system with the right trigger being accelerate and the left trigger being decelerate. The A button is used for the emergency brake which you can use to power slide around corners. Overall the controls flow smoothly. The variety of races is good for a change of pace. There are 4 types of races: Circuit, Drag, Drift, and Sprint. Sprint is a race from point A to point B, simple as that, whoever gets there first wins. Drift is like a style competition, whenever you get you car sliding around a corner, you are awarded points and at the end of a race, the most points win. Drag is simply a race down a straight stretch of road. The catch is the shifting, you must use manual shift and the timing is everything, shift too early and you lose speed, shift too late and you lose more speed and risk blowing your engine. Later on in the game, traffic is thrown into the mix to complicate things further. Circuit is a simple race around a circular track with the norm being 3 laps but as high as 7. The sound in the game is average overall. The voice overs in the few cut scenes aren’t great, but NFSU does boast a large soundtrack with good songs and a large selection. The engine sounds are exaggerated, but not overly so. Unfortunately, like all games, there are flaws, and NFSU is no exception. The cut scenes are few and far between, and the voice over are OK at most. There isn’t much along the lines of a plot, just the standard ‘unknown racer works his way to the top’ in an illegal street racing setting. NFSU unfortunately uses menus to start up races. You will be shown a list of the races that are available, what type they are, etc, so while you aren’t racing, you will be looking at menus. The AI is slightly flawed and a prime example is in a 7 lap race towards the end of the game. You must run a PERFECT race in order to win, and even then it is not guaranteed. If you hit a car, crash in any other form, or scrape along a wall the AI will pass up to you with no hope of catching up, even if they were seconds behind you. Overall, NFSU is a great game that I highly recommend buying for all xbox racing fans.
Other Helpful Reviews for Need for Speed Underground
By Edge-o-Matic | Review Date: Jul 09, 2006 | XBOX
The XBOX version of EA Games Need For Speed Underground reminds me alot of The Fast and The Furious movie. This game is alot of fun and contains some popular cars such as the MX-5, Toyota Supra, Ford Focus, Dodge Neon an... Read Full Review
The game was expected to be a great hit, since most of its predecessors were very fun games. But many changed took place in the new game, most that weren't so great. Some of the key things the game could've used wasn't t... Read Full Review
