For the past few years now we have seen a numerous amount of Need For Speed titles be put on various consoles and handhelds but the quality of the titles have differed each year. This year we have seen the release of EA’s Black Box latest NFS title being ‘Need for Speed: Undercover’ for the Nintendo DS. Question is where does it fall on the scale in terms of quality?
When I first started playing Undercover I was expecting that I would be playing a quality racer title, like most NFS titles have been, however I found myself in lacklustre races that proved to be to boring than exciting. Like all NFS titles the game revolves around various different race types and you having the objective of winning the race to be rewarded. One of the major problems I came across however were that it eventually became a painstaking task to complete races, and it wasn’t because they were difficult either. The problem was the actual race, racetrack and opponents. Although the racetracks were of lengthy size, similar to the console versions, the actual layout was somewhat annoying as it was difficult to some times to tell the difference between the track and boundary at times causing myself to crash the car on numerous occasions. The opponents seem to be a very basic AI that really didn’t prove too difficult to beat either which really did take away the level of difficulty.
Unlike previous NFS titles Undercover, on DS, doesn’t actually have an open world in which you can drive around but you are restricted to only choose your races from a very simple map. Surprisingly EA have added the car modification feature to the DS version of Undercover however it isn’t as in depth or detailed as what you would find in the console versions. Players also have the opportunity to use different cars, when bought or unlocked but it would be surprising if a player unlocks all cars. The title has a basic control system for the racing, with no use of the touch screen for racing, with the D-Pad for steering and the other buttons used for the basics such as NOS, acceleration, braking and slow down time.
Disappointingly the games graphics aren’t even as a subpar level with most races looking very unpolished in detail, and in some cases it is hard to tell the track apart from the boundary. There are also a lot less cars on screen, the ones that don’t take part in the race, and you usually need to be really close to a building or a car to see it. The games in game soundtrack is not exciting overall containing minor songs, which aren’t very audible when you are racing. EA have included some in game soundeffects as well but nothing majority noticeable either.
Need for Speed: Undercover on the Nintendo DS is pretty much your average racing title that offers very little. If it weren’t for the in-game story, which is very subpar, the ability to customise cars at a minor level or the different types of races, with most being the same, I would have to say this title is on the same level as Need for Speed 1. The racing is enjoyable for some moments but most races prove to be to easy and it does prove frustrating that the graphics aren’t well polished making the racing track confusing to drive on.
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