GENRE
	Racing
	DEVELOPER
	EA Black Box
	PUBLISHER
	EA Games
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-2
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
	BUY NOW AT

When I want to impress a girl at a bar I stare at her from across the room with a laser-precision glare and slowly make my way over to her. When I get to her I begin to tell her… “I live my life a quarter mile at a time. For those few seconds..I’m free.” I’m hoping that she’ll in turn tell me that she’s very fast and very bi-curious!

Yup, that soliloquy is as hurting in that context as it was in the teen-first film Too Fast Too Furious. And by the way, everything that is old is new again. The whole street-racing scene is a mirror of what happened in the 50’s. Kids spending way too much money on cars that were originally food processors all in the effort to drag race their cars for an adrenaline rush and maybe catch the attention of a girl who’s looser than a blown out gearbox after a repeating pounding.

Wait a minute…does that make Vin Diesel our generation’s James Dean? Dear God….NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

It’s with the resurgence of the underground drag scene that EA Games decided to take their Need For Speed franchise out of the high society of coke sniffing lawyers with their Porsches and Ferraris and down into the trenches of E and G buzzed out punks with their rice rocket nitrous conversions. Admittedly, the Need For Speed series needed a severe resuscitation so this change of direction is certainly a wise move.

Another wise move was turning this game into Eye candy. Although you may grow tired of seeing perpetually wet streets at night, the game admittedly looks stunning. But what isn’t wise is the fact that the game doesn’t have a pursuit mode like in Burnout 2 where a cop chases you down. C’mon EA, if you’re going “underground” you’ve got to have the lawbreaking side of things in there.

This title also does not have the same depth in terms of features and play modes as Burnout 2 so I cannot recommend it as being better than Acclaim’s timelessly excellent title, but it is worth checking out for the level of customization features and of course, the stunning visuals and play mechanics. Burnout 2 still rules the roost but this title is a nice diversion for you Burnout heads. If you don’t own Burnout 2, get that before you buy Underground.

visuals

Blackbox hired the Oscar nominated visual effects director from Star Wars Episode 1 film to assist in creating a fast and realistic visual environment to this title. First and foremost, unlike Burnout 2, this title does not rely solely on the motion blur effect to establish the visual element of speed. Where this title takes off is the wickedly done “rattling” camera that makes you always feel as if you’re on the edge of going too fast and losing it. Once Blackbox’s stunning motion blur kicks in you feel like your hitting Spaceballs’ “ludicrous speed.” Underground looks just like a triple A race sequence in a blockbuster film and the camera plays a large part of that.

The environments resemble a Ridley Scott Bladerunner environment in that the levels are dominated by three things: rain, neon lights and nighttime. Understandable, since most highly illegal street racing takes place after hours, but this is a video game. We can have our fantasy racers going around to different places in the world where you can street race during the day, can’t we? It would’ve been nice to see a different environment than just the cityscape with water and neon lights. Having said that, EA Games has executed this VERY specific look perfectly.

Burnout 2 does annihilate this game though when it comes to the visual coolness of collisions. There’s nothing more gratifying than watching your car disintegrate like a piece of tissue paper up a cab drivers’ nose after a horrifying accident. Shards everywhere, devastation…Burnout 2 was excellent for this. Because of EA’s efforts to get 20 licensed vehicles, Need for Speed Underground keeps the “zero damage” indestructible dinky car look during and after accidents. This inevitably sucks the bag.

Who doesn’t like racing a Nascar race and winning even though your hood looks like a banana and you’re missing some quarter panels? In the same vein, where’s the smoke and parts flying in this game? It would make the game seem much more intense and its unfortunate that EA with all of their clout and money muscle couldn’t convince these anal retentive auto manufacturers to allow gamers to have some fun with their cars.

All of the details are here. Ho’s at the starting line, pedestrian traffic that moves well and unpredictably (unlike Burnout 2) and the alterations that you make to your car are all accurately represented visually. The cars themselves are stunning and blow the doors off of Burnout 2’s vehicles. But what fun is having something so pretty if you can’t smash it up real good? WHAT?! I ask you Dojo Disciples!?

audio

A title like this needs to rival its visual presence with the audio element or else the whole title will seem disjointed. Like a good looking lady, you need balance to make a good looking woman great. You can’t have 10 out of 10 booty with 1 out of 10 face. Well you could, but not to take out in public.

With that analogy in mind, I’m pleased to say that Blackbox and EA Games made an excellent effort to provide an equally impressive audioscape. You’ll find that the EA Trax here are as dynamic as the sports titles from EA sports. Also, unlike Fifa 2004, you won’t hear lame tracks that make you want to watch a “while you were out” show or plants some flowers in a pot. These titles are solid from rock and rap groups alike. You’ll even hear some “game only exclusive” work from these artists.

More important than the music, you’ll hear every turbo pop, grind screech and speck of action noise. Black box has done a fantastic job capturing the sound of street racing. As with the Medal of Honor Series, Underground holds down a Hollywood-level of production quality.

gameplay

The three modes offered: Drag, Drift, and a “Circuit” Underground mode, can't hope to compete with Burnout 2’s GP mode, Crash, Pursuit, and time trial. While the drift mode adds a unique feeling to the game’s play mechanics, I cannot say that it warrants the attention that a unique mode like the crash mode offers in Burnout 2. I do, however like the drag racing mode. That definitely gives the feeling of speed that the first sequence in Too Fast Too Furious elicited. Having said that, the Underground mode definitely has more of a “career” element than Burnout 2. You’ll travel through the mode as other racers prompt you to meet up and race via your in car screen. It’s a deeper mode than Burnout 2’s GP but I’m still missing a pursuit mode here.

You’ll find the controls to be accurate and representative of the progressive upgrades that you put into your car. The cars handle well and feel fast without being too overbearing in the sense that the game still retains a fun factor, arcade-y forgiveness to it.

You will definitely feel challenged in this game. The opponent AI is strong and fair. If you should happen to wipe out you still have a chance of getting back to the top. I say that you have a chance because it will take some flawless driving on your part and some luck. The luck factor involves the random traffic that you’ll encounter throughout the streets of Underground. In the same way that you can get clipped by a mom making her way over to WalMart for that sale on Clorox, the opponent that you’re trying to get by could be carving up the roads for the entire race and then WHAM! he gets wiped out right in front of you and you pass him for the win and a trip down one of the sideline ho’s pants. As I said earlier, the bystander traffic is randomly generated so it doesn’t feel cheap or forced when something like this happens but you will get pissed when you’re having the race of your life and you have a collision with ‘regular’ traffic. Just know that your opponents are never too far ahead if you wipe out and that they have to weave through the same traffic. It’s an excellent dynamic to the game.

I think that the real depth here is in the customization of your ride. You can build up your car by upgrading to different levels of parts such as turbos, aeros and suspensions. I like this idea because if you start screwing around with gear rations, dampers and strut heights you might as well reach for Nascar Dirt To Daytona; that game is the cream in the sim racer’s donut. Unfortunately, EA tries to create a sense of game play depth through this upgrading but I’d rather have a game that makes you want to play the crap out of it than a tinkering option. An incredible game play engine that begs you to play it again and again is certainly more valuable than staring at a customization menu for hours.

I know that this title is only a year removed from Hot Pursuit but I don’t think that the replay value of tuning a car accounts for the loss of features and modes like a good pursuit mode.

multiplayer

Imagine playing this title online and racing for pink slips? Imagine racing a real gear head and blowing him away. Well keep on imagining because your GameCube has the online capabilities of a dollar store calculator.

You can race in two player mode and this is definitely fun but once again, I have the most multiplayer fun with Burnout 2’s two player pursuit mode. However, if you want to stun a friend with visuals other than the frantic F Zero Redux; you can slap this bad boy on the NGC turntable and let it spin…no what I’m saying G?

overall

While I can’t rank this title above my sentimental arcade racing favorite; Burnout 2, I can tell you that this game is excellent and next year’s version will be the one to buy as EA will certainly add a pursuit mode and other features that are quite frankly necessary to earn your hard earned dollar. If you can’t wait for the next version than get on board and check this title out. But be forewarned, if you don’t own Burnout 2 and you can only afford one game, you money is ill spent. Burnout 2 may not be as flashy as Underground but when you’re done with Burnout 2 it’ll cook you breakfast, clean your floors and iron your undies. That’s right Dojo Disciples Burnout 2’s the ‘keeper’ and Underground is the fire and forget Saturday Night fling.

8.5/10