I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with console racing games. For the longest time I wanted to be good at them but to put it bluntly, I sucked at them. Maybe it was my aversion to using the brakes, maybe it was the fact that I learned how to drive a stick shift in Atari’s Race Drivin’. I'm not quite sure. Either way, that all changed last year when I rented Burnout 2 for the Gamecube. This was a game that was fast, the brake was mostly optional and crashes were encouraged. After Burnout 2, I went on to play F-Zero a lot and really enjoyed that one, too. Finally, I thought, I’ll get into a game rooted in a little more reality, so I played Need For Speed 2: Hot Pursuit. I hated it! In NFS2, the cars seemed to crawl at a snail’s pace compared to Burnout 2 and the controls were much too loose for my tastes. So I shrugged it off and wrote off the Need For Speed Series.

Along comes Need For Speed: Underground. It looked promising but I was cautious because of my bad experience with NFS2. Everything I was reading about it, however, pointed out that they fixed the speed to feel a lot faster than NFS2. I like the idea of an underground street racing game and I loved the idea of being able to modify/soup-up your car. While I scoff at ever Honda Accord with a two dollar chrome tailpipe, deep down I’d love to own a tricked-out Toyota Supra. The only reason I even watched the movie The Fast and the Furious was for the Supras. So if Need For Speed Underground could satisfy my Supra desires, I was game. So I picked up a copy and my right trigger finger has been numb ever since.

Need For Speed Underground brings it. The Nintendo Gamecube needs a good racer to compete with Project Gotham Racing and Gran Turismo. I'm not saying Need For Speed Underground is in the same league as they are but it is a solid contender.

The gameplay is quite simple: create a character to run with the big boys, underground. Prove you’ve got what it takes and they’ll let you in their inner circle. After proving yourself in your first race, you’re given a few bucks to pick out your ride. At first the choices are slim and the cars are stock and slow. I went with the Volkswagen Golf GTI. There are other compacts like the Pugeot 206, Honda Accord (of course) and others. As the game progresses, cars are unlocked and made available. I'm still waiting for the Supra to be unlocked, but I'm leaving people in the dust in my sweet VW. (Since writing this I have purchased my long coveted Supra)

The meat and potatoes is the “Go underground” mode which is the typical EA Dynasty Mode, the more you play, the more you get. There are one hundred eleven races to participate in so there’ll be plenty to do. The name of the game is unlockables. Just about every modification, system upgrade, and detail is obtained by being unlocked. In some games that may seem tedious, but here it’s perfect. There needs to be motivation for the next race.

Going Underground is divided into Circuit, Sprint, Lap Knockout, Drift, and Drag modes. Some take longer than others and of course some are harder than others. You make money by winning each race and you can use that money to upgrade your car. Along the way, you’ll be ranked in different racing categories (I'm not really sure who the sanctioning body of illegal street racing is, but they hand out rankings nonetheless), appear on the covers of various magazines and build a reputation of being a sick street racer. All the tracks are based in one location, but there are enough variations to keep things interesting. There are a few that are a bit on the ridiculous side for difficulty, but they are all fun to run, with their hidden shortcuts and secrets. Drift is a new addition to a racing game, which consists of hard accelerations and hand brakes. It’s pretty cool thing to do but hard to master. All the races have their strong points but none are perfect.

Control in Need For Speed Underground is head and shoulders above NFS2. You don’t feel like you’re driving on ice anymore. Cornering, drift and power sliding and even jumping feels rooted in Newtonian Physics. Unfortunately there isn’t any type of a damage model so you slam into the back of a car and leave unscathed. Burnout 2 did this much better. But it’s a necessary evil, I'm sure. Acceleration is done with the right trigger button (hence my numbness) and brake with the left trigger. With enough money, the nitro upgrade becomes available and the nitro boost is the B button. A is your hand break for those wicked turns and X and Y are for shifting. I play with automatic ninety-nine percent of the time, but the Drag races are purely based on how well you can shift and this is actually a lot of fun. Most of the Drags are straight aways, so you can concentrate on shifting and not steering. Overall, control is great, and with a mixture of views make this a great game.

Graphics are superb, lighting effects are some of the best I’ve seen in a Gamecube game. Car models look realistic and fairly true to form. The town you run your races through is also nicely done. Since this the underground, everything takes place at night, which had to have been a challenge but it is implemented flawlessly. Headlights and ground effect lights reflect realistically off the wet pavement. With all the possibilities of modifying your car, going to modification garage is a treat. With all the paint options and decals you can make your ride look really good.

Electronic Arts always does gamers right with its choices of music. The EA Trax are great. A little rap, a little rock and roll, it’s all there. There are even a few special exclusive recordings. Music is perfect for this game. The sounds of wheel screetching and engine revving, everything sounds good. The little pneumatic hisses as you shift are a nice little touch to this highly polished game.

Overall, you can’t go wrong with NFSU. It has been called Fast and Furious for consoles but it is so much more than that. One thing that would make this game perfect would have been online play, but us Gamecube owners have resigned ourselves to little online play. Either way, this game is definitely a winner.

(I’ve been waiting for this to get listed in the database, and when I looked I saw this listing had been added but it had the Gamecube box art so I decided that was good enough for me.)


Recommended: Yes