Need for Speed Undercover Review

When Palm announced at CES that they had a new framework for tapping into the GPU I was excited.

When I played Asphalt 5 and saw the actual power of the little phone I had been carrying around for six months I started to drool.

Now I have played Need for Speed Underground (by EA Mobile for $9.99 on the Catalog) I feel as though I have truly hit phone nirvana.

Never before have I actually looked forward to some time where I could sit and play on my phone. I have a gaming rig PC, an Xbox 360, and a Wii and here I am sitting on my couch playing on my phone. Seriously, the game is that fun.

First we should get the bad stuff out of the way. If you played Asphalt 5 and then played Need for Speed Underground (henceforth called NFSU), you can tell very quickly that the graphics are just not in the same ballpark. The graphics in NFSU are rather muddy with a side of jaggies. If I had never played Asphalt I wouldn’t be all that disappointed, but now I know what is possible on my superphone, I can’t help but be a bit sad. With that said, the graphics didn’t get in my way of enjoying the game in the least.

What separates NFSU from Asphalt 5 is a storyline. Whereas in Asphalt 5 you raced just cuz you could, in NFSU you have a purpose. You are working for the government (FBI? No idea, but I do know that my contact with the agency is a hot chick and I think that is all I am supposed to care about), and your goal is to track down some stolen cars for some reason or another.

The plot is given to you in two ways…full motion video and text intros. The acting is exactly what you would expect, but it is serviceable and enjoyable. The text intros are 90’s style where the mouths just kinda move on their own a bit while you read the text. No complaints though because the story is good enough where you feel like there is a purpose to all this driving.

There is a good amount of variety in the different races. There are races where you have to avoid the cops (my least favorite), 1 on 1 races, KO races (where the person in last for a lap is automatically out), knock other drivers out races, etc. What I also like about it is that the races aren’t very long. In Asphalt 5, the races could last several minutes. In NFSU they typically are around two.

Driving itself is similar to Asphalt 5 in that you steer by tilting (this is the only option), but I found things to be a bit tighter…at least I could stay on the track a bit better. Also NFSU takes a slight turn towards realism. This isn’t Gran Turismo here, but there aren’t powerups and crazy shortcuts either. Overall the experiences are similar, but I enjoyed NFSU a bit more.

As you race you unlock cars, but other than that you don’t really unlock much. Upgrades to your car (and there are quite a few of them) are applied to your car simply by paying for them. I used to own a Mazda RX-8 so I was particularly excited to unlock that one and pimp it out.

The only other knock I have against the game is the soundtrack. There are essentially three songs that loop over and over. One of them in particular sounds like a 1980’s hair band reject. If you are too young to know what I am talking about, then go look up Poison, Whitesnake, Ratt, throw in some Europe (Final Countdown!!!) and then imagine those songs but worse…way worse.

Ending on a positive note, I am pleased to announce that the game is rock solid. I did not crash once the entire time I played it. This is a big relief because I was beginning to wonder if it was my phone since all the 3D games were blowing up. Guess it is just Gameloft…

Gallery
These are the screenshots from the App Catalog.