Customer Reviews

Need for Speed Carbon

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Yes it will take you a while to get used to the controls, but once you do, it is a very fun game. There are many racing modes and the story is not half bad (for a racing game); it gives you an incentive to come back and play time after time. Tuning the car is easy and fun to do. There is a lot more depth here as compared to "Excite Truck", which is fun in its own, but not deep at all. Although all of the racing takes place during night time, the graphics is one of the best on the Wii. I recommend at least a rental for all racing fans out there.

Initially I was not really feeling this game at all, the graphics are nice for the Wii and the Wii specific control seems too simple at first, but after some time put in I ilke this NFS best of all. Terrific and fun car controls are all you need to put this into the realm of an adrenaline rush classic like F-Zero GX. The controls also probably make this the most accesible NFS title yet once you practice them for a small amount and upgrade your cars HANDLING ability, the interface using the Nunchuck is a little convuluted and confusing, as are the menus but then it wouldn't be an EA game without them would it. Overall worth it if you wanna go FAST on your Wii- think excite truck with more realism and SPEED

The Nintendo Wii has definitely been one of the hottest toys this holiday season. Although the game system has been hot, many of the titles for the system, have also been issued for Nintendo's other console, the Gamecube. That has been the case with Legend Of Zelda: Twiglight Princess, Happy Feet, and recently, Need For Speed as well. Since its made its debut years ago, Need For Speed has definitely been recognized as one of the most popular racing franchises ever. The games have all done mostly well for the PS2, Xbox 360, and the home computers as well. Now that it has made its debut on the Wii, can it deliver as well?

Need For Speed Carbon for the Nintendo Wii, challenges drivers to face off in over 70 different races ranging from sprints, circuits, and the new canyon duels, where you go head to head against the vulgar street racer Darius, and his crew of speed demons. In the game, you and your crew have to battle your way to the top, as well as the thrills of the cahse against the police. The game also features automobiles ranging from classic muscle cars like the Dodge Charger, ans classic speed racers like the Chevrolet Corvette, the infamous Dodge Viper, and the Mclaren racers too. The game also features a challenge mode, where you are given the chance to prove you are more than just a winner in career mode. The graphics really handle well for the Wii and give out a better sense of gameplay. Although the graphics and the sound handle well, there are a few disadvantages to the game. The main disadvantage is the control. It takes awhile to get used to, considering the motion movement in the Wii controller, as you use it as if it is a steering wheel. The other disadvantage is the pursuits against the police in the career mode. There really isn't as much challenge against them as there was with Need For Speed Most Wanted from the Gamecube, which leaves a little dissapointment.

Despite a couple of flops, Need For Speed Carbon is a true delight for anybody who owns, or is planning to buy the Nintendo Wii. I love this game a lot, and if you are a Wii gamer, than you'll truly love the thrills of the chase here. This is a great introduction game for the system, and I loved racing with it, and you will too. Otherwise, you might be left in the dust.

Graphics: B+

Sound: B

Control: B 1/2-

Fun & Enjoyment: B

Overall: B 1/2+

Thats the bottom line, Need for Speed carbon is an extremely intense, challenging, and immersing game for the wii. At first, the controls seem very sloppy and difficult to maneuver but after just a race or two you really master it to the point where you can drive with excellent precision and ease (Its important to skip the muscle car class and focus on cars with higher handling points).

I couldn't imagine playing this game on anything other than the wii console simply because using the wiimote as your steering wheel really gets you into the game. The challenge to the races are very balanced although the boss races require you to drive with near perfection although you always can win after a few tries.

Overal a terrific, fun, and challenging game that I recomend for every wii owner. Its just a well done game that you will really get into and enjoy.

This game throughout had its very easy parts (most of the races when you first start are pretty easy, to get you into the game) and very difficult parts (such as beating a lamborghini murcielago through a canyon run with a dodge charger). Whenever I sat down to play this game, I would always find myself in front of the TV for hours at a time - it was great fun. A couple of annoyances I experienced were how fast and agile the police were; they always are a little bit faster than any car you have. I wished this was a bit more realistic. However, this is not to say that police pursuits and ramming through roadblocks aren't part of the game's fun.
If you are an explosive and anger-prone individual, this game will surely expose your ferocity a few times; I know it did with me. (Such as when you hit a stop sign, it remains stuck in front of your car, and you can only go 50 mph right when are about to win a tough race. Also when you completely flob the last turn before you are about to win a tough race and you have done everything else perfectly before that moment).
I think it's kind of rediculous that they didn't implement a multiplayer format (it says it's 1-player only on the back of the cover), because I believe other platform versions of the game have multiplayer or at least xbox has online xbox live play.
The reward cards (Accessories for your car or cars themselves that you win for performing certain feats during gameplay) are supposed to have challenging feats. And yes, some of them are extreme challenges, but some of the them are just kind of stupid and they appear to not have much thought in them (such as "fill your garage with nothing but tuner cars, fill your garage with nothing but exotic cars").
I highly recommend using a nunchuck with this game. When I first played, I tried using the wii remote for steering and was running into walls left and right. However, there was much relief with using the wii remote as a gas pedal and the nunchuck analog as the steering.
One thing I look for when buying a game is how much fun it will be after I've finished it. When I first got done with career mode being a muscle car user, I didn't think there would be much left. But I see that some of the challenge series is a good challenge (such as disable 30 cop cars in a pursuit and then escape), completing the reward cards will be extremely arduous, and doing the career all over again with exotic or tuner class will all keep me entertained for a while.
This game will most likely not disappoint if you have any liking for racing games. I highly recommend a rental.

The need for speed franchise seems to be a hit or miss with the NFS titles for PS2 were just awesome. Most wanted for DS wasn't so great and it seems that Carbon was a really good step for the WII graphic wise and concept wise, but it just feels like not enough effort was put into refining the controls. The controller is great to use in the situation of driving, (Try Excite Truck, you'll see what I mean!) so obviously the prospect of moving the controller in the steering wheel motion works out great. But I just could not get past the feeling of unresponsiveness from the controls. The storyline works really well and graphically, the game looks great. Maybe a little more technological refinement from EA would have sent this title to a higher level. If you're looking for a good driving game that is easier to play and exhibits more of a fun factor, I would recommend Excite Truck over NFS: Carbon.

I don't buy racing games. I never do. It's not my type of genre.
But with the Wii, I knew I had to try one out, and gave this one a go.
I was not disappointed.

Need For Speed: Carbon brings a lot to the table.
The objective of the game is to take control of territories by winning races and defeating county bosses. This is done through a few types of races including drift races, normal circuits, checkpoint races, and speedtrap races (which measures your speed at certain checkpoints and scores that way).

Each territory holds a few races, and after you defeat them you get to battle the boss for the territory in a canyon race, where you follow the boss as closely as possible for maximum points. Then he follows you, and to the victor goes the territory.

Through the game, you can be challenged by other crews to have your territories taken back. If you refuse to race, they automatically revoke your territory. This creates a nice tug-of-war feel, rather than you just pushing through the levels.

The game has a (Somewhat limited, but what can you expect) free roam mode, from which you can enter races or just drive around, and possibly enter police pursuits. Useful for test drives and just messing around for a few minutes when you have nothing to do.

One of the bigger features of NFS: Carbon is the crew members/wingmen. Throughout the game you hire members of your crew to give you bonuses such as parts discounts and cash bonuses. You can also activate a crew member as your wingman to utilize in circuit races. There are three types of wingmen: Scouts, Blockers, and Drafters. Scouts go ahead of you and find shortcuts, which is useful to new players, Blockers cut off opposing drivers, and drafters drive in front of you to speed you up for a slingshot effect.
It's interesting, but you'll probably find options of use limited. Scouts become useless as your knowledge of the game grows, and the other two aren't very complicated.

Customization is wonderful. I've gone through many settings already in the tuning section, and you can perfect exactly how you want your car to drive. There are also many options for physical alterations, in case you're feeling creative.
Parts can be upgraded for better performance as you unlock them in races.

Graphics and sound are great. The worse I've seen is a bit of framerate lag at the start of a few races, and the worse I've heard is, well, nothing. It's great. The conversation that takes place, whether it's with your crew member or whether you're overhearing police officers communicate with each other is a lot nicer than I would've expected. It's not dry at all, and flows very well with what you're doing and how the Non-player drivers are acting. And you can always turn it off if you want to.
Audio options are flexible, allowing you to turn separate music, sound, voice effects off and on depending on which ones you want.
The driving sounds are great too, from the tires squealing to the engines roaring, it's a very engaging experience.

Now, for the big Wii separation: the controls.
The setup I use, and I would bet most other people would use, is the single wii remote setup where you tilt it as a steering wheel. Now I've seen many reviews speak of responsive issues with the controller, but I have seen absolutely none. Everything goes exactly as I tilt and press, though I may mess up sometimes, it is me who messes up, not the controller. I fear maybe the other reviewers may have been holding the controller backwards. Just be reminded that the limits of tilting the controller goes to nearly exactly 90 degrees. Any past that, and it goes a little wonky. But if you don't tilt it too far, it's perfectly responsive.
The controls really make for a wonderful experience, A little gas, a tilt, a push, and your sliding, screeching, and roaring across the pavement. Really wonderful, and I couldn't see myself playing with an analog stick.
One thing to be said though, which is completely beyond me, is that even with the sideways wii remote setup, the wiimote controls are vertically oriented for ALL of the menus. Even when you simply pause from a race, you'd have to flip the controller. A completely unnecessary bother. Navigating the world map is also done with the D-pad, when pointing would have been so much easier. This is still minor, but completely glaring in the fact that it could be so easily remedied.

What I think of the game:
I don't play racing games much. I enjoy this game a lot.
It has an arcade sort of feel, yet incorporates a tug-of-war feel to keep you coming back, and a free roam and customization when you're past all that. It's still not super-deep, but for a racing game, I am pleased.
I haven't had the chance to try out other racing games as I said, so something better could be out there, but I believe that Need for Speed: Carbon is a very solid choice.

This is one of the best racing games i have ever played since i barely play any racing games. After 30 minutes, I got used to the controls real fast and easy with manual for the car. This game has an alright storyline, good graphics, real fun with racing your friends in multiplayer. Get this game if you need a racing game in your Wii collection. I highly recommend this game.

This is a nice racing game with 5 different unique control schemes which all using the Wii remote abilities in special ways.

The main and really only problem with the game is that it is night time all the time and all the races are within the same similar looking city levels so the variety of tracks is not so great and the night time stuff looks good at first but once you get faster cars it starts to just strain the eyes.

The canyon boss races are really fun. The soundtrack of the game is excellent throughout. Graphics are nice but lack diversity and the night time all the time got tiring for my eyes. Gameplay and controls are pretty good. AI is okay and you get some ally AI that work okay. Game has a few bugs here and there (especially with the ally AI). Lots and lots of car customizations. Nice to be able to drive all variety of real-world cars and customize them but sucks that they don't take any damage (except paint scraping) in collisions which breaks the realism.

One of the reasons I picked up this game is that I was looking for something else to make use of the Nerf Wii Wheel peripheral that so far I've only been using with Speed Racer. Now, I've only played it for two days, but in that time I have learned two things. One is that the game is generally pretty fun and the other is that the default "steering wheel" style control scheme is an unmitigated disaster. It is possible to control the car only in the loosest sense of the word, in the same way that if you shake a box with a cat inside you could be said to be "controlling" the cat. Yes, your actions affect its movement, but not in any kind of predictable or repeatable way. It's not a matter of the tilt being too sensitive or not sensitive enough; somehow it is both. Your car won't turn enough, until after the turn is over, at which point it will curve straight into a wall even though you have straightened the wheel. I've seen it said that there is a learning curve here, and maybe if I could figure out exactly when in the turn I ought to stop turning my car even though the turn is not done yet, there would some way to do it. But I suspect that by the time I mastered such a thing, the experience would bear little resemblance to operating a steering wheel anyway. Furthermore, I believe a simple thing like maneuvering a virtual car around a corner while not even at top speed should not require a learning curve tantamount to landing the space shuttle. Call me crazy, but that is just how I was raised.

At first I feared the game, though graphically gorgeous (for the Wii anyway) would be completely unplayable. There is no excuse for control this disastrous (especially when the Wii's other racers prove it's possible), and I can only conclude that the guys at EA simply failed to crack the problem. Maybe there is some specific issue with their physics model, which was designed to be controlled by an analog stick, that cannot be ported over to a tilting controller without destroying the fabric of the game. I don't know.

Happily, there are 5 control schemes here to choose from. One of them involves tilting the nunchuck, which works marginally better than the Wiimote (imagine an angry cat on a leash instead of in a box), but twisting a nunchuck is nothing like using a steering wheel anyway, so why bother? The last two options involve steering with the analog stick, which is an absolute delight, especially after an hour of slamming your unruly car into walls with your Wii wheel. The analog stick steering is, in fact, especially good, and furthermore, the Wiimote throttle control, in which you tilt the controller like a gas pedal, works like a charm. Yes, it sounds counterintuitive and completely stupid, but in fact it triggered an epiphany -- the key to racing, especially in these games, is actually not steering at all. After all, any idiot can steer (once he is using a sensible control scheme and not one that is fundamentally broken); one usually blows a race by trying to take a turn too fast. This is because mastering finesse with the gas, brake and handbrake are the key to success. Once I tried control scheme 5 (4 is nice too, as it tethers the Wiimote to brake/reverse as well as gas, but unfortunately the handbrake is operated by jerking back on the nunchuck, which doesn't seem to do anything), I found myself commanding the throttle and handbrake with an assurance and precision I had never experienced playing NFS with a conventional controller. In fact, it works so well, I wondered if EA's programmers had consciously not bothered to perfect steering wheel controls, so certain were they that the weird nunchuck-analog/Wiimote gas pedal scheme was superior.

So yes, the game is playable and so far, a lot of fun on the Wii -- not just in spite of, but even due to, the Wii's unique controls. But not the ones you expect. And if you're interested in getting more use out of your Wii Wheel here, forget it.