Need for Speed: Underground Rivals

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• Get behind the wheel of the racing world's most popular machines
• Hundreds of options for customizing your tuner - from engines to rims
• Multiple game modes and wireless multiplayer action

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007U0GUW
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 19, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,173 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #23 in Video Games > Sony PSP > Racing
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Compete and earn respect in Need for Speed: Underground Rivals only available on the PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld videogame system. Customize and take on the pinnacle Japanese and American tuner cars in a pursuit of total ownership of the street racing scene. A uniquely designed racing game based on the legacy of the hugely successful Underground series.

Features:

• All new tracks and environments: Compete against your rivals in 10 all-new and visually distinct tracks. Each one has been specially designed to maximize the experience on the handheld platform.
• Japanese customs vs. American muscle cars: Customize and compete against a host of high-performance tuner cars from Japan and America. Take on these rivals and find out who’s best.
• Head-to-head rivalry: Take on friends and foes in a range of new modes specifically designed for use via Wi-Fi. It’s multiplayer gaming in which you earn respect and own the competition.
• New ways to go underground: brand-new game modes that capitalize on the cutting-edge hardware features of the PSP handheld videogame system and deliver a highly competitive game play experience.

Product Description

Need for Speed Underground: Rivals takes you to the neon-lit streets of the big cities, for super-fast racing action. You're after control of the "tuner" scene by taking on all the major racers and beating the best. Build a racing machine that can beat the rest, then put it to the test on the streets for dangerous, exciting street racing action.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome starter game for the PSP, April 20, 2005

By 

M. Boone "DaClint" (Manhattan, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Need for Speed: Underground Rivals (Video Game)

This is an awesome game. It's like Need for Speed: Underground, with some features from Need for Speed: Underground 2. This graphics are AWESOME!!!! They are just like PS2 graphics and I was amazed when I saw this game.

You choose a car and you can tune it out with visual and preformence upgrades. You can own up to 20 cars and four bonus cars so there's a lot of cars to choose from.

There are also many new game modes. All the modes include: Drag, Drift, Street X (off road racing), Circuit, Lap Knockout, Rally Race (race with two different cars), and a mode where you race a random tricked out car.

The last thing to say about this gam,e is the soundtrack, it's AWESOME!!! They are songs from Need for Speed: Underground 1 and 2 plus new songs. Some of the artists include: Spiderbait, Skindred, My Chemical Romance, Xzibit, Snoop Dogg and The Doors, Chingy, and a lot more. There are also some music videos to watch.

This game is a very fun game and a very easy game to learn how to play so I recommend it for new PSP players and racing fans. This game is a lot of fun but some people might want to rent it before they buy it (gamefly.com *Please Refer Me).

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More Fun Than i Thought It Would Be, November 22, 2005

By 

Aaron L. Shaw "Casual Reviewer" (Provo, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Need for Speed: Underground Rivals (Video Game)

OK, so it is more fun than I thought it would be. The raceing is different than burnout in more ways than just slower. It is definately slower. However, these races have tons of turns, drifting and jumps. For me this is an advantage over Burnout. Burnout is more fun, but i do appreciate the variety in racing tracks by having lots of jumps. Probably the perfect game would be a Burnout game with jumps. Anyway. Bottom Line: Get this game if you are now in the market for a bargain bin psp game that is still a pretty good racer. I Like this way better than Ridge Racer.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rock solid racer, March 25, 2005

By 

Jose Sierra "Emperor Monkey" (Boca Raton, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Need for Speed: Underground Rivals (Video Game)

This is definitely the best 'conventional' racer released thus far for the PSP (personally, I prefer Wipeout Pure, but that's a different kind of racer). Let's break it down:

Graphics: pretty unreal. Smooth animations, no frame-dropping, very high-poly, great colors, the whole nine. Graphically very rich and finished.

Audio: practically the same as the original. Maybe not as many tracks, but all high-quality. In-game audio is also very well done with plenty of excellent sound effects.

Control: At first, it's a little awkward, but that's not the game's issue, it's the learning-curve for the analog stick on the PSP. Trying to use the d-pad with this game is like picking your nose with heavy gloves. After a little bit of play, though, you start to realize that the game designers really put a lot of thought into adapting the gameplay to this analog stick, and things go fairly smoothly from there. Button layout otherwise is well thought out.

Gameplay: Definitely a lot of fun, I wish it had the same 'open' gameplay that the big brother has, but it was very clearly designed for fast one-off type games and the portable console (an excellent decision on the part of the designers.) There's 20 cars (plenty for everyone), there's the usual customizations and an interesting system of vehicle customization that simplifies things immensely and is actually pretty cool, and there's a healthy number of tracks.

The graphics definitely compare to Ridge Racer, but I think the gameplay is overall better. Different kinds of game, even though they're very similar. Thing is, how many racers can you really buy?