Need for Speed: Underground

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• Take on 20 racing machines from Mitsubishi Motors, Subaru, Toyota and many more
• Build the ultimate street machine by earning cash to pay for body kits and performance mods
• Hundreds of ways to customize your ride. Pick from major aftermarket parts manufacturers
• Over 100 unique events give racers the opportunity to earn cash, buy more upgrades, and unlock cars and tracks while increasing their street reputation
• Racing events including - Drag Racing - Explode off of the line with three other racers, on the brink of control, as you race for the finish line. Street Racing - Heat up the cold city streets with some high octane and high speed racing,

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000C4M23
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 15, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,034 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: Xbox

Product Features Platform: Xbox Take on 20 racing machines from Mitsubishi Motors, Subaru, Toyota and many more Build the ultimate street machine by earning cash to pay for body kits and performance mods Hundreds of ways to customize your ride. Pick from major aftermarket parts manufacturers Over 100 unique events give racers the opportunity to earn cash, buy more upgrades, and unlock cars and tracks while increasing their street reputation Racing events including - Drag Racing - Explode off of the line with three other racers, on the brink of control, as you race for the finish line. Street Racing - Heat up the cold city streets with some high octane and high speed racing, Platform: Xbox

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the first review from someone who HAS the game, November 18, 2003

By 

J. Hill (arlington, tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

i just picked this up at gamestop a few hours ago. i'm not going to launch into some insanely huge review, however i do want to say that the xbox version is just awesome. the graphics look amazing. the sounds are very realistic, and the cars handle very well. there are so many upgrades available for the cars, including turbos, nitrous, wheels, and A TON more. this game is so much better than older need for speed games! if you're at all interested in this sort of thing, absolutely get the game.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (8.0 out of 10) fun, but flawed., December 3, 2003

By 

Lorin Reed (moreno valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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

Okay, so everyone is nuts about this game. and when i finally played it, i understood why. the cutomization options are such a fun gimmick- i had a lot of fun turning an ugly yellow VW GTI into a drag racing monster with beautifully tinted windows, custom decals, and rims of my choosing. It's what everyone wants when they play a racing game- the ability to craft a car that suits their taste, right down to the type of exhaust. And i have no problem with the fact that this feature was implemented. i think it was a good idea. The problem I have is with the way that it was implemented.

Why am i still unlocking decals and vinyl at level 100? who cares that i finally unlocked the nitrous express decal; dont i deserve more than that at level 100? and why dont i get the wide body kit until the 3rd to last race? great! i can throw this wide body kit on my car, which does absolutely nothing for performance, so that i look good for the final competition.

Money is never a problem in this game. You always have more than enough to unlock anything you want, because you get money after every race. So, a better way to do this would have been to make everything availible from the start of the game, with higher prices on the performance parts and consistent lower prices on the things you dont need (like decals and vinyl). That way, the player can see what they could potentially be unlocking and work for it, instead of just having it blindly handed to them when they can most definately afford it. But because of the way the customization system was implemented, theres really no point in having money in this game.

My other complaint is with the AI. its not like you're actually racing to gain distance on other cars, ever. its more like you're racing against other cars that will always either be ahead of you, or slightly behind you, and catching up fast. This is especially true in later races, where even if you set the difficulty to easy, cars will catch up quickly, and most likely, pass you. I did an experiment to see how the AI worked, and what i found was kind of dissapointing. In later races, when i would perform almost flawlessly (because i'd had to do the same race about 50 times over and over), another car would always be right behind me, or in front of me. But when i slowed down to the pace of the rest of the group, the AI was more lenient, and waited for me. An advantage to this is that the gameplay always provides tension. But the disadvantage is far greater: having to do a six or seven lap race over and over, possibly doing a single circuit a hundred times, just because you crashed once.

Of course, these are technical flaws, and the game appeals to people at an aesthetically pleasing and fun level, rather than a technical one. its an arcade racer, and it doesn't dissapoint at it's arcadiness. You customize your car because it makes it look better. You race against difficult AI becase nothing beats the thrill of seeing the screen blur all those downtown lights into a complete euphoric mass when you use your nitrous to barely pass up another car, just before the finish line. The graphics are amazing, and are a complete evolution from previous nfs games.

This game has conquered it's niche, with cutscenes and music straight outta the fast & the furious (the drawbridge jumps are a complete rip-off of the second movie's drawbridge scene). And the cars are awesome in that they're actually licensed, and you treat em' like your babies as they go from crap to demi-god machines. And i guess thats what matters most with this game- fun. And you'll have quite a great deal of that, as long as you're willing to put up with a slightly less amount of frustration.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid racer that falls short of living up to its hype, December 15, 2003

By 

Chris (New Middletown, Ohio) - See all my reviews

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

The games graphics are nothing but stellar as most games now a days are. Though the xbox version could look a lot better than the ps2, but it doesn't. Take the game wreckless for example. Look at the ps2 version as compared to the xbox. Now look at the two copies of underground. I rest my case. If you own a ps2 get the game for that, there is no need to upgrade to an xbox.

The sound in the game is probably my favorite part and the reason I gave the game a 3. The soundtrack is pretty tight with tracks from Lil John, to a more harder sound from Rob Zombie. I also enjoy the tracks that were specifically made for the game (the Petey Pablo song needs played on the radio!! lol)

The games fun factor is what luster's. Yea sure the races are fun, fast and give a sense of speed. But i felt this in the last need for speed game. The urban city idea is cool, but not for every single track. No matter what the marketing information for this game claims, there is only like 3 or 4 main tracks not 20. All the others are just mirror, reversed or in drag situations just straight always pulled from the main 3. Sometimes they'll even take a track and add in a different turn, and call it a new track. It just gets boring; I mean how many times can you jump over the same stupid bridge! The weather is set to be clear and at night in EVERY race. Mourning never comes in this game. It seems as almost Ea focused too much on putting enough body kits and vinyls in the game than it did on track design. One more quick note the drifting tracks are just plain out stupid and become more of a hassle and annoyance than they are fun. I found myself saying, damn not another one of these, or arr I wish this stupid race would be over. Drifting is something you during a RACE and is boring if singled out. If they wanted to be realistic anyways, a real car would have no tires left after one of those objectives.

Overall the game fails to be better than the previous installment (High Stakes 2). The short incomplete list why is as follows:

1. There is no police in this game, none at all (a Big BIG part of the street racing scene is cops, which do not exist in this game). You guys at Ea are getting lazy.

2. There are no damage modeling as was in High Stakes 2

3. The physics are a lot worse than H.S.2; I find my car flying through the air as if it had wings when only hitting a silly mph sign.

4. How can Ea leave out Xbox Live support but yet put online play for the ps2 version. Xbox already has an online community set up that is much stronger than the ps2.

5. There is no "real" tuning in this game. The only tuning there is, is the ability to layer vinyl's using a downgraded version of Photoshop. Real tuning would involve being able to say adjust the points on an Apexi SAFC, that they're of is not in this game.

6. The shortcuts are as boring as watching my grandma knit!! In H.S.2 the shortcuts were exciting, filled with large jumps, and giving a major cut in times. The shortcuts in this game just suck and most of the time I find myself just staying on the main course. They give hardly any time cut and are just about as long as the main way. Some shortcuts even just slow you down! And are not worth taking (for example on one track you can jump down into a subway, in the subway though there are barrels, and water. If you decide to miss the barrels you have to drive through water (which SLOWS your cars speed) if you decide to go through the barrels (it SLOWS your cars speed Dramatically) and thus when you come out of the shortcut you are not going slower than you were when you entered. Just silly isn't it? Oh yeah and there is no excitement in them either, their just simple turns or roads (the most exciting one is being able to jump a very small dirt hill which gives you hardly any air).

The list goes on. To sum it all up. The game is good right now because it's all we have. There are no other import games out there, thus it has no competition. If you were thinking about buying this game, as you are a fan of the NFS series, I would skip this one and get High Stakes 2. If you already have H.S. 2 then rent this game. If you're an import fan than you're going to have to shell out the $40+ for this one. I hope the new upcoming Fast and Furious game (which is based on the 2 movies) is done right!!

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