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Need for Speed: Underground

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Need for Speed: Underground
Cover art, PS2
Developer(s)EA Black Box
Publisher(s)EA Games
SeriesNeed for Speed
Platform(s)Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, GBA
ReleaseUnited States November 17, 2003
European Union November 28, 2003
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Need for Speed: Underground (NFSU) is a racing game, developed and published by Electronic Arts in 2003. It is part of the Need for Speed video game series. It was developed by EA Black Box.

Its premise (highly tuned, customised cars participating in illegal street races) was likely inspired by the Import Scene and the movies The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious.

A complete reimagining of the series' formula, NFSU offered a career mode featuring a storyline, and a garage mode that allowed players to fully customize their cars with a large variety of brand-name performance and visual upgrades. All races take place in a generic city at night (though the city bears some resemblance to New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles). Instead of hundred-thousand dollar exotics, Underground featured vehicles associated with the Import Scene. This, plus the increasingly arcade-like controls, became points of controversy for Need for Speed fans. Despite this, Underground was commercially very successful, and inspired a sequel.

It is rumored that the car manufacturers were very strict in how their vehicles were to be portrayed in this game, especially considering the "illegal street racing" reputation of the tuner culture. EA took some effort in making the races appear as sanctioned racing events, and included a public service announcement in the game's introduction. In addition, vehicles do not have damage models.

Plot

Template:Spoiler The player starts straight into the action, at a circuit race driving a unique-styled Acura Integra Type R, easily winning over his opponents... just to be woken up from his daydreaming.

Samantha is the player's friend in the new environment; she tells how the console with the races works, who's who, make fun of the player's starter car. Taking a special moment to point Eddie (and his orange-metallic Nissan Skyline), leader of the Eastsiders and current top racer of the streets, and Melissa, his girlfriend. The rules are simple: 'You win races, you get cool parts. You lose, and you're out'

Time passes, races are won. The player meets other racers, and eventually gathers a small list of nemeses who continually challenge him after defeated. He gets introduced to TJ, who promises unique vehicle upgrades in exchange of beating time trial challenges; Samantha does the same from time to time, offering unique visual modifications instead.

The player's successive victories doesn't please Eddie. First, he mocks at the player's skill, saying he has a long way to go to 'roll his streets'. Later in the game the player builds enough hype to be hard to ignore, so Eddie challenges him to beat Samantha in a sprint race before coming for him; the player's willingness in going for it infuriates her. Samantha totals her Civic's engine trying to beat the player, unsuccessfully. TJ takes the junked car for himself after the event.

When the player comes close to reaching #1 in all kinds of races, Eddie tries to once again get rid of his rival. Around the same time, the Player sees TJ in Samantha's recovered car, now working again, but vandalized; both run a circuit race worth the other's vehicle, which the player wins. The player returns the car to Samantha to make amends, and she gives the player a choice of a wide body kit for his car.

Right after the touching moment, Eddie challenges the player and loses, like everyone else who ever challenged the player did so far. Before any victory can be sung, a mysterious, legendary silver Nissan 350Z challenges the player for a last run through the Market Street circuit. A challenger who, after being beaten by the player, reveals to be Eddie's girlfriend, Melissa.

That event solidifies the player's status as the new best underground racer in the city. Template:Endspoiler

Characters

Main article: Need for Speed series characters § Underground
Character Car Description
Samantha Honda Civic Coupe A poor racer that uses the player to gain respect
Eddie Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 The best racer in the city
Melissa Nissan 350Z The player's new girlfriend
Jose Volkswagen Golf GTi A pro circuit racer and one of the player's friends
Klutch Dodge Neon A pro drag racer
TJ Honda Civic Coupe, revealed to be Samantha's car, which he has vandalized Eddie's mechanic who helps the player
Kurt Acura RSX
Mazda RX-7 		The number 1 Circuit racer
Chad Toyota Celica GT-S
Honda S2000 		Best sprint racer
Todd Mitsubishi Eclipse
Mitsubishi Lancer ES 		Best drag racer
Dirt Nissan 240SX Best drift racer

Types of Races

A circuit race with a Honda Civic Si Coupe, PC version

Circuit

Circuit is a standard race that involves racing with up to four opponents cars around a loop track for two laps or more, and is the main mode of the game.

Knockout Race

A variant of Circuit, Knockout Mode is similar to previous Need for Speed titles, involves "knocking out" the last racer who passes the starting line in each lap until the final leader of the race remains, and wins the race. In the case of Underground, Knockout sessions have a maximum of three laps for four racers.

Sprint Race

Sprint mode is a variation on the Circuit mode, where the contestants race in a point-to-point track instead of loop tracks. These races are typically shorter than "circuits" (with a maximum of 8 km in length), so players are required to be more cautious of any mistakes during racing.

Drift Race

Drifting is the most challenging and technical aspect of the game. Drift mode consists of one player in a short loop track, where the objective is to collect as many points as possible by drifting along the track. The player competes with three other contestants, who appear to accumulate scores along with the player during the drift session. The player would be required to beat these scores in order to obtain top positions.

Bonuses are awarded for players who drift in the other borders of the track, drift vertically, or perform chained-drifting (continuous drifting by constantly steering the vehicle during drifts to maintain speed); if the player succeeds in ending a drift without collisions onto the sides of the track, the collected points are added into the score, otherwise, the collected points are cancelled.

Drift mode is the only type of racing where time taken to complete the track does not matter, since players are given the freedom to complete the allocated number laps at their own pace. This may explain the absence of nitrous oxide in this mode, since it serves no suitable purpose in this situation.

Depending on the track,sometimes drift is one of the easiest modes.

Drag Race

File:NFS Underground (PC) customization screenshot.jpg
In the Car Customization menu, cars such as the pictured Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R can be altered with performance upgrades and visual upgrades, such as paint colors and body kits.

Drag racing is the second most technical form of race in the game. It involves racing against one or three cars on typically straight tracks, and attempting to obtain top positions to win. In order to master Drag mode, players must employ good timing and reflexes for gear shifting, redlining, overtaking, and the use of nitrous oxide boosts; the mode places particular emphasis in monitoring the tachometer during races, which is enlarged and situated on the leftmost portion of the screen. Steering in this mode is simplified to simply allow for lane changes, while the computer handles the steering along the lanes, and the player focuses more on maintaining an optimum speed for the car.

Two conditions will result to players being forfeited during a drag race: head-on collisions with a vehicle (traffic or opponent), barriers or dividers (being 'Totaled'); or blown engines as a result from prolonged redlining and the subsequent overheating of the engine.

Car List

Location

The name of the city that the game is set is given as "Olympic city" shown on many billboards across the city.[citation needed] It resembles both New York City and Los Angeles. Some of the landmarks seen here are later seen in Bayview, used in Need for Speed: Underground 2.[citation needed]

Real Life Similarities

Soundtrack

Most of the soundtracks are from the year 2003, when the game was developed.

  1. Overseer - Doomsday (3:13)
  2. The Crystal Method - Born Too Slow (2:45)
  3. Rancid - Out of Control (1:39)
  4. Rob Zombie - Two-Lane Blacktop (2:54)
  5. BT - Kimosabe (4:55)
  6. Static-X - The Only (2:51)
  7. Element Eighty - Broken Promises (3:16)
  8. Asian Dub Foundation - Fortress Europe (3:51)
  9. Hotwire - Invisible (2:52)
  10. Story of the Year - And the Hero Will Drown (3:12)
  11. Andy Hunter - The Wonders of You (7:09)
  12. Junkie XL - Action Radius (3:54)
  13. Fuel - Quarter (3:39)
  14. Jerk - Sucked In (2:52)
  15. Fluke - Snapshot (3:59)
  16. Lostprophets - To Hell We Ride (displayed as just "Ride") (3:40)
  17. Overseer - Supermoves (4:46)
  18. FC Kahuna - Glitterball (5:43)
  19. Blindside - Swallow (2:24)
  20. Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz - Get Low (4:25)
  21. Mystikal - Smashing the Gas (Get Faster) (3:09)
  22. Dilated Peoples - Who's Who (3:55)
  23. Nate Dogg - Keep It Coming (4:18)
  24. X-ecutioners - Body Rock (3:36)
  25. Petey Pablo - Need For Speed (3:32)
  26. T.I. - 24's (4:06)

Reception and criticism

The game had good sales, with over 1 million copies on each console.[citation needed]

Critics also liked the game[1], despite primary complaints of repetitive tracks[2], rubberband AI, and lack of an online feature in the GameCube and Xbox versions[3].

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ [3]

See also

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