Review: Need For Speed Underground: Rivals (PSP)

The problem with Need for Speed Underground: Rivals is that it's a re-hash of an already old game. At the Japanese PSP launch, Rivals may have been a serious contender for the best driving game (alongside Ridge Racer, of course) but now there's already far greater competition out there.

Thankfully, the Need for Speed Underground series has enough unique features to make it still worthwhile, mostly due to the unequalled amount of both real life vehicles and an extensive amount of visual and performance-based modifications possible in game. Effectively little more than a PSP-friendly version of the first console Need for Speed Underground, out goes the free-roaming freerides and in place is a well structured (yet flexible) set of races, ranked in both difficulty and style. Each mode has a number of options, trophies and rewards, and easy to read meters let you know at a glance what's still left to do.

Most of the game modes will be familiar, but it's worth mentioning the relay mode (one lap with one car then switch for the second lap) and the nitro challenge with its frightening lack of a speed limiter and near-constant boosting. Drifting has returned and is played out in huge warehouses (and is much tougher than previous games) and the dirt-tracked street X mode is as fast and furious as ever, providing much bumper-bashing fun in multiplayer modes.

Sadly, there's no online modes, but playing against nearby owners of the game provides a highly personal experience. Everything is signed with your profile name and the game even keeps track of who you've won against and who you've still yet to own - the drag races are particular favourites on a sunny afternoon in the beer garden. If the game played for skins we'd probably have given it another point. Comprehensive stats are held for pretty much everything in the game and there's even medals awarded for certain achievements; but the garage is limited to one space per car model, so skins are out of the question, although the various garage areas do look most impressive once full.

Progress through the single player modes is rewarded endlessly with cash (for upgrades and new cars) and driver points, but the real pull here is the constant unlocking of new modification parts. Whilst engine upgrades can be performed with money won from races (and then shared for free amongst all your cars), the bodykits, paint colours, vinyls, lights and so on can only be used once certain races are completed. This does provide a constant stream of excitement for those that want to spend time working on how their car looks (again, more useful in multiplayer), and because parts don't have any monetary value, you're free to experiment at leisure. The range of parts is roughly the same as it was in NFSU, so there's plenty of scope for unique styles.

Graphically, the game still holds up as a great example of what EA and the PSP can achieve - car models are particularly solid and the tracks give off a nice glow from the surrounding lights (being all based at night). Reflections and decent shadows give the game a grounded, coherent aesthetic look across the circuits (there are 10 main tracks, plus all the street-x and drag strips) but the framerate isn't the most constant; on the DS, the game ran at a gorgeous 60 frames per second - the PSP version peaks at 30 (but with a massively superior amount of detail). It drops when the game has to calculate gravity as well as everything else; leap into the air or dash through a shortcut and the game slows to a stutter for a second or two.

The music in the game appears to be mainly from the second console game, but we're sure there are a few extra tracks in there. EA have pulled another Pocket Trax again so there's a full jukebox option with a couple of videos thrown in for extra value. The heavy rock again doesn't really wash with us but anything by Fluke and Adam Freeland (even though it's a remix) is fine and dandy and seems to fit the racing better than those wailing guitars and screaming vocals.

So, a nice racing game that's probably best in the hands of Max Power readers (the first person we showed it to tilted his cap and asked which button was the NOS) but that's exactly the audience EA have targetted anyway, so as far as we're concerned they're bang on. Rivals is a cracking game, with a massive one player mode and a superb range of multiplayer games for those with a couple of mates, but it's up against tougher opponents on the shelves now that it ever has been.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Alex Carroll