Need for Speed: Underground

One main feature that clearly separates Underground from other street racers is its visual presentation. The nighttime glow in the metropolis does take some time to get used to, but the evening air quickly adds to the stunning scenery and detailed avenues as you travel at high RPMs.

It's up there on the podium with "Ridge Racer Type 4" and "Daytona USA 2," contending for the title of very best ever.

Combining the reckless, breakneck speed and high-impact collisions of "Burnout" with the neon-tipped street culture of Fast and the Furious (and, more specifically, "Midnight Club II"), Underground is the new definition of white-knuckle.

Not only does it have 20 of the hottest cars in the world, but customizing them is THE game.

The racing action is undeniably fast and, ahem, furious, and Need for Speed performs competently in this little niche market, but it's gameplay scope is ultimately narrowed by it as well.

Engine ups and nitrous tanks unlock automatically, but hustling style points by drifting around corners, landing jumps, and narrowly missing Sunday drivers allows an almost infinite combination of superficial customizations.

Boy racers will love Underground's edgy urban chic, otherwise you should stick with the less fashionable but ultimately more enjoyable "Burnout 2." [Christmas 2003, p.125]

Still to this day my favorite Need for Speed game. So many memories from my childhood. Also, the graphics and the general looks of the game are awesome.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

In some respects I feel I'm giving this game a 7/10 quite generously because I can't really see why people luv this game but I can admit it's better than a lot of other ps2 race games I've tried. I guess for me I like a hybrid between sim and arcade, too much of one or the other and it's not really to my taste. The music in this game to me made the game. I wonder if that feel is what got so many people showing this game love. Not only that but for an early release race game on the ps2 not a lot better was out at the time. Toward the end of the ps2 systems life cycle I'm willing to bet the review ratings decreased somewhat as better comparisons were out. Luckily this was still being compared to ps1 era. A disappointment of mine as well, besides this game being made by EA (lol) is that it had steering wheel compatibility. Feel the burn here, you had to use your wheels d-pad to turn. I really should reduce the rating to 6/10 but still, that music quality is the great equalizer and I guess 7 it is.

This game is better than the latest nfs games! I still play it! Its customisation was fun. I find myself making cars as cool as i could then racing them! The cererar was challenging enough to keep me playing and the car choise was good. It is abit punishing in the sense of if you crash you lose, like midnight club but maybe worse.

I don't know how it got so much positive reviews.. possibly because it was released in 2003 and it was a great game compared to the standards of then? Well, I hated this game. Bought it for $15, played 5 minutes of it, never wanted to see it again.