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Need For Speed Most Wanted DS Review |
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Written by harribo
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Saturday, 10 December 2005 |
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Should this game be Most Wanted or should it and you go Underground. Come inside to read my full review.
The Story: One of the first things you?ll notice about the DS version of Most Wanted is that unlike the console versions you are not presented with any form of story, any explanation as to why you are racing or what the blacklist is unless you read the manual. In fact once you?ve created a profile and selected a car that all you do is work your way through chapters consisting of a number of races to complete until you win enough respect points to race the next opponent on the blacklist which contains 15 racers making 15 chapters in total. Gameplay: Gameplay wise this game is just what you?d come to expect from any Need for Speed game since Underground which is plenty of customisation of your car by winning races and unlocking new cars and parts as well as points to buy those cars and parts. The problem with the DS?s version of Most Wanted however is that it is missing any form of fun or satisfaction whilst playing it. The controls for a start, whilst easy to figure out, are so unresponsive and hard to master that most of the time you?ll find your self struggling to not crash into walls on a straight let alone when going through snaking corners. It?s lucky then that the cop mechanic that is present in the DS version is so flawed that they will hardly ever cause you any problems unless your playing barricade mode. The reason for this is that if they ever catch up to you (or chase you at all) then all they do is fly ahead of you and lay a stinger which you have to avoid or play a minigame to escape, which I cannot comment on as when I got trapped on these I just kept driving after getting stopped or an opponent car bumped me out of it. Whilst I?m on the subject of opponents they too will cause you few problems in a race with there robot like movement and unless you crash because of the controls you can quite often find yourself way out in front competing with just the controls and occasional cop. The game also features several different race modes including classic modes like standard circuit races, point to point races and time trials. However Most Wanted also features a new game mode called Barricade where you'll have to zoom through car-wide gaps between cop cars in certain amount of time. If you do however manage to get past these problems the game does last an acceptable amount of time and occasionally when you master the controls and go a few corners without crashing you can have a slight amount of fun racing and customising your dream car. Sounds: This game sounds awful with each car featuring the same awful electronic sound instead of even a half decent engine noise and menus using what sounds like the same awful generic hip hop sound throughout and really you?d be better playing this game with the sound turned down. Graphics: Graphically this is a big step down from Need For Speed Underground 2 DS and whilst still running 30 FPS it features some of the worst car textures ever and cars simply look like coloured blocks with spoilers. The graphics also seem to be riddled with glitches as the screen quite often seems to crackle and very occasionally cars seem to melt into the road as you come up behind them or you find yourself going through concrete blocks. The backgrounds also seem very bland with simple buildings making up most of racing scenes and these seem to be grey blocks until they come closer to you. Closing Comments: Need For Speed Most Wanted DS is a flawed game which rather than builds upon the previous DS NFS game that instead seems to create more problems. This game can however be fun and offer a sense of accomplishment if you can get round the graphic and control problems. My advice to you would to be get a either the previous DS NFS, Mario Kart or Asphalt Urban GT. I give this game 5/10 because of its acceptable length. |
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