Similar trade-offs are apparent with the audio. Crashes don't involve explosions or splintered glass, which is a shame, but they do cause both cars to flip end over end for a while. Loneliness can set in if you rock first place or bring up the rear for too long. The flat-shaded cars are nice and shiny, especially when you dress them up with decals and neon kits, but the graphics engine can only display four cars and a couple traffic vehicles at any given moment. The 3D environments are busy with tunnels, overpasses, buildings, and the like, and the frame rate is usually silky smooth, but the textures are grainy and some of the polygon work is just plain boxy. Or, if you need to blow past them, you've got a nitrous button that you can push to kick the car into overdrive.įor the most part, the graphics and audio convey all of the excitement with gusto, although the limitations of the hardware are obvious. Bumping and plowing into opponents is OK. And then there are the crashes and nitro boosts. We're talking dozens upon dozens of engine, transmission, and body upgrades, as well as spoilers, hoods, paint jobs, and vinyl decals.
NEED FOR SPEED CARBON GAMESTOP UPGRADE
In true Need for Speed fashion, the game lets you amass a stable of as many as 15 real-world cars and provides a ridiculous selection of performance and visual kits to upgrade them with. Some animated comic-book-style cutaways gradually reveal the ins and outs of the story as you capture more turf and enlist new allies. Instead, with every win, you're taking away turf from six rival gangs and bringing their members into your posse as wingmen. Of course, Carbon is still very thick with the unique features that people have come to associate with the Need for Speed franchise. As such, you have to decide which strategy is more important, slowing down the other competitors or being able to refill your nitro, rewind, and slo-mo tanks. You must pick one or the other before the race starts. About the only downside to them is that you can't have both a blocker and a drafter in a single race. Wingmen are a welcome addition to the Need for Speed formula, as they can instigate some awesome crashes and change the pecking order in an instant. They also refill your nitrous, rewind, and slow-mo tanks while you draft behind them. Drafters, on the other hand, will get in front of you and cut down on your car's wind resistance, helping you achieve a higher top speed. Blockers will try to nudge and T-bone the other CPU cars. In a nutshell, you have a buddy in the race that will come to your aid with a helpful block or draft whenever you summon them. The other, more significant new addition is the wingman. Two of these are rewind and slow-motion abilities, which let you recover from crashes and slow down the action just by pressing a button. Three exciting new gamebreaker features help distinguish Carbon from previous Need for Speed games. Steering is mapped to the directional pad the shoulder buttons handle braking and acceleration and the main buttons activate the handbrake, wingman, and nitro functions. As for the controls, everything you'd want at your fingertips is there. At least CPU opponents are subject to the same mishaps, unlike in last year's game when they would simply pass right through commuter traffic. Smashing into oncoming traffic can lead to a spectacular crash, but the AI usually isn't so harsh that one or two collisions will knock you out of contention. The artificial intelligence, meanwhile, does a good job of nudging fenders without coming across as unfair.
The driving is fast-paced, and the cars feel sufficiently heavy. Each of the game's 12 courses emphasizes a different setting and structure, and you'll find shortcuts all over the place. You compete against opponents in various circuit, elimination, sprint, and endurance-type races new courses and cars unlock along the way and your victories net you points that you can use to buy new cars and upgrade your old ones. Generally speaking, Carbon is set up like you'd expect it to be.
In Carbon, you can rewind your crashes and send your wingman ahead to trash opponents. Beyond that, it's also a fun, sometimes-hectic game that gives players a good selection of cars, parts, and courses to fiddle with. While the DS game doesn't include all of the features that its counterparts on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox have, it does ape enough of their features and atmosphere such that it delivers the same sort of spirited street-racing experience.
Aficionados of scrappy, arcade-style racing games will feel right at home with Need for Speed Carbon for the Nintendo DS.
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