Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City

"Finally, a respectable “Need for Speed” game on the DS."

If you have not played the previous “Need for Speed” games on the DS, good, don't. They are pretty bad, the second one especially. But thankfully, “Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City”, manages to pull together a decent showing.

Graphically, NFS is quite impressive. While the polygon counts are low, the models still look very nice, and manage to get in a considerable amount of detail. NFS is especially effective at conveying a sense of speed to the player, perhaps better than any other racer on the system. The environmental art is highly detailed as well, and generally doesn't suffer from the pop-up seen in other DS racers.

There are a myriad of nice little graphical details that give the game a polished look. Things like the flare from headlights, the sparks when you grind against a guardrail, the camera movement while using nitrous, the glow lights under some of the cars, etc. I also liked how the rear view doesn't just point the perspective backwards, you actually see down the side of your car like you would looking through an actual side mirror. The dashboard (which is presented on the bottom screen) is pretty interesting too. It displays speed, RPM, a small map, visualization for the current song (alright, this is useless), and even an odometer. None of it couldn't be done with a simple digit on the top screen, but this makes for a more immersive experience, and is more visually appealing.

It isn't all great though. If there is one disappointing graphical effect, it is the crashes. When you crash your car, it essentially just flips over and grinds on the roof for awhile. The vehicles don't really take any damage, and they way they flip through the air looks quite ridiculous. Still, given the DS's CPU you can't expect very detailed crash physics, especially with the amount of things going on as it is.

I was particularly surprised at the music in NFS. While a lot of DS games use simple MIDIs, this game actually employs licensed songs. The audio quality is clearly not too high, certainly not even as high as the licensed music used in some other DS games; but it is serviceable, definitely not anything to complain about. As for the music itself, it is decent; but these tracks weren't too expensive to license, if you get my drift.

One odd thing I noticed was how the songs never really start or finish. The game fades the songs out before they end, and seems to fade them in the same way. I am not sure why this is, but it can be annoying when you are enjoying the current song and it randomly fades out, and all the sudden you are listening to the middle part of a completely different song.

NFS also does a fair job at presenting realistic (well, that is probably the wrong word) physics. Cars move convincingly, and you always feel like you are in control. Turning is nice and tight, and the way the camera bobs around behind the car and sort of slides as you turn gives the game a very cinematic feel. The only minor issue is when you hit something. If you hit something head on, you will generally just stop dead; and if you make a glancing impact on something, you will tend to ricochet off the object unnaturally. Hitting things is fairly common in this game, being a high-speed street racer, so it can become an issue at times.

Speaking of controls, NFS uses a clever method to get sensitive steering out of the DS's digital pad. Pressing left and right gives you a standard turn, but you can also combine those movements with up and down presses to change the speed at which you turn. For instance, pressing up-left will make a slight left turn, while down-left will make a sharp left turn. It might not sound great, but once you get the hang of it you will be throwing your car around turns with ease.

Another nice feature is the incidental traffic on the courses. While the streets aren't exactly packed, there are a respectable amount of vehicles driving around. It makes for more exciting races, and actually gives the impression of a street race. This was a breath of fresh air after the horrendous attempt other DS racers have made at populating the tracks with pedestrian vehicles.

But, there are some negatives too. This game does not feature any sort of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support, despite early reports and advertisements saying it would. You are limited to local multiplayer, though it does at least offer single-card play. The single-card play is harshly limited however, essentially disabling all of the game options. But multi-card play is fairly robust, and should be good fun if you can find somebody to play with.

Overall, I can say this is certainly the best realistic racer for the DS to date. While “Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City” is certainly not perfect, and the lack of WFC support does hurt the overall appeal of the game, it is definitely a lot of fun. Coming off some of the absolutely atrocious racers on the DS (such as “Burnout Legends”), this game is a real treat. If you are looking for a real-world racer on the Nintendo DS, this is likely your best choice.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/04/06