Where to start with this one, Need For Speed Undercover on the PSP, I had this game many, many years ago and unfortunately it isn’t as good as I remember. It’s still a fun little game, but comparatively to other games of the time it’s still lacking even for a handheld game.
The graphics aren’t the best but that’s to be expected, the jaggedy edges of the cars do stick out, however this could be more to do with the how far graphics have come, back in the day I imagine it was less noticeable especially as I came straight from the DS version which admittedly did just look like ass.
When it comes to the controls and physics it doesn’t get much better there either. The driving is janky at best, the turn capability of the cars ain’t great even with performance upgrades. The A.I is all over the place either your opponents are too hard to catch up to or miles behind. Not to mention when you ram the side of one of them or go into the random traffic it sticks to your car like a fly to fresh, hot sticky shit, ultimately fucking your entire race.
You’d be better to use the D-pad over the joy stick even if the driving is still as stiff as a corpse in a morgue. You will be constantly just slamming into the side of the map which doesn’t do any damage to your car, just slows you down a little. Sometimes even helping you around harder corners by proxy of the ricochet. The cops which are sprinkled throughout the game normally pose next to no threat to you, just a mild inconvenience.
There is some good points to be had though. Overall the game is pretty simple as a standard racer. There is no real open map, it has three sections which break up into mini stages which you need to complete a variety of different races. You have; the classic lapped circuit, sprint, knockout, out run, cop takeout, cost to state and highway battle. It makes the game more fun when everything is juggled into different bite size races, keeps it fresh with out clogging it down with the same three types.
By my count there is 45 cars to be had either through purchase or unlocked at various points which isn’t too shabby really. It’s not the most in depth but you can customise your cars as well, even with those sick mega low res rims, that just pop out in the menu. You can upgrade as well, it’s fairly simple, you have 5 options; engine,handling,chassis,turbo and nitrous. Once you’ve got nitrous you can use it as much as you want as long as you refill it during your race by doing dangerous things like collisions or driving into oncoming traffic. I’d say the last thing to one would be the feature of pressing circle, temporarily slowing down time for more accurate driving. No idea when you unlock this though, I must’ve missed the little tutorial for it as I did it by accident, making for a moment of pure joy as I drifted round a nasty little bend between the gaps on the pumps of a petrol station, like the pro driver I am.
I’d give the game 5/10. Certified Barely Tasty.
Even with the low score, at basic it is a fun little racer if you just treat it as buy a car, upgrade, race a little more, rinse, repeat. But it should be taken into account it is a 13 years old game, even at the time of release it was trying to compete with it’s full console hardwared brothers and sisters.
Sony PSP
Release Date: November 21st 2008
TastyRetroGaming 