Need for Speed: Carbon Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

Lift up your hoodies and don't forget to pack your nitros

Need For Speed Carbon carries on the successful EA franchise and brings it in line with the latest bunch of racing games.

Driving games in recent years were all about the rally but 2006 has seen a shift towards the dark and seedy world of underground racing with the obligatory drifting. The two styles aren't that different - in my day it was all about the handbrake turn where you could spin your car around no matter how good your brakes and tyres were and there was a very real chance that you would flip out. In the 21st Century it's all about speeding through the corners and letting your electronic box do all the hard work controlling the traction and slip. Boy racers don't know how good they have it these days.

NFS Carbon kind of sits in the middle of it all. Yes, there's drifting but you have to press a button to initiate the drift (you might as well be yanking on your handbrake); the plot however, is 100% street. Join a gang, take part in some races and win some cash to spruce up your car. Yup, it's all sounding a bit familiar. But with this being an EA game you can expect some neat touches. Firstly, the choice of cars are all licensed and include Porsches and Evo's (back to the rally). There is loads of customisation on offer and by the end of it your car should be about twice as fast compared to its first race.

The game's forte is in its graphics. Owners of top end handsets with the 3D chips will have plenty to feast their eyes on. The race view is just above your car so get to see a lot of road, a lot of traffic and a lot of the night time city. The cars are nicely detailed but there is still some blockiness which is to be expected. The real beauty is in the backgrounds. There is plenty of detail here and no slowdown whatsoever. We played this on a Nokia N70 where the graphics are pretty decent but we managed a sneaky play on EA's Sony Ericsson handset and that did blow us away.

Most of NFS Carbon is a straight road race spread across 12 levels. After each level you get the chance to upgrade your car. This is vital if you want to compete with the big boys later on. You will have to replay some of the missions just to increase your cash pile to afford the all important engine upgrade. The levels are split into 3 sections where you have to win the race against the boss to progress to the next section. It is all loosely linked into the console version with the boss battles taking place on the canyons. It's not just about finishing first; if you can manage to put enough distance between yourself and the boss you will win the challenge by default. The standard races themselves are all set in the night streets. Along with trying to beat your opponents, you also have to avoid the traffic. There is a little map in the bottom corner which is useful for picking out the long straights. Your car is equipped with nitros and are best suited for the straights. As soon aas you collide with anything, the nitro will disengage. The game may be all about the drift but you don't really need it to win. If anything it actually slows you down. However, what it does give you are plenty of showboating dollars which are used in the shop.

Controlling the car is very simple. Firstly there is no accelerator, just steer left and right and pushing up starts your nitros. As you progress through the game, extra features are added to your nitros. These have more of an impact on the console version but at least they are trying to marry the versions together. Performing a drift is achieved by pressing 5. As you can imagine, it can get a little fiddly having to turn and press drift at the same time.

It is a pretty easy game and it should only take 40 minutes to play through a career. At the end of it you do win a million dollars making it easy to finish off with the upgrades. Once you've managed to complete the game, a mystery car is unlocked and once that is upgraded you have a real speed demon to drive with. For the completist, there are 4 cars to drive and try to fully upgrade and there is a two player multiplayer option. No, it's not online or even bluetooth but a fastest lap challenge with the car of your choice.

NFS Carbon is good fun to play while it lasts. The flashy 3D graphics are great and showcase how far mobile gaming has come. With a game of such graphical greatness, depth will always be a problem but if you're the average gamer who only needs to waste a few minutes here and there, the game should last a while before the rust sets in.