We are still waiting on a suitable Amiga AGA emulator with robust recording features before tackling such games.
Need for Speed: Undercover
Need for Speed: Undercover original game by Black Box. DS conversion developed by Firebrand Games and published by EA in 2008.
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Player's Review
"CHASE OR BE CHASED. Go deep undercover in an action packed story of pursuit and betrayal. Fight off rivals and take down prey in Highway Battles. Be a cop and chase down criminals in Criminal Scramble mode. Pull off amazing driving moves with the Heroic Driving Engine."
The NFS games a real mixed back on the NDS and while Carbon was a heavily cut down game, it was still alright as far as DS games go even if it's difficulty level could have done with some tuning. Undercover Looks like its made some nice changes like being set in the day time so its easy to see what's going on on the small screen and no blur filters to be found. The game also feels fast and much easier to control the vehicles. However, the map feels somehow simplified and bland and there is very little traffic to be found although you will find it at the most annoying times just randomly out of nowhere.
The rubber banding ai is weird yet fair. They will overtake you from time to time but then drop there speed so you take back your position. That's about the only positive thing I can say about the ai which seem dumb as dirt when it comes time to chance them down and capture them. They seem to be tied to what you are doing so if you stop to capture them, they will pretty much stop and let themselves be captured. If you move they move and the arrest sequence will be stopped. Which brings me to another oddity. It is pretty much impossible to be arrested. Unlike other versions of the game, there are no spike strips and the police will give up chasing you with a big enough gap between you. If they do come close enough to start the arrest sequence, just make sure you car is moving to block it. Just tapping an direction is usually enough.
The game is quite easy and while it starts off slow, once you get the faster cars you just breeze through the content. You cant sell cars so you are committed to any you buy. I tend to stick to the same car until it not fast enough to win a particular event. I then purchase the fastest car and all upgrades available at the time to get through the next set of events. Money can be a bit tight at the start and its not until you get near the end it starts throwing it at you at which point you don't really need it anymore.
During the game you complete events until you have earned enough points to open the next story cutscene. This does end up with the game pushing you forward through the event list leaving events not done behind you so the game can potentially be completed much quicker than I have shown here. However, it best to go back and do those events as you go so that you can fill up your bank and buy faster cars needed for harder events. Circuit races can be a bit of a chore and I like doing the point to point sprint races. All point police chases are super easy as the ai doesn't even try and the scramble events are annoying as you have to wait for the time to run out to end the event.
NFS Undercover is not a great game on any platform but overall, the DS game and the following Nitro games don't do anything to end the series on a high for the DS. The ds conversion is really cut down to it's most basic elements and there's not enough left to make a great game. Mid way through the game the car engine sound seems to bug out leaving a constant annoying tone which drowns everything else out. Weirdly, the police siren sounds seem to change position even though they are supposed to be from your car. The game is running in stereo and not surround mode so i dunno what is going on there.
The NFS games a real mixed back on the NDS and while Carbon was a heavily cut down game, it was still alright as far as DS games go even if it's difficulty level could have done with some tuning. Undercover Looks like its made some nice changes like being set in the day time so its easy to see what's going on on the small screen and no blur filters to be found. The game also feels fast and much easier to control the vehicles. However, the map feels somehow simplified and bland and there is very little traffic to be found although you will find it at the most annoying times just randomly out of nowhere.
The rubber banding ai is weird yet fair. They will overtake you from time to time but then drop there speed so you take back your position. That's about the only positive thing I can say about the ai which seem dumb as dirt when it comes time to chance them down and capture them. They seem to be tied to what you are doing so if you stop to capture them, they will pretty much stop and let themselves be captured. If you move they move and the arrest sequence will be stopped. Which brings me to another oddity. It is pretty much impossible to be arrested. Unlike other versions of the game, there are no spike strips and the police will give up chasing you with a big enough gap between you. If they do come close enough to start the arrest sequence, just make sure you car is moving to block it. Just tapping an direction is usually enough.
The game is quite easy and while it starts off slow, once you get the faster cars you just breeze through the content. You cant sell cars so you are committed to any you buy. I tend to stick to the same car until it not fast enough to win a particular event. I then purchase the fastest car and all upgrades available at the time to get through the next set of events. Money can be a bit tight at the start and its not until you get near the end it starts throwing it at you at which point you don't really need it anymore.
During the game you complete events until you have earned enough points to open the next story cutscene. This does end up with the game pushing you forward through the event list leaving events not done behind you so the game can potentially be completed much quicker than I have shown here. However, it best to go back and do those events as you go so that you can fill up your bank and buy faster cars needed for harder events. Circuit races can be a bit of a chore and I like doing the point to point sprint races. All point police chases are super easy as the ai doesn't even try and the scramble events are annoying as you have to wait for the time to run out to end the event.
NFS Undercover is not a great game on any platform but overall, the DS game and the following Nitro games don't do anything to end the series on a high for the DS. The ds conversion is really cut down to it's most basic elements and there's not enough left to make a great game. Mid way through the game the car engine sound seems to bug out leaving a constant annoying tone which drowns everything else out. Weirdly, the police siren sounds seem to change position even though they are supposed to be from your car. The game is running in stereo and not surround mode so i dunno what is going on there.
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