Need for Speed: ProStreet

"Compete at the highest level of street racing. Experience raw, adrenaline-fuelled racing, dominate across all racing disciplines: Drift, Drag, Grip and Speed challenge."

On the surface this looks like a well presented nfs game on the DS, looks quite good overall while playing. The track graphics are nice with muted more natural colours compared to the rest of the nfs series. The car models are very basic however and look like they were lifted from A gba game.

The game is quite long with 38 race days to enter. Each race day contains a series of events which can be anything from racing, drifting, Drag racing and even a hydraulics rhythm mini game which involved pressing the correct button at the right time. This is where gameplay problems start to creep in. You can only upgrade/repair cars between race days so if you retire from a race day from dominating it (completing every event) you will have to go back in to replay those events. Winning events awards money however what will quickly become apparent is that don't award nearly enough which may require re-racing events to be able to afford a new card or upgrade. Upgrades and repairs cost a lot of money and can quickly wipe out earnings. Some events are more difficult than others, so while you may complete five races just fine, you may find the sixth is too much leading for a need to retire and start over. One thing to note is with upgrades the spoiler which is in the visual cosmetics section. This does actually affect performance either favouring speed or handling.

Due to the way the races and rewards are structured, I don't get to show many cars and use the same few for most of the game, upgrading them as needed. Near the end of the game I play the side events which unlock a specific car each. These cars are fully upgraded. It may be beneficial to try to get these cars earlier in the game but the final events are quite challenging and do require you have a really good pretty much fully upgraded car anyway.

Once I am a few races into the game an issue starts to immerge which will have a massive affect on the games overall playability. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional mechanic but it's pretty much game breaking whatever it is. Some tracks have really bad traction leading to your control being taken away and the car sent into a random direction out of your control. This happens even with the slowest non upgraded cars but really punishes you for daring to go fast with the faster cars. You'll notice the car taking damage just for accelerating on a straight road! This .. issue seems to be track or maybe event dependant as it does not happen in every event. If you see that I'm driving like a drunk (even on the drift races) it's due to the issue in full effect. What is interesting though, on the final tracks of the game there is a strong wind effect o go along with the lack of car control. I wonder if this wind is present in the affected events but without any visual representation. No matter though, the issue does not effect the ai cars.

Speaking of the ai cars, it's best not to let them get ahead as they will post some obscene times if you cant see them. As long as they stay behind you they are dumb as dirt and will happily crash into walls and corners but don't let up as they have a quick recovery time. Overall, the game looks nice on the DS and starts off promisingly. I do feel like it goes on far to long though whilst constantly fighting the lack of traction and doesn't feel all that rewarding with low payouts although there is a chance to win parts and even cars. A huge omission that seems to be a staple of DS racing games is that it does not do anything after you reach 100% completion. You win your car like any other event and that's it, no real closure to what little of the story there is and ultimately feels very unrewarding for the effort. I'm not expecting cd quality fmv, but even classic eight and sixteen bit games had multiple intro and outro scenes.

In the longplay I play through each event, dominating before moving onto the next. I play through the central Star Driver showdown events buying cars and upgrades along the way. I then play the remaining four disciplines unlocking their cars by doing so. Once all five special cars are unlocked, the game is complete. I manually show the credits.

Part 1
00:00:00 - Showdown Qualifier
00:03:03 - Battle Machine
01:41:32 - React Team Sessions

Part Two
00:00:00 - Super Promotion

Part Three
00:00:00 - RYO Showdown Challenge (Unlocks Mitsubishi Lancer EVOLUTION)
00:09:42 - Rogue Speed Drag race Challenge (Unlocks Ford Mustang GT)
00:18:50 - Noise Bomb Drift Challenge (Unlocks Mazda RX-7)
00:48:18 - Effect Race Challenge (Unlocks BMW M3 E92)
01:19:15 - Nitrocide Sprint Challenge (Unlocks 1965 Pontiac GTO)
01:52:10 - Credits