Need for Speed Underground 2 is a very challenging, and occasionally enjoyable street racing game
The racing though fun has one problem. The control isn't to good, no im not talking about the turning corners type of controls I mean the trying to go straight control. When your driving straight your car will uncontrollably swerve from side to side meaning your will be constantly tapping the left and right D-Pad buttons just to drive straight. its not really as bad as it sounds, its just one of those things that you have to get used to. Another thing about this game is that the road is really narrow which makes it a bit harder to control your car.
The computer A.I in Need for Speed Underground 2 is excellent. Unlike the CPU A.I in Need For Speed Underground 2 for the consoles where the cars would almost never crash, in the DS version they crash about as often as you do (well that actually depends on how good the player is but the CPU controlled cars crash often enough to make them feel around your skill level). However there cars always seem to be able to go a little bit faster than yours, but that makes the game challenging (in the good way).
There really isn't any story in Need for Speed Underground 2, but that’s no problem because the story in NFSU2 for the consoles occasionally got in the way. Basically you'll just be going in racing to get points, which is essentially the same as money and you use these points to buy all the cars and performance upgrades that you have unlocked by winning races. But one strange thing about the DS version of NFSU2 is that all the visual upgrades are free, so once you unlock the rims, spoilers, front/back/side bumpers and all of that kind of stuff you can just enter your garage and get it for free. But this works a lot better than you would expect because you can have plenty of fun changing your cars visual upgrades over and over again until you get it exactly how you want it. And there one unique feature with the decals, you can create your own. Using the touch screen you can draw and/or write what ever you want and put it on the sides of you car or the hood of your car.
There is also a good amount unlockable cars. Though in some cases there are 2 or 3 of the same car but there just a lot faster than the last version of the car, take the Skyline for example. There are 3 unlockable Nissan Skylines, each one is faster than the last, it sounds a bit pointless but it works just fine. From the start of the game you'll be able to view every single car, whether you have unlocked it or not you can still view it. And just to let you know, the last unlockable car is Rachel's 350Z which looks awesome.
There is a variety of race types. There are circuit races which are essentially racing a few laps around the city and sometimes you will be racing the clock trying to beat the set time. Circuit races are still the main focus but there are also 2 other types of races. Drag racing which is probably the most enjoyable race type of the bunch. There’s also a new race type called Own the Zone, basically you'll be racing one opponent and you will have to perform the best in a section to own that zone. There are 4 zones (or sections) in each level and in the end the player with the most wins.
Need For Speed Underground 2 DS features some blocky graphics, which aren't very impressive. The cars themselves look great but the environment and traffic cars don't really looks that great. There’s this problem with the environment where whenever you approach a new part of the track the background just pops up which is weird and doesn't look good at all. But still you don't buy a game for fancy graphics so it doesn't really get in the way of anything, but still it would have been nice if they were improved even if it ment an extra month or so in development.
The graphics aren't really anything special and the sound is even worse. The actual car sounds aren't to bad but the soundtrack is terrible, it features mainly instrumental music and its just a lot better if you turn the sound of. It will take you a good 15 - 25 hours to finish the Underground mode, mainly because you'll be racing some of the same races again and again because some of the races are pretty hard. The multiplayer is pretty fun and you only need one NFSU 2 DS cartridge to play with up to four players.
Though the graphics, sound and overall presentation isn't to good the great sense of speed and the depth of unlockable comes through here. Need For Speed Underground 2 DS is for the most part a good lengthy, fast, challenging and enjoyable experience and if your in need for some street racing for your DS look no further than Need For Speed Underground 2 DS.