Need for Speed Underground Rivals Hands-On

TOKYO-- Need for Speed Underground Rivals is the upcoming PSP racing game from Electronic Arts based on its popular Need for Speed Underground series. The game will put you in the role of an ambitious young racer seeking fame and a better ride in underground racing circuits. To make this dream a reality, you'll go through 10 all-new tracks designed specifically for the portable game. As with previous entries in the series, you'll be able to customize your cars to tweak their performance out on the road. One of the many cool twists being added to the game is the mix of cars, which will feature tuner cars from both Japan and America. You'll be able to take these cars for a run through a variety of yet-to-be-revealed game modes, which will include competitive multiplayer play and Wi-Fi support. We took a look at an extremely early work-in-progress version of the game, which was roughly 50 percent complete, to see how EA and the PSP are getting along.

The demo of NFSU Rivals on display was a very modest slice of the much larger pie to be offered by the final game, and it featured a single track to explore. The track was set on Metro Park, an environment in the game that is closer in spirit to the locales seen in the upcoming Need for Speed Underground 2, with undulating roads and underpasses. The control in the game is still being fine-tuned. At the moment the handling is serviceable but lacks the subtlety and polish of a final game, which is to be expected, since the PSP game isn't even finished yet. The available car in the game, the Mazda RX8, is a new addition to the series and reflects the slightly different approach EA's Fuzion studio is taking to bringing the console franchise to the PSP. Rather than simply making a port that crams the console game onto the portable system, the developer has instead worked to make a game that's unique to the PSP, as evidenced by the game's title. The rival concept will obviously play a big part in the single-player game, but it will fold in nicely with the multiplayer component, since the game will support head-to-head play.

The graphics in the game are shaping up incredibly well even in this early stage of development. The now patented, dramatically lit "wet look" of the environment has been re-created on the PSP. The visual blurring that occurs when you hit your nitrous is also looking good. The developer has even thrown in a healthy dose of particle effects for those unpleasant moments when you scrape against a divider. The game also seems to already be running at a steady frame rate (of about 30 frames per second, or so), which is quite impressive.

Need for Speed Underground Rivals is currently slated to ship with the launch of the PSP in Japan later this year--the game will be released in the US with the PSP's stateside debut early next year. For more on the game, check out our media page with exclusive media and interviews. For more updates, be sure to check GameSpot's coverage of the Tokyo Game Show 2004.