Need for Speed ProStreet (Nintendo DS) - Review by Chris

Introduction

EA's Need for Speed franchise continues to be a slow burner on the DS. Year on year, the franchise continues to improve yet continues to add elements which don't need to be included and as a result have made the games fall behind some of the better, more recent racing games on the console. Once again bringing an edition of the latest game to the handheld, EA hopes to prove that Need for Speed can be an essential racing title regardless of the console or the competition and with ProStreet, they hope to prove just that. Can this one handle the competition or will it be left standing at the lights?

Gameplay

Taking to the shoes of a rookie racer, Need for Speed ProStreet sees you taking to a plethora of events, each of which are created from various race types, in the hope of one day being crowned the king of racing. To get there, you'll have to enter and dominant events unlocked progressively, while winning new vehicles at the same time, before taking on the best racers in each of the four main disciplines of racing and finally taking on the current king of racing. This constitutes the story which propels the main single player mode forward in the game and is where you'll be spending most of your time thanks to a large selection of events available to play through, from standard races to drag races and drifting competitions.

The single player takes a prominent stance in the package, with there being enough enjoyable content to entertain for a considerable amount of time. Aside from the main single player mode, staple racing game modes continue their presence, allowing you to head into any race type with whatever settings you wish to play to, providing a strong offering of content. And as with previous Need for Speed titles, a customisation element still remains, although some elements such as the vinyl creator have sadly been removed from this iteration of the game. As you progress through the single player events, you'll gain new vehicles so long as you dominant them. While the list of vehicles included in the game isn't exactly on par with other racing games on the system, the customisation element allows you to tweak and tune your vehicles to get more power out of them to allow them to compete that little bit longer until you finally hit the wall and see the need to upgrade your ride to something else.

A new mode included for the first in this package is the Hydraulics mode. Here, a car equipped with hydraulics starts to bounce around and you have to tap the touch screen in time with the on screen cues to make a successful move. It's a side attraction to the main offering and while it certainly has an element of novelty about it, it feels decidedly out of place in the overall package and is another showing of the developers not quite knowing when to stop adding content.

Multiplayer continues to play a big part in the package, and while the single player has plenty of legs to keep you going for some time it is through way of the multiplayer that you'll find yourself coming back. A solid selection of offline options are available, both for single and multi-card play both of which support up to 8 players in all race types and with all available cars and courses. Furthermore, EA continues the adventures into the online space on the DS by allowing you and 3 other players to take each other in all available setups and settings. It therefore creates a robust offering of gameplay options with enough to quality stuff to keep you coming back.

Controls

While earlier titles have attempted to provide some form of touch screen control for the games, ProStreet completely does away with that, showing that the developers have learnt lessons from their previous development endeavours. As such, the game is completely controlled by the d-pad and face buttons making for a much more comfortable method of control and one that is easily learnt and adjusted to. There are multiple configurations that can be changed between in the options menu but essentially, all work in a similar fashion and work well.

However, as with any racing game where the d-pad is being used, the emulation of the more commonplace analogue stick setup on the home console versions isn't carried out flawlessly here, making cornering slightly oversensitive. Another issue comes through the brakes where even the slightest tap can send your car into a spin, further making cornering an issue. These are things which create a learning curve to the handling but they can be overcome with practice. It just would have been nice for them to have been spot on out of the gate rather than having to adjust to them later on.

Graphics

The Need for Speed games continue to be an impressive feat of 3D design thanks to a largely stable engine created by the developers. ProStreet takes a step up above prior titles in the visual department, sporting a higher level of detail for the tracks and the surroundings while cars have seen a slight increase in their poly count to make them more realistic in their shape and design. Unfortunately, though, the cars have a much more cel-shaded look about them, creating a conflict between the realism of the tracks and the cars. They still look good but the cars don't quite look realistic enough, at times looking very cartoony and childish.

It all looks great though and runs incredibly smoothly, although there are times where you will notice some very slight dips in the frame rate but never anything jarring which makes the game unplayable. There are a few other visual glitches, only occurring when playing online, such as cars appearing and vanishing and some texture tearing but again, it's never enough to threaten the mood or feel of the game very much.

Sound

Continuing to draw on its bigger brothers, ProStreet on the DS brings in a nice collection of licence of music to listen to as you take to the tarmac. Bands such as Airbourne and Avenged Sevenfold make up a slice of what is available on the cartridge and while the quality isn't of the highest order, with some crackling being heard when listening, it still sounds great and fans of the respective bands give pride of place on the track list won't care much about a dip in the quality. The cars themselves all sound representative of the real things, again with the same slight dip in quality seen in the music, but be prepared to put up with a lot of wheel screeching as you'll have to endure it as you round almost all track corners and it can be slightly irritating.

Dual screen

The developers have improved the dual screen use over previous entries this time housing a dynamic map and other important race information on the touch screen while the top screen handles the action. It's a great use of both screens but you'll rarely feel the need to check anything on the touch screen.

Final comments

Need for Speed ProStreet takes a significant step forward for the franchise on the DS. The developers have spent time refining the basic modes on offer and while there are some glaring omissions that would be nice to see a return of in later titles, what is present here is more than enough to keep you occupied for weeks to come. An improvement in the presentation is also apparent and while the engine shows some sign of slowdown, it's clear that the developers know exactly how to push the hardware in the right way to get the best results. It still lingers behind the console versions in terms of quality but as far as a racing game on the DS, it's up there with some of the better ones.

Pro: The visuals look great, plenty of modes on offer, online multiplayer is great
Con: Controls are slightly oversensitive, audio suffers from a bit of crackling
Final score: 7.8

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