Need for Speed Undercover [2009] | Platform: iPhone | Genre: Racing

May 6, 2009 - Need for Speed Undercover roars into the App Store much later than Electronic Arts originally hoped, and does so in the wake of I-play's flashy Fast & Furious game. Based on the console game of the same name -- and part of an epic franchise -- Need for Speed Undercover is easily one of the best-looking racers on the iPhone and comes factory standard with some very exciting race events. But the game is held back by some truly awful, over-the-top elements like the grating soundtrack, cheesy to the point of painful cinema scenes, and a strange lack of control calibration.

You are an undercover cop that must slip into the underground racing scene of the Tri-City Bay Area and break up a smuggling ring. The story is told through a series of full-motion video cinema scenes full of ridiculous acting -- and not the fun kind of over-acting, like the scenes from Need for Speed Most Wanted. In order to advance up the ranks of the underworld, you must win a series of events across the three neighborhoods. The events span straight-up races, cop chases, escape runs, and vehicle deliveries. The variety of events, each with different metrics for winning that truly affect how you race, are a very welcome touch. Although the events repeat themselves across the 24 stages, they are nicely spaced so you never do the same thing over and over again unless you purposefully replay prior events.

Need for Speed Undercover controls fairly well with its combination of tilt and touch. As your car auto-accelerates, you steer with tilt. You need a few practice runs to get the sensitivities of the game down because there is no way to recalibrate the controls to your liking. This is an unfortunate thing to overlook, especially in the context of drift. To start a drift, you must "twitch" your iPhone one way or the other to start the slide. Very often, this would just not register. You really have to jerk your iPhone to make it work sometimes, and if it does not, you end up steering into a wall or oncoming traffic. Eventually, I tried to just drift as little as possible, which is too bad because drifting during a race event helps you bank extra cash.

To brake, you just tap the screen with a finger. To hit the nitrous, you swipe one finger up. I liked this more than an on-screen button, as it reduces the on-screen clutter. To engage the speedbreaker, you pull your finger down the screen. This slows the game into bullet time, giving you a few seconds to think fast while the world around you slows down. I didn't use this feature very much, really. It's not well-integrated into the game.

As you win races, you earn cash for upgrading your cars in categories like top speed and handling -- or for buying entirely new ones. Adding upgrades to your cars really makes a difference, which is good to see. Too often, upgrades are so marginalized that you wonder, what's the point? The new cars you buy are based on real world rides and look remarkably like their steel-and-glass counterparts. None of them take any actual damage, though. You can ram an oncoming truck at 100MPH and just bounce off it, losing only speed. Not even a little bit of crumpled hood.

The AI of the other racers, particularly the cops, is pretty unforgiving. I appreciated the challenge, but must admit that at points it can get a touch frustrating when you realize that cops cars are made out of adamantium and can smash into anything without any worry of damage. This is one area where Need for Speed Undercover does not compare well to Fast & Furious.

As mentioned, Need for Speed Undercover is a gorgeous game. The backdrops are very well done, as are the car models. The use of effects for speed, like such blur and motion lines are very cool. There are moments in the game that are astounding to look at -- I really do think that Need for Speed Undercover looks (and plays) better on the iPhone than on the PSP. That's a pleasing achievement.

But, as I alluded to at the beginning of the review, the soundtrack is dreadful. The rock music is loud, crunchy, goofy, and ultimately annoying. I wish there was a way to use other music, but I could not find any choice but turn it off and just listen to my own tunes (Boards of Canada, thanks) while playing the game.