Need for Speed: Underground

The player races in Olympic City in a modified Acura Integra R sporting wide body kits and easily winning over his opponents; only to be woken up by Samantha from his sleep.

Samantha is the player's friend in Olympic City and she tours him across the import culture scene and illegal street racing therein. She helps the player buy his first car. The player also encounters several street racing crews, some of them being Samantha's acquaintances who befriend the player after he proves his racing skills to them. She introduces him to T.J, one of her acquaintances, who promises him with numerous upgrades and parts, provided he wins races. The player races other racers and wins them over, eventually drawing the attention of Eddie, the leader of the Eastsiders gang and Melissa, his beautiful girlfriend. Eddie is the current best underground racer in Olympic City and berates the player for his racing skills, going as far as mocking him to "take a taxi home so that he can get home faster", but the player proves otherwise. Enraged, Eddie challenges the player to race Samantha, who gets infuriated upon the player's acceptance. She loses after she wrecks her Honda Civic Si during the race, and her car is taken by T.J for himself thereafter and vandalizes it. Deeply saddened by the loss of her car to T.J, Samantha distances herself from the player.

The player eventually keeps winning races offered by Samantha's acquaintances in her absence and later on faces T.J in Samantha's vandalized Civic. T.J loses the race and returns the car to the player, who returns it back to Samantha. They rekindle their friendship and Samantha motivates the player to race Eddie and defeat him once and for all. Eddie challenges the player to a sprint race and loses; while the player's crew are about to celebrate, a mysterious grey Nissan 350Z challenges the player to a final race. The player races the 350Z and wins; while the others celebrate his victory, the driver of the 350Z is revealed to be Melissa.

That event solidifies the player's status as the best underground racer in Olympic City.

A circuit race with a Honda Civic Si Coupe, PC version

Circuit is a standard race that involves racing with up to three opponents' cars around a loop track for one lap or more, and is the main mode of the game. For about the last 4 races of underground mode, the number of players decreases to only 1 rival, and the number of laps reach up to seven (endurance race).

Knockout Mode is similar to previous Need for Speed titles, and involves "knocking out" the last racer who passes the starting line in each lap until the final leader of the race remains, and wins the race. In the case of Underground, Knockout sessions have a maximum of three laps for four racers.

Sprint mode is a variation on the Circuit mode, where the contestants race in a point-to-point track instead of loop tracks. These races are typically shorter than "circuits" (with a maximum of 8 km in length), so players are required to be more cautious of any mistakes during racing, such as crashing into barriers or vehicles.

Drifting is the most challenging and technical aspect of the game. Drift mode consists of one player in a short loop track, where the objective is to collect as many points as possible by drifting along the track. The player competes with three other contestants, who appear to accumulate scores along with the player during the drift session. The player would be required to beat these scores in order to obtain top positions.

Bonuses are awarded for players who drift in the outer borders of the track, drift vertically, or perform chained-drifting (continuous drifting by constantly steering the vehicle during drifts to maintain speed); if the player succeeds in ending a drift without collisions onto the sides of the track, the collected points are added into the score, otherwise, the collected points are cancelled.

Drift mode is the only type of racing where time taken to complete the track does not matter, since players are given the freedom to complete the allocated number laps at their own pace. This may explain the absence of nitrous oxide in this mode, since it serves no apparent purpose in this situation.

Drag racing is the second most technical form of race in the game. It involves racing against one or three cars on typically straight tracks, and attempting to obtain top positions to win. Players are forced to use manual transmission in this mode. In order to master Drag mode, players must employ good timing and reflexes for gear shifting, redlining, overtaking, and the use of nitrous oxide boosts. Because the player is going to put the engine to its limits the mode places particular emphasis in monitoring the tachometer during races, which is enlarged and situated on the leftmost portion of the screen. Steering in this mode is simplified to simply allow for lane changes, while the computer handles the steering along the lanes, and the player focuses more on maintaining an optimum speed for the car.

Two conditions will result in players being forfeited during a drag race: head-on collisions with an opponent, barriers, traffic cars or dividers (being 'totaled'); or blown engines as a result from prolonged redlining and the subsequent overheating of the engine.

The game's soundtrack is a variety of licensed songs, which are mostly rap and hip hop, sung by Nate Dogg, T.I., as well as Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz, who are best known for singing the game's theme song, Get Low. Some songs are also rock, sung by artists like Static-X, Rob Zombie, and Lostprophets.

According to Electronic Arts, Need for Speed: Underground was a commercial hit, with sales above 7 million units worldwide by mid-2004.[39] Underground ultimately sold 15 million copies worldwide,[40] and entered the "best-sellers" of each console PS2's Greatest Hits and BigHit Series, Xbox's Platinum Hits, and GameCube's Player's Choice.

Need for Speed: Underground received positive reviews. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 84.29% and 85 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version,[4][9] 83.73% and 83 out of 100 for the GameCube version,[2][7] 82.29% and 82 out of 100 for the PC version,[3][8] 81.76% and 83 out of 100 for the Xbox version[5][10] and 77.33% and 77 out of 100 for the Game Boy Advance version.[1][6] The only complaints critics had were the repetitive tracks, unbalanced rubberband AI, and the lack of free roam and damage in the game, with the latter only confining to detachment of license plates from cars during collisions, especially during Drag races.[41]

In the UK, Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine gave the PS2 version a score of nine out of ten and made much of the illegal nature of the gameplay. They praised the speed, but said that it was, "at heart, just another driving game with added Hollywood sparkle."[42] In Japan, Famitsu gave the GameCube and PS2 versions a score of two eights and two nines, bringing it to a score of 34 out of 40.[43]

By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of Underground had sold 2.6 million copies and earned $115 million in the United States alone. Next Generation ranked it as the sixth highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. It was the highest-selling Need for Speed game released between those dates in the United States.[44] The PlayStation 2 version also received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[45] indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[46]

The editors of Computer Gaming World presented Underground with their 2003 "Racing Game of the Year" award. They wrote, "It may not be a conventional racing title like a NASCAR or F1 title, but no other game will make you feel the Gs at every turn like NSFU does."[47]

Need for Speed: Underground also won The Electric Playground's 2003 "Best Driving Game for PC" award,[48] and The CESA Game Awards for "Global Awards (overseas works)" from CESA and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.[49]

• Need for Speed: Underground at MobyGames
• Need for Speed: Underground (Game Boy Advance) at MobyGames