OVERALL RATING		4.0
Presentation		4.0
Control		4.0
Gameplay		4.0
Fun factor		4.0
User Rating		4.0

Need for Speed Undercover takes the racing franchise back to its roots in an action-packed game where driving fast and driving smart go hand in hand.  It’s sort of a culmination of previous NFS titles on mobile and while it probably has a bit less to offer than those in the past, it’s probably the best for pure racing.

By less I mean that there are only eight vehicles to select from with a total of 21 races in four districts.  The cars available include the Porsche 911 Turbo, Nissan GT-R, Shelby GT-500KR and the BMW M3 E92 to name a few, and their customization merely includes purchasing higher levels of Speed, Acceleration, Handling and Nitrous, so there really is no fine-tuning (though these do affect a vehicle’s performance somewhat) but this works just great and allows you to jump into the races quicker.  There is however, a much nicer variation of exciting race types that’ll keep you busy.

Race types are Circuit, Sprint, Lap Knockout, Speed Camera, Bounty, Cop Takeout and Highway Battle.  The most interesting of these are Speed Camera - where you hurl at breakneck speeds to be caught on tape with the fastest speed, Bounty – where you can trash the streets for points, and Cop Takeout – where you slam into crooked cops to disable their vehicle.  Boss races are also in play to unlock some of the higher-end cars in order to purchase with your hard-earned cash.

The game offers an excellent sense of speed with tight one-thumb controls that are perfect for weaving in and out of traffic, and trust me, you WILL have to weave.  There are plenty of civilian vehicles around and the competition is quite fierce.  Perhaps the coolest features however is when you press the ACTION button at certain times… for example, when hitting a curve and you press the ACTION button, the car will go into a drift and you will have to keep a sliding gauge within its center to maintain control of the vehicle, and score style points of course.  On the other hand, when you press the ACTION button on a straightaway, it can get you out of a serious jam as the game goes into slow-motion to help you thread a needle between cars.  Very cool.

Need for Speed Undercover comes with just Career and Quick Race modes and that’s really my only gripe with the game. (Well, scratch that because the civilian traffic really bugged me when going for fastest times, but it did make the action more interesting.)  The 3D graphics look great even on this mid-grade handset though the sound effects could have been more vibrant, but really, this game is all about the racing excitement and you’ll get plenty of that here.