Need for Speed: Carbon. Next to Most Wanted, it's taken as one of the best racing games of all time. Personally, I can have my doubts, but here's my review of the Game Boy Advance version of the classic icon.
Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are superb. Not the best as they could have done with more fine touches, but for the amount of space on the tracks and the amount of customization this game has to offer, it's quite nice.
The cars can be put apart from the road, nothing too flashy, the tracks can be navigated, etc.
Sound: 3/10
Due to compression, the entire soundtrack is reduced to gibberish and static. For the vehicle sounds themselves, they're just as unrecognizable as the lyrics in the soundtrack (if there were any to start with)
All that I do know is that it has sounds that are distinguishable, but not very good.
Addictiveness: 4/10
There's not much to other than play through the story and even the story is rather bland. The AI is rather simple and none of the actual game modes feel any different from each other.
The only thing that brought me back to this game was because I am a completionist and wanted every car.
Story: 7/10
It seems like an average racing game storyline. The only real plot twist in the game was at the end, which I thought was so brilliant, it covered the slow moving sections and I loved it. I'm not a big fan of racing game plots, but I bet the player would love to read this one.
Depth: 2/10
The story is short and so there isn't a huge selection of tracks, so racing wasn't too exciting.
The currency is rather moderate. The player can spend it on cars, customization or tuning and then gain it by racing. If the player happens to lose all of their money on customization, it's not too hard to get it all back and get yourself a new car.
There isn't a very large selection of cars either. In fact, I played through the entire game with a Cobalt SS, which just goes to show how little cars and how small the performance range was/is.
There isn't much to do other than play through the bland, but satisfying storyline and even in the storyline, there's not a very large range of event types there either.
Difficulty: 3/10
The AI in this game is rather simple. No big strategy needed. As long as the player can avoid driving backward or slowing down drastically, then you normally finish first with at least 10 seconds off of the rest of the opposition.
Turning is rather difficult in some cars as understeer and oversteer in the form of crashing into walls and drifting is prone to happen with the new handling model. It's simple to adjust to, but it does get in the way of some races if the player is not too careful.
Additionally, I had already explained earlier that I had finished this game with a single car (with tuning of course) which just goes to show how difficult the AI makes the races.
There are also some very useful back alley shortcuts, which ensures that the player wins a race quicker.
Overall: 6/10
It's an okay game, it just has got to get more polishing and such. Players will enjoy this game, but I can't guarantee for how long.
Need for Speed: Carbon. Next to Most Wanted, it's taken as one of the best racing games of all time. Personally, I can have my doubts, but here's my review of the Game Boy Advance version of the classic icon.
Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are superb. Not the best as they could have done with more fine touches, but for the amount of space on the tracks and the amount of customization this game has to offer, it's quite nice.
The cars can be put apart from the road, nothing too flashy, the tracks can be navigated, etc.
Sound: 3/10
Due to compression, the entire soundtrack is reduced to gibberish and static. For the vehicle sounds themselves, they're just as unrecognizable as the lyrics in the soundtrack (if there were any to start with)
All that I do know is that it has sounds that are distinguishable, but not very good.
Addictiveness: 4/10
There's not much to other than play through the story and even the story is rather bland. The AI is rather simple and none of the actual game modes feel any different from each other.
The only thing that brought me back to this game was because I am a completionist and wanted every car.
Story: 7/10
It seems like an average racing game storyline. The only real plot twist in the game was at the end, which I thought was so brilliant, it covered the slow moving sections and I loved it. I'm not a big fan of racing game plots, but I bet the player would love to read this one.
Depth: 2/10
The story is short and so there isn't a huge selection of tracks, so racing wasn't too exciting.
The currency is rather moderate. The player can spend it on cars, customization or tuning and then gain it by racing. If the player happens to lose all of their money on customization, it's not too hard to get it all back and get yourself a new car.
There isn't a very large selection of cars either. In fact, I played through the entire game with a Cobalt SS, which just goes to show how little cars and how small the performance range was/is.
There isn't much to do other than play through the bland, but satisfying storyline and even in the storyline, there's not a very large range of event types there either.
Difficulty: 3/10
The AI in this game is rather simple. No big strategy needed. As long as the player can avoid driving backward or slowing down drastically, then you normally finish first with at least 10 seconds off of the rest of the opposition.
Turning is rather difficult in some cars as understeer and oversteer in the form of crashing into walls and drifting is prone to happen with the new handling model. It's simple to adjust to, but it does get in the way of some races if the player is not too careful.
Additionally, I had already explained earlier that I had finished this game with a single car (with tuning of course) which just goes to show how difficult the AI makes the races.
There are also some very useful back alley shortcuts, which ensures that the player wins a race quicker.
Overall: 6/10
It's an okay game, it just has got to get more polishing and such. Players will enjoy this game, but I can't guarantee for how long.
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