Format: Advance
Genre: Racing
Developer: Pocketeers
Publisher: Electronic Arts

I'M GONNA HIT THAT TRUCK! Despite the start of the game, there are no actual trucks in the game. Technically this is my first need for speed game, but it's been a known series for me for a long time. Need for Speed Carbon (own the city) is the gba port of a game that's been ported more than a 2 dollar ryu-doll. Initially when I looked this game up, I came across several guides for xbox and ps2 versions, but those games are seemingly different than this one. In this game, you start off as an unidentified youth who's driving with his brother in a race when another racer slams into you and BAM TRUCK! As a result, you get brain damage and a dead brother. Then you drive your brother's girlfriend home in the tutorial. This is legitimately the plot. There's a lot more "plot" but honestly, it's mostly garbage. This is a story about revenge. Unfortunately, the story doesn't make any sense by the end and leads to more questions and a very confusing end screen. As far as gameplay goes, it's a racing game that's not as good as other racing games. The cars are very thick and heavy and hard to turn. This means that you have to turn well in advance of corners, and that the cars will do that "drift" thing. The game itself is split up into about 6 areas, with 12 races in each area, except for the final area which is a 6-race boss rush. In order to advance you need to win 7/12 races and then defeat both bosses in each area. That's career mode in a nutshell, which is the story-mode. There's also freeplay. The races are the typical need for speed style of behind the car camera racing, which is surprising that it was able to be put on the gba. Unlike other racing games though, this one only has 4 racers in the game at any given point in time. 2 enemy cars and 1 "wingman" which is supposed to be an ally. I've personally had several times when this "ally" would cause more pain to me than my enemies. There are 4 modes that can be raced; Circuit, Sprint, Elimination, Hunter. These 4 modes are scattered throughout the storyline and each have their own win-conditions. It's a nice mix-up that keeps the gameplay somewhat fresh. Shortcuts are king in this game. Once you find them, you've basically won. When you clear an area, you unlock new cars you can buy, and beating certain areas unlocks parts and stuff like that. Literally, the hardest part of the game is the very start, it gets easier as you go on.

All in All, my score is probably a bit generous for this one. The gameplay wasn't particularly bad, and the 4 race modes kept action a bit entertaining, but my word, fishtailing was HORRIBLE in this game. If you so much as "touch" anything in the wrong way, you spinout and suddenly are facing the wrong way every single time. You either play perfect, or restart. The music also is pretty shit. The story makes no sense. The only thing this game has got going for it is it's gameplay. Everything else is a hot mess.