Need for Speed Undercover is the uncontested arcade racing king while Real Racing holds onto the simulation racing spot. Where does this belong?

Need for Speed Shift ($6.99 – Holiday Price)

Need for Speed Shift was meant to be a simulation racer but instead the iPhone version is dead smack in the middle of the two genres.

The racing style in NFS Shift is designed to be more of a simulation experience, with no incoming cars or being able to make other cars to flying. The racing modes and track designs just give this an arcade feel and the mix of the two makes for a deadly combination.

Presentation

To be honest as first I thought the graphics were a bit of a let down when compared to NFS Undercover. In Undercover it was released before the 3GS so they had to unload all they had onto the current devices to make it look good. In Shift the small things that will cause the older devices to lag up have been saved for the 3rd Gen devices.

The reason for this is that while the cars look the same it is the amount of stuff in the background that would really tear the older devices to shreds. The city landscapes have a heap of buildings which are 3D, increasing the stress on smaller devices. Without the gleam and small effects I am surprised that this runs as well as it does on smaller devices with only minimal lag. On 3rd Gen devices you get all the small things that have are added to give it a slightly more polished feel.

There are different racing views all look spectacular and really give you a great view of the track. EA Mobile have also included some sweet licensed tunes for us to listen to. The songs play throughout the entire game but sound the best while surfing the menu’s. The beats of the songs make me feel like I am watching the Fast & Furious movies.

Controls

The controls in Shift and Undercover are fairly similar but there are a few obvious differences between the two. The things that have stayed the same are that you have to tilt the device to steer your car, touch the screen to brake and that this is an auto-accelerate game. The reason for the auto acceleration I believe is to reduce the number of buttons on the screen, getting in the way of the sweet graphics. I am sure those who wanted Auto-accelerate wouldn’t mind a button though if the mode was optional.

The Nitro is still in this game but instead of flicking up with the screen there is a tiny button on the right hand side. It is pretty small and even though it may not let you see as much the button should be bigger than it is. It is here to make way for the automatic and manual transmission options. When in manual you can change gears by flicking your finger up or down on the screen, having a bit of simulation racing in this game. The slow-down of time option has also been taken out, mainly due to the fact that normal car races don’t have that option in their cars.

Gameplay

The racing modes in Shift are definitely have more of an arcade feel to them. In the game you can on tracks which take you through 18 unique street tracks using 7 game modes. Instead of in a simulation racer where you may find just a circuit race there are many more game modes to keep you interested.

These modes are:

• Circuit- Complete a certain number of laps of the track and try and come in 1st position
• Elimination- Race 2 or 3 laps of the track and avoid being the last to finish every lap as they get eliminated until one remains
• Sprint- Try to finish in 1st place after racing from Point A to Point B
• Driver Duel- Take on an opponent 1 on 1 and try to get 5 seconds ahead to win
• Drift- Go around the track at your own pace drifting and trying to get a certain number of drift points
• Timetrial- You have 3 laps to try and beat the winning time to get the gold medal
• Exhibition- Race 1 on 1 against an opponent in a totally identical car

There are four locations in the game Chicago, London, Tokyo and the World Tour. Each of these has 7 events, one from each of the different game modes. The best thing about this game is that if you suck at one particular mode you can still get through the game because it is based on the number of stars you collect, not positions.

The game has a very in-depth career mode to show how good and sometimes bad you are. In almost all the race modes the races have different optional objectives that if you complete will let you earn a star. These are things like staying on the race line, lead for an entire lap and many more. These stars are used to unlock new tracks.

In this game there are 20 licensed cars available for you to unlock and buy. These range from your BMW’s to your Lamborghini’s and Pagani’s. The cars are ranked in tiers and certain cars can only go in certain events. All the cars are semi-customizable in both performance and visuals.

The racing comes in 3 games modes Rookie, Amateur or Professional but you can customize it to suit yourself. This means choosing either Auto or Man transmission, steering assist, braking assist and whether you want the race line. There are four camera modes for you to play around with most notably a cockpit mode just like in Real Racing.

If that isn’t enough there is also an option that let’s you race your own friends via local multiplayer. This mode works quite well and it is really awesome how well it works. You may find a slight bit of lag but generally this is a heap of fun and very competitive.

Suggestions

There are a few obvious signs that Electronic Arts tried to make this into more of a simulation racer. The first one is the fact that this game is more about choosing the right path on the race track instead of smashing and bashing your way around the track. Going off the track effects you but I feel like it is a bit too forgiving as you just bounce off the side of the track and slow down. I would have loved to have seen a bit more action, especially when going 200 Mph. The other dead giveaway is that unlike Asphalt, Undercover etc. you can not ram into another car and send it flying into the side of the wall. While you can earn a trophy for knock outs they are incredibly hard and you generally just run up the side of another car and make sparks.

Conclusion

It will take the average gamer around 4 hours to complete all the racing tracks and around 6 or 7 hours to unlock all the cars, get to Level 20 and earn all 150 stars. This game is absolutely amazing and the arcade feeling with the simulation racing style makes this into the best racing game on the App Store. Period. You would have to be insane not to get this game, especially at the Christmas sale price of $6.99.

Only EA can deliver such a game that brings speed, excitement and an addictive game into a single game. Need for Speed is everything its earlier version was and more. This is definitely one of the games of the year and I love it too bits as you can see with the size of this review. There is a slight bug some people are experiencing with a certain race in Tokyo crashing, but that is going to be fixed soon and then the game should be perfect. Just get this now, you shouldn’t be disappointed. And Merry Christmas to everyone!