EA’s Need for Speed franchise has been with us for some time, hopping from one console to the next, each version slightly outdoing the last. With EA’s newest Need for Speed release, Carbon, it continues shortly after the events of Need for Speed  : Most Wanted. Not that you need to play this title to get the most out of the new release. It’s just nice to see a programmer try something a bit new with a racing game like adding a story.

You find yourself thrust into a huge city that has been split into 4 sectors, each one surrounded by a canyon. Each territory is ran by a rival crew, and your job is to win races and take back the city a bit at a time and hopefully win you ex girls heart in the process.

The game starts you off with a rather simple training mode, introducing you to some of the major characters in the game and allowing you to choose what class of car you would like to use, exotics, tuners or muscle. You are able to do a few laps in each to see which class suites you the most, muscle has amazing drive power but poor steering at high speeds, exotics are an even balance.

You are then introduced to the different crew types, scouts, blocker and drifters. You are able to choose any one for each race, as you go through the game more skilful crew members are unlocked. These crew members come in handy on some of the later races, once you have built up your crew meter you can order your scout to rush ahead and locate a short cut, a blocker will drive in the way of an opponent and slow them down, or the drifter will go in front of you, allowing you to pick up speed and then launch yourself with a handy speed boost.

After you have completed the training you are left to your own devices in the city, you a can drive around and pop into a garage or take up race offers.

In the garage you are able to tune each of your cars to your heats content. With each race you win you gain cash and also unlock new parts to purchase. After a while you will have you own personalised motor ready to hit the streets.

There are 3 types of race available, the standard circuit, sprint, which is a first to the finish line race and drift. On drift you have to power slide your car around as many corners in a row as possible without hitting any walls, trying to build up as many corner combos as possible to beat your rivals.

As you progress through the city you will gain the attention of the crew bosses. When they offer you a race you are taken to the city outskirts, these races are tough, the rival boss will have a better car and driving skills, also if you make a false move you will up flying through the barriers and it will be game over.

The sense of speed and the look of the game are spot on for the Wii, though whilst I am sure they can eek more looks from the Wii, it is certainly more polished than the Playstation 2 version.

Words by Magnapop