NFS Underground Retrospective: Don't Meet Your Heroes

[@Kaceydotme]

People have asked me for years to upload a music list and I guess it's way overdue now. A few of these I don't remember as they were from stock music sites or random game OSTs I found while filling in blanks. If you recognize any of the tracks I've forgotten please reply and let me know what they are! 0:00 Photon Rez from NFS High Stakes 1:20 Callista from NFS High Stakes 2:20 Ja Rule - Furious 2:48 Petey Pablo - Need for Speed 3:49 Lunatic Calm - Choke 6:30 I can't remember but it sounds like some game OST 9:20 was from a royalty free site, I do not remember. 10:30 ^ ditto 13:17 Paul Van Dyk - Nothing But You (Cirrus Remix) 14:00 Lunatic Calm - Shockwave 16:10 Evil Nine - We Have The Energy 17:40 I don't remember 19:03 Lunatic Calm - Meltdown 20:36 Rom Di Prisco - Cykloid 20:40 I don't remember but it reminds me of the band Rabbit Junk if you want something similar. 22:41 Amon Tobin - Mighty Micro People

[@MidnightClubStillCancelledSoz]

"TO THE WINDOW!...TO THE WALL!"

[@SenpaiKillerFire]

TO THE WALLED

[@suggestiveguy]

@@0uttaS1TE no what the fuck

[@suggestiveguy]

@@0uttaS1TE holy fuck it's the real lyric

[@urdeadnotbigsuprise7439]

@@suggestiveguy yeah when i was first time heard the song i didn't realized how dirty those lyrics were

[@ziqqerlad]

Midnight Club still cancelled?

[@goodie2shoes874]

I beat the entire game on hard without downgrading. I’ve also lost something I can never get back.

[@georgi5637]

sanity?

[@goodie2shoes874]

георги батанов no virginity. This game fucked me in 9 different ways.

[@georgi5637]

@@goodie2shoes874 😂😂

[@georgi5637]

@@goodie2shoes874 I lost my sanity after playing it.

[@acaribouintheattic8345]

I feel you bro, i replayed the game again 4 years ago and only used the golf the whole campaign. Holy shit how much i suffered...

[@MrMetropolis]

I'd like to add that during Kurt's Killer Ride, while I beat the event first try, during the run Kurt crashed a total of 3 times, one of which he slammed into a wall and hit complete zero MPH. Despite the fact that I drove flawlessly in a fully upgraded RX-7 (same as him) with zero crashes into terrain, physics freak-outs, car collisions, or otherwise bad corners, Kurt still managed to close a +15 second gap instantly on the precise turn at 16:37. I would literally see the seconds count down from +8 to +2 during that one turn alone as his RX-7 spawned magical rails below his wheels to grip through that relatively shallow left turn at 300 MPH without crashing or sliding. Absolute nightmare of a race and I wouldn't wish completing it on my worst enemy

[@MrMetropolis]

update: I would like to note that the 7-lap race almost immediately afterwards was 10x worse. Late-game NFS Underground isn't a racing game, it's whack-a-mole with cars. You have to keep tripping your opponents over, ramming them into walls, or hope that they ram into obstacles themselves, until they rubberband back for you to repeat the process

[@SubNaturalZ]

@@MrMetropolis As I am watching the video I am replaying the game for the first time since I was a kid, I was on event 94 and when he said that 95 is one of the worse events all my hope went down the drain. Hearing that there is another event that's EVEN WORSE is making me want to drop it, I'm not but it sure as hell makes me want to.

[@joshuaxiong8377]

I absolutely *HATE* rubber-banding. I want to be beaten in single player by either an extremely well designed AI and/or a better performing vehicle. Here's a good example of both: M. Rossi and the Ferrari F430 in Forza Motorsport 4 on the hardest difficulty. An amazing driver with the strongest vehicle in its class. When I beat a completely cheating AI, I'm just glad it's over with. When I finally beat Rossi's F430 with a custom Hyundai Genesis that I worked hard on for many days, after tuning and driving a multitude of other cars and builds, it felt awesome that I finally overcame a driving and mechanic skill barrier.

[@joshuaxiong8377]

@Dat Boii then, gran turismo 2 and 3. these games came out years prior and at least had decent AI and nice gameplay.

[@72vaan]

If rubber-banding is so bad, start also hating on Burnout, Hot Pursuit, Carbon, CTR, Midnight Club (wich has far, far worse rubber banding but isn't talked as much because hating on NFS is cooler), Split second, Driver San Francisco and even Mario Kart, it's not rubber-banding that is bad, it's bad use of rubber-banding

[@72vaan]

@@joshuaxiong8377 Sure, racing against the GT40 on historic cup is fine, you definitively have a chance of winning that and it's not an instant restart, it's not like you can either maul the competition or be mauled by it seemingly at random because of random car match up. GT3 isn't as bad but suffers from the same problem, also getting a toyota vitz as a tournament reward isn't at all frustrating. You just further proved the point that games from the late 90's and early 00's are flawed.

[@joshuaxiong8377]

@@72vaan at first post: i don't like rubber-banding, regardless of game. at second: that's one race that you can ignore in GT2 or either build/buy a proper car later to win. yes, questionable game design here and there for older games, i know that, but overall i prefer not to lose against ridiculous rubber banding and GT2/GT3 did good for what i've played. that is where my attention is at.

[@GraveUypo]

rubberbanding is lame lazy design. i'd rather have a real disavantage, like a worse car, than an AI that cheats to catch up and can't be left behind. that's the worst part of the forza horizon series. its rubber banding is disgusting. specially 3

[@99andskj]

I think there is one thing that Underground does better than any game that followed it, that being the atmosphere of underground street racing. It felt home-grown and like it tapped into a small world that only a few know about, without making anything too big or pompous. IMO it is also the NFS with the closest connection to hip hop culture, displayed by everything from the soundtrack to the artistic choices.

[@dtxspeaks268]

Underground 2 had that retro cyberpunk urban underground feel to it too

[@daniilslavandrushevych4118]

I agree on the atmosphere. I think the game was so stylized, chaotic and otherworldly that it still feels unique next to Underground 2.

[@daniilslavandrushevych4118]

The soundtrack (which has a lot of songs that I would feel corny in other contexts) just fits the vibe perfectly. Underground 2's soundtrack wasn't bad but generally fed into something that felt much more slow paced. Which the game was, really.

[@99andskj]

@@daniilslavandrushevych4118 Great observations!

[@dtxspeaks268]

@@daniilslavandrushevych4118 thus, the OST for underground 2 was fitting for what the setting was: a retro underground Cyberpunk eswye city

[@GameSpiritGS]

I can understand the "one single car in the garage" decision. Tuners had only one car, it was their babies. They modify, overhaul, fine tune same car over and over to make it better. Even rich tuners mostly have only one car. Not necessarily needed in a game of course. I still love NFSU, played it recently and it was still good for me. I love NFSU2 too but I love NFSU more because cars look thin in NFSU2, bold in NFSU.

[@SteveOnlin]

Uhhh... no

[@kekememe788]

No. They're not.

[@Kev27RS]

You can modify multiple cars outside the career mode though! 👍

[@SpiderMax95]

I think the first two replies didnt understand what you meant with rich people having only one car. I guess this is about having one "tuner/track/race" car.

[@kekememe788]

@@SpiderMax95 no they're not

[@Blueflag04]

Kurt Killer Ride - Im the hardest event Enduro Street Circuit - Hold my rage

[@Krozbot]

finally someone realizes enduro street circuit was even worse than rurt's riller kide (misspelling 100% intentional)

[@randomystick]

Absolutely yes. I would restart the race if I didn't manage to crash 2 opponents into the side pillars near the starting line because that was the only way I could win on a lvl 3 car

[@solitudegaming]

That race was such bullshit...its race what 103? i think...7 laps of just...bullshit, lol

[@oceanprince3147]

For some reason I recall having much more difficulty in a stage that took place on Market Street, but it was forward. Don't remember what it was, though.

[@philipps1158]

7 Laps Terminal backwards.. big uff.. with Matt and his Vitec S2000

[@beemoescarmew]

even if the system has its flaws, the racing physics in NFSU is one of the most solid in the series. it just feels snappy and intuitive

[@rodracer4567]

You're thinking Most Wanted chief

[@zues2011]

When you crash into a car your car becomes a twister, other than that driving felt good to me

[@shira_yone]

Imo NFSU have the best physics only for the drifting events (prostreet is 2nd best for drifting), with the rear wheel drive cars you can counter steer while drifting. Surprisingly enough in the later titles only Carbon, Pro Street, and 2015 lets you manually counter steer while drifting (as in most titles you'll just go to the opposite direction if you attempt to manually do so).

[@dapottis]

@@rodracer4567 MW05's isn't even close to being good, UG2's is much more natural. MW05 is way too fucking stiff and grippy.

[@Haviair9951]

@@dapottis stop bullshitting, ug2 felt like I was constantly in a drift race everytime I drove around the map

[@julioprado7676]

the "ouch" censorship got me lol

[@Kaceydotme]

I’m so glad someone appreciates that gag

[@julioprado7676]

@@Kaceydotme high quality content as usual

[@bigmike8847]

"Danger to Manifold" is still the best worst line of all time

[@dustinjames1268]

The producer originally wanted it to say overboost warning, but the executives didn't think the average viewer would understand what it meant. The execs knew that everyone's heard of a manifold though

[@THiggins130388]

But how does the floor fall out?

[@dustinjames1268]

@@THiggins130388 Look up "Craig Leiberman" on KZbin he's one of the producers he made a video about it

[@mgonzalezperna]

@@THiggins130388 and the green nuts!

[@CaseyHayesVocals]

Oi

[@WillowEpp]

I actually really like how small and cozy Olympic City is. It was cool how over time you didn't just recognise, but felt like you _owned_ the roads and knew all the shortcuts and tricks for every inch of pavement. It sold the fantasy of the gap between racing gods and scrubs better than any open world ever has.

[@splash4567]

I think this is the consequence of having only 1 year of development by EA. The game recieved massive overhaul to its gameplay, setting and physics after HP2. But due to time constraints, Black Box wasn't able to refine the game to the fullest, thus having to deal with these flaws like in the video despite being a great game at the time. They were only able to improved later games til undercover 'cos they already have the foundation in each of it that they can work upon for the next one. Still, they had a few flaws despite improvements on each of them. Because again, time constraints.

[@wolfboy20]

@@thesaintnoodle it would've been massive!!

[@bookle5829]

Thanks EA. I'm glad they showed their true colour these days.

[@ThatTonnatoTenrec]

@@bookle5829 I wouldn't say that, if i wanted to go for early 2000's to hell, even 2010, id go for EA for such games as NFS, Black, Crysis, BFME, they have alot of solid titles that i feel people just cancel out because of shit they do now. [well always did just, back then it did bring alot of great games]

[@DatGamingLxwd]

Am I the only one that didn’t really have a bad experience with this game?

[@aegishdaego]

Nope, I even think that having complicated AI to beat is perfect, I miss the difficulty of racing games! And now , i can first try that 95th game with a fully upgrade car , so i don't understand this argument :I

[@DatGamingLxwd]

Aegish Daego saaame I had so much fun playing nfsu1 with the rubberbanding AI I just found it really funny

[@Chleb42]

@@DatGamingLxwd I agree with you both, this game was my childhood and completing the game has been (and will be) my yearly ritual for the past few years. After all these years I have no problem with the rubberbanding AI, as I love the challenge they give in the later parts of the game. I wish I could understand all of the complaints about the driving model (which I adore, so dynamic and fast paced), the traffic and the obvious cheating AI, but after the over dozen times I've completed the game I just speed through every race no problem and only watching the opponents when I clearly can see that they're cheating, which happens a shit ton if you really pick the pace up with good racing lines and keeping your speed up.

[@linklink-_-6399]

being six years old when i played underground, race 95 was why i couldnt beat the game. i havent played since then though but i can remember that even on easy mode kurt would be miles ahead.

[@reistje]

I had a great experience. But I was like 10 years old, I can imagine if I would try it now it would have lost all it's magic.

[@zorgichez6324]

me, who only really played nfsu2: 🤔 EXCESS MONEY??

[@TheManudo00]

me who insists that Carbon wasnt bad:Enough Money to buy a second car?

[@KoolKyurem25]

I literally played as much of a cheapskate as I could whenever I played a new game.

[@TheBoostedDoge]

@@TheManudo00 Finally! I knew I wasn't the only one who really enjoyed carbon.

[@xehayukimura7409]

@@TheBoostedDoge carbon was fun af

[@Route765]

Ekstrak made some great menu music for Carbon

[@TurbaGames]

Dude I literally cried on that discusting race so many times. It's a relief after all these years see someone talking about that. Truly, you got that off me. Thanks.

[@SilentlyMysterius1]

Kurt's Killer Ride was always my favorite race. I don't know why, but I never noticed the rubber banding in that race. The worst rubber band in Underground was with Matt and that 7 lap race.

[@cheesyeurotrance95]

oh god that 7 lap race was painful, I have beat this game around 10 times and always when I get to that 7 lap race I use a stock Skyline, with any tuned car it's nearly impossible to win the race.

[@SilentlyMysterius1]

@@cheesyeurotrance95 it's a miracle when I beat it first time on hard with any car. But usually I do the race on my 2nd or 3rd try without degrading the car

[@SpiderMax95]

I remember having trouble with the long races when I was ten, but nowadays? I replayed it last year, and I don't remember any race I had to retry more than three times except for one drag race which I then only won when the opponent crashed.

[@SilentlyMysterius1]

@@SpiderMax95 same here. When I do speedruns I retry maybe 6 times at most and that's due to drag races only

[@Vladi306]

HA! The metallic yellow S2000, right?

[@No1TypeC]

"story telling in a genre that usually avoids it, perhaps for a good reason" (shows undercover) HE KNOWS. HE SHARES MY PAIN. The best bad (???) game of the franchise and to this day both magical and endlessly saddening to me.

[@YeOldeKamikaze]

I just finished playing MW'05 and started playing Undercover because it seemed like the logical progression. And my god, is it a terrible unoptimized piece of crap with even crappier physics and the worst story.

[@ClemensAlive]

I only played NFS U2 and I still love it today!

[@zues2011]

To me Underground will always have a special place in my heart

[@sexyrussell4778]

NFSU1's physics is very much like SF Rush/Rush the Rock, you will cartwheel nose-to-exhaust over the line in first after a massive wreck, just as often as you'll land a jump perfectly and still superball into a storefront. I'm super nostalgic for NFSU1's first third, after that the goggles do nothing.

[@nostalium]

Say what you want, I'm an avid NFS gamer and I don't just go wow easily. My experience was that after nearly two decades, when I returned to this game, I genuinely thought I'm gonna be disappointed just like you said you were. But I was surprised to be blown away by how intuitive and realistic the physics of the game (disregard collision with traffic etc.) still hold up. The speed, the acceleration, the weight of the car, the traction, and whatever makes you feel like having a real experience of driving a race car are times better in NFSU than most other games in the series. I am simple and I like to talk in simple terms; when I'm playing NFSU and I'm driving at say 150 mph, I feel like driving an insanely fast car in real life. It induces cat-like reflexes and it makes your heart beat faster. But driving at the same speed in other/newer games I feel like flying a slow airplane! Do you see what I mean? The speed *is* the same, the experience isn't.

[@Cykelpump33]

I truly miss when Rom Di Prisco had the upper hand when it came to composing soundtrack for the very first installments in the NFS franchise. It's a pity EA only allowed him to put one song for Hot Pursuit 2 when he had so much in his back catalogue. The whole aesthetic of the supercar side of NFS are the music composed for the games. While Underground 1-2 have their bright moments it's very obv. EA simply wanted to pay huge sums to have rappers such as Snoop Dogg on the games because that would boost sales.

[@TotallyNotASpy1]

Di Prisco was amazing. I loved playing older NFS games especially for the music, particularly in the main menus. It always felt like you were in a car dealership and you were looking at the car models being exposed there. And many of the songs also really fit the theme and the cars, particularly in Porsche Unleashed. It just felt so good.

[@cheesyeurotrance95]

sirius 909 from nfs 3 on the ps1, quite possibly Romolo's best tune ever

[@davidvila5053]

Liquid Plasma for me is the best NFS tune ever, it's the purest essence and makes honor to the NFS name. Also watch out playing it while driving in real life. :)

[@Larry]

Is it possible to play the arcade version anywhere? be iteresting if EA improved with that. But most excellent video Sir, really enjoyed it!!!

[@Kaceydotme]

I’m glad you enjoyed! I’m not sure if Undeground arcade can be emulated but I know that Carbon can and supposedly HP2 can as well, though I was never able to get it working. They’re all Windows based machines and UG was an upgrade kit for HP2 so I’m assuming it’s possible if you’re persistent enough.

[@ballfondler-k1o]

Apparently looking at this site (www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=18677) Its pretty much a pc version, and apparently you can find few people selling the disks on ebay

[@WA_Stokins]

Heads up, Kacey uses she/her

[@clowncore]

Cool compliment but watchout for pronouns nowadays; if you don't what the person goes for, just use they/them :o)

[@acreativename7999]

Needle filled arcade next to a static caravan holiday park maybe? That's where I found a cabinet

[@calvinstraveldreams]

17:40 I think I may have found an effective anti-rubberbanding trick-stay in 2nd place and stick to the leader like a shadow but DO NOT overtake for the lead UNTIL the last few corners of the final lap, and make sure you have nitrous in reserve for said final lap overtake.

[@BretuLauk]

This is how I felt before going through all the relevant games in the series before diving head first into Heat. The fact alot of them were a pain in the ass to play/weren't the same for me as they as they were back in 2005/2007/2010 when I was younger made me appreciate the newer games more.

[@TheClos99]

16:22 “not unless I kick into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE”

[@TommyFenstermacher5150]

Except that guy actually got the turbo

[@xemnasxiii3992]

V-TEC kicked in yo except it's a Mitsubishi

[@MuhammadAli-fj8qh]

@@xemnasxiii3992 where did this vtec kicked in yo reference come from?

[@xemnasxiii3992]

@@MuhammadAli-fj8qh well it's a big meme from the VTEC engine of the Honda Civic and others that I don't remember Personaly I know it from a dude named Deoxide who used to make funny initial D vids on FH3 and makes "car reviews" on FH4 and whenever he'd use a Honda he'd always say something like this

[@knowklelowbody7505]

That High Stakes music in the beginning brought me way tf back. That game deserves more love.

[@ngybrid]

17:55 Any 6-laps circuit race are the bane of our existence. Event 95 were less stressful for me, at least there's no skate park that AIs could easily take advantage to but we absolutely can't

[@nicestoriesnottherealstori3006]

I almost won it on hard on first try by lost in a photo finsh.

[@SubNaturalZ]

The developers that put 6 laps races in this game are the most evil bastards to ever roam this Earth

[@amvlegended]

Wow, I never had any of these problems when playing the game as a kid and I always stayed with my Honda. Man I loved my honda we shredded the competition. I never really crashed and I most of the time left my opponent's in the dust. This game just bring back good memories for me that I actually miss nfs games being more like it and most wanted in feel.

[@MuhammadAli-fj8qh]

play the game with a very fast car like integra type R skyline or RX7 and then experience XD

[@kiarakia2071]

On what i watched, he always on hit throttle, even with keyboard the game is easy (few retries sometimes because of traffic) But crashing into a wall is pretty dumb especially on grippy physics like underground

[@Xcarbonizer]

dear god i remember that goddamn race 95. i almost threw my computer out the window once because i just couldn't pass that race

[@civicrider5556]

i completed in one attempt back when i was a kid and at hard difficulty

[@Toyminator900]

The line "A victim of its success" kinda makes me think of GTA III and how it laid the foundation for future games, while GTA III was getting more and more outdated as the future games came along. Once a great game, now best left as a memory.

[@rickyrosay33977]

I agree GTA 3 was great when it came out but after I recently played it it's now mid the mechanics have not aged well and their dated

[@acasta403]

I sure am glad for my rose-tinted nostalgia glasses, cause I replay this game once every few years and I love it every time

[@mattc2306]

I've always had a soft spot for the game's soundtrack.

[@LazloRTR]

I remember getting stuck on one drag race because the game flat out *lied* about lancer es having maximum top speed And then I switched to rx7 and whoop everyone's ass on that event Also one thing to mention is that you can only unlock *one* of the two widebody kit options even on the custom ride, you you better be happy with what you choose because you can't change it

[@RobikV3]

I love watching reviews like this always learn something new and they bring back so much nostalgia! This is quality content!

[@sophiej979]

Between Kurt's race and that one 4 lap race with increasing traffic every lap, this game enraged young me and I absolutely did post in one of those threads back in the day and downgraded my car to win them easily. Didn't realize in retrospective how stupid that was until you reminded me of it.

[@No14210]

Fascinating, I used to play this as a teenager and recently felt like dusting it off. I just completed it today (everything on Medium). Then decided to look for content about NFSU1 and saw that this video was posted just this month. Great minds think alike? There is an element of masochism about replaying it today, what with the repetitive tracks, physics, traffic shoved your way, and rubberbanding. But there's just something that makes me unable to let go. I wanted to see the ending, also because I never finished it in the past. So I found myself doing #95 over and over again after midnight while slowly losing my sense of reality. I noticed I didn't get all magazine covers, but I'm not going to let that bother me, knowing the requirements. I was able to beat Kurt's Killer Krew (well, that's how I came to think of them) as well as the 7-lap endurance race without cheesing, but I admit they rode me like a pony many times before I finally managed it. You have to drive perfectly, because they generally do so as well. Only a few things unsettle them: - Drafting seems to make them slip up, so when someone overtakes you, try to stay on his ass. - When they take a shortcut like the skateboard ramp, they lose some speed on landing, or, if you're lucky, they get screwed by the physics for once and end up flipping around. One of the few cases where you can overtake guaranteed. - When you're in the lead and they're getting close, suddenly braking, making them crash into you, or letting them get alongside you and then push them into the wall. This causes them to lose precious seconds. This is also how I beat Melissa, who is less hard, but still drives pretty well, on the third attempt. I found the game itself enjoyable and playable in retrospect, just maybe not to actually do all 112 races. Actually, I would have liked to see the story fleshed out a bit more, and given the premise, it should have been "sexed up" a bit. I recall the sequel did that, although I only played it sporadically. So three guesses what I'm going to do now...

[@MaytayMaya]

"Blast past you doing 300 in a Honda Civic shouldn't happen." That's not the rubberbanding, that's just the VTEC kicking in.

[@DetectiveStablerSVU]

NFS underground 2 is as amazing as I remember. I don't have strong memories of the first so IDK how that holds up.

[@robotm99]

When I was a kid 2 controllers met their end because of me raging at #95. Glad I wasn't the only one who hated that race.

[@PetsbudNasia]

When you said kurt’s killer ride was impossible [laughs in enduro street circuit]

[@Kaceydotme]

Enduro gave me a little bit of trouble but nowhere near as much as Kurt's

[@WavveBoi]

I'll never forget the amount of excitement I had for this game. Post Fast and furious I turned into an absolute tuner enthusiast. I already liked racing and cars plenty and the movie sent me into an obsession. The vast majority of racing games mainly focused on beautiful, high performance and unattainable/rare sports cars. The fact that you turn a neon , a car my mom owned, into an ass ripping street machine blew my mind. Speed and cool factor was finally attainable. I totally blame underground and the various games that succeeded it as the reason why I drive a modified 13 accord coupe. This game is the common denominator for every petrol head in between 25 and 35.

[@caraandmalik2108]

Rubberbanding AI would even make the physics in this game feel sluggish or crazy.

[@ThaSwitcherTayTay]

I agree with you Kacey. Usually, adult me doesn’t make mistakes in racing games that warrant a restart, but I tried to replay NFSU1. You bounce all over the place from landing a sketchy jump causing you to flip all over and the AI getting an unforgivable 5+ second lead on you with no way to correct it except pause and restart. Also, it feels extremely dated and empty compared to NFSU2 , MW, and even HP2 IMO. Glad others feel this way about the first Underground.

[@muto4330]

I love it. The game gets more grueling the closer you get to the end of the game. Everyone has a horror story of an event that becomes the bane of their existence. Sometimes its actually beneficial to de-tune your car.

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

Even with its flaws, I still like to revisit it from time to time. It's more nostalgia than anything else really.

[@pedrozanon7245]

Great video as always, I only disagree in the part that its not worth revisiting. I still think its worth revisiting, even ven the player dont finish, I still think the first hours until the IA gets too hard is worth revesiting. Hope one the day you review NFSU2 as well, since its my favorite entry. Also, I hope we can get back to race online these classics one of these days.

[@PROcrastiDRIVESVofficial]

Everything you said about the physics was 100% SPOT ON!! I recently tried to play through NFS Underground 1 and initially was having a great time. Unfortunately by about 70% I had reached the limit of my patience and threw my controller at the wall, smashing it into a million pieces and then destroying the CD and the box and throwing everything in the bin. I was THAT PISSED OFF! This game was one of my childhood heroes, but boy oh boy did we put up with a lot of shit from games when we were kids. The handling is so UNPREDICTABLE. The slightest input to the joystick is interpreted as a HARD SWERVE by your idiot driver and it results in you constantly afraid to steer your car! That's right when you're driving on the limit in NFSU1 they force you to be scared of the primary method of controlling your vehicle, WTF?!!! All in all, NFSU2 was a faaaar better game and I'm quite happy to purge my memory of this playthrough of NFSU1. I just wish I had never done it so I would remember it the right way, with nostalgia and rose tinted spectacles. Now when I think of the first Underground I get Nam flashbacks of that one race in Chinatown that broke me lol!

[@GauravKumar-id6tk]

I won the event 95 on Hard difficulty using Maza Mx-5 Miata fully upgraded. This car is so small that it makes a big difference in avoiding several crashes which you can't avoid using other cars.

[@Ikcatcher]

Underground still has better car customization than newer NFS games just because of how many options you had

[@RKDxNT3000]

For interchangability, absolutely. For style? Absolutely no way.

[@YashaAstora]

Yes but every car in UG ends up looking like a godawful ricemobile. At least the modern ones let you keep your car clean and mean.

I think pro street has the best customization

[@RogueBeatsARG]

@@YashaAstora for the time was good looking, when the stance trend ends you will look at the modern nfs cars saying "Fucking retarded cars with the wheels all messed up"

[@xdbetyar]

@@RogueBeatsARG no? Craig said that even in 2001 the cars were considred ugly

[@mayteexxis]

I never knew about the AI scaling upgrades to you until now. Event 95 was one hell of a ride.

[@SFH_Jenkins]

I love Underground. It was THE thing that brought me in the car community with tuning and al that. This game started it all for my life. It sounds fucking ridiculous, but I want to become a car mechanic since I'm three years old. I completed this game around 15 times and I can do it again. After Underground came U2, Most Wanted and then my favorite Need for Speed ever: ProStreet (I skipped Carbon because my PC didnt want to run this game and i was used to play with a keyboard) Seriously, I think Underground 1, 2 and ProStreet are so good, that Most Wanted 2005 isn't even in my top 3 NFS-Games. Number 1 is ProStreet Number 2 are both Underground titles Number 3 is 2015 and then at Number 4 is Most Wanted Yes, I'm wierd, I know.

[@deadmoroz14]

I'd say that ProStreet aged better than any other Black Box made NFS. I see an increase in its popularity recently. (Or it's just a youtube's recommendations rabbit hole).

[@VeritronX]

You should try out forza horizon if you can, all of them have demo's with the last two also being on pc.

[@SFH_Jenkins]

@@VeritronX I have Horizon 3 and 4 on PC and I play both a lot. But in this comment I was talking specifically about need for speed.

[@Mr_SpiritmaN]

Underground was the first game I've ever played when my father bought himself a pc. I still remember playing it with him after work. So, last year I decided to revisit several of my favourite childhood games and nfs, unfortunately, left a sour taste in my mouth. Though the nostalgia was through the roof, I couldn't finish it. Mostly because of reasons you provided in the video. Thank you for the great vid, by the way!

[@xan1242]

Nice, you used my widescreen fix on HP2 :D

[@Kaceydotme]

thanks for making it! preservation ftw

[@mobymobymobymoby]

I love when youtube sends me to a really good channel like this. Great videos Kacey, I instantly subbed!

[@Paragleiber]

Nice video, although I personally don't agree with the main message and regarding the handling model. For me the game is still a lot of fun to play even today, exactly because the handling model is so good. Yes, it's not exactly the same one as in the sequels (and all of the sequels are also different from each other) but I think the U1 handling is very good and I even prefer it over the U2 one. And it's definitely way better for me than any NFS handling that came after Carbon, not just from memory but also when revisiting it in 2020. ProStreet is where the NFS handling became bad for me and it never really recovered.

[@TheStrongestBaka]

I've replayed this game just a few months ago (thanks, quarantine) and mostly had fun with it. Things that weren't fun are: 1) drift races: not fun in general, too hard on most cars and literally making my wrist hurt, i'd just remove these; 2) low weight of cars: the shortcut from 15:20 is too good not to take yet there's a chance to be turned upside down if you do; 3) the Terminal circuit: honestly, i don't even remember how hard level #95 because afterwards the game spams Terminal circuit at you, and those were the races i got stuck at.

[@licota11]

That being said, the one reason the OG Underground is still the only NFS I've replayed in full comes down to progression and track design. Underground is about racing and racing only, except for the cars which I still love to customize as tacky as they are. Part of the reason I loved NFS Heat despite its flaws was the track design felt like the best to me since Underground.

[@gamergod9182]

The problem with the difficulty at the end and why downgrading makes such a huge difference is because of bad coding and nothing more. The player's car has a limited top speed, so whether you put +1 or +3 package on doesn't actually change anything for you. But the AI doesn't have those limits, so if they detect a +3 upgrade, they just get a flat speed modifier and become completely uncatchable. You don't have to put the entire car back to stock. If you want to keep things a challenge, taking off Nitrous is more than enough to rein in the AI. Despite being a limited ressource it still counts as a flat top-speed upgrade.

[@SanchezS1998]

I’ve beat #95: KKR legit, but damn, does it grind my gears EVERY SINGLE TIME.

[@dudeistpriestman]

The music at around the 2 minute mark....I can't remember if its from mass effect nightclubs, or meet'n'fuck games. This is a weird spot to be in.

[@Kaceydotme]

NFS4 High Stakes but was reused for ME2.

[@dudeistpriestman]

@@Kaceydotme oh no shit? the more you know~*

[@strike9716]

16:22 Those cars just went into warp speed lol.

[@nc2827]

Great video man, enjoyed the whole thing. Keep it up you will be big.

[@rmohammadwasiur]

The flaws might be due to the time constraints by EA. They just want to make money after all.

[@limpetarch98k]

When you are in a rubberbanding tournament and your opponents are: - Earl - Kurt - Tom

[@stz03]

Thank you for explaining why it was nearly impossible to beat this game. I definitely remember just giving up and moving on to another game. But even if I did get to the end almost 2 decades ago, it seems like it would not have meant much at all.

[@nyarlaaa]

Does anyone know what music that's from at 13:17? I remember it from my childhood but can't put my finger on it

[@timuriskakov623]

Did you find it?

[@nyarlaaa]

@@timuriskakov623 Not yet, I was thinking Rallisport Challenge but it doesn't seem to be either of the OSTs

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I definitely disagree about Goldeneye and Sonic Adventure, both games are amazing and I absolutely love them. Sonic Adventure is partially down to nostalgia but I didn’t play Goldeneye until a couple years ago, I love that game and I think it’s great, but it is true that it’s much better in 60fps via emulation.

[@Kaceydotme]

I do also love Sonic Adventure, but it's just kinda silly to insinuate that either have aged as well as your memories of them.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

@@Kaceydotme Personally I think Goldeneye has aged pretty great in gameplay and soundtrack and I love the graphics but I do agree everything else has aged (even graphics), but it’s definitely not bad enough to make it not worth playing. It’s just retro, to enjoy it most you need to be in the right mindset to accept that it’s different to what you’re used to. Sonic Adventure on the other hand I think is completely misunderstood, the graphics (especially in the non-DX version) are better than any future Sonic game in some ways, (although with less polygons and worse textures) and the story is really good, although let down by the dialogue and atrocious animations. The gameplay for Sonic is probably the best in the 3D franchise, he feels perfect and the series never matched it again, although it is let down by severe *JANK* in a few places and some glitchy collision, and for the other characters it’s all okay. I do think the other characters are worse to play, but unlike Unleashed and Adventure 2, Sonic has way more gameplay time than the others which helps a lot. I think the game is great but it is true that to enjoy it the most you need to be in the right mood; you need to be able to laugh at the terrible dialogue and atrocious animations and tolerate dying a few too many times in a couple of the later levels. It’s definitely not the best game ever but it’s a lot better than most people say and going back to it really isn’t that bad.

[@justin188541]

Can we talk about that soundtrack? Year's after my OG X-Box died and that is what I played this on, I *still* can't purge that Asian Dub Foundation atrocity "Fortress Europe" from my brain! That screaming woman won't leave me alone!

[@MrPoeGhost]

I played NFSU for the first time a couple years back, and having to return my car to stock just to win a race really turned me off. Also, GoldenEye's still a fun time, fite me.

[@riceball52]

Welp, I bought the game recently, and I have absolutely no regrets, even though the rubber banding was pretty bad it didn’t stop me from having fun

[@lmttn]

Oh god, Underground 1's AI. I honestly thought Most Wanted's was cheaper but NFSU had some real bullshit moments

[@OnionChoppingNinja]

Can never be as bad as Carbon: Is your competitor driving a Corvette? yes Are you driving a Corvette? No You already lost the race before it even started.

[@testdrivefan1]

@@OnionChoppingNinja When a crew challenges you in a race, you can't decline unless you want to lose your territory, and what do you know? They have a Corvette, only beatable with another Corvette or if you're skilled enough, a Viper. Any other car will be useless.

[@cattycyoutube]

​@@OnionChoppingNinja Playing Tuners against Corvettes in Speedtrap = Hardcore mode

[@ghostdavid4838]

@@OnionChoppingNinja The Corvette and Viper were so op in Carbon

[@lucastekkan]

@@OnionChoppingNinja fuckkk, I remember the same thing hapening to me back in the day, but with a viper. Good times

[@jokerzwild00]

NFS brought a lot of interesting things to the genre and the aesthetic was cool back then (hey, I liked Fast&Furious as much as the next 20 year old in 2001), but one thing that it started which I can't stand is drifting. Looks cool in real life, but I don't like it in videogames and I especially hate being forced to do it. I don't mind it as an optional mechanic if it suits the car you're driving, but whole events dedicated to it is just not my thing. Usually if I'm playing a game that has an un-skippable drifting event I'll just turn it off or play something else unless it's just a one off tutorial. I love your channel dude, good stuff.

[@Ovog95]

I was replaying this game a few months ago, doing everything on hard. Approximately in the last third as you said, races started to become infuriatingly difficult, and more of an endurance test where I had to drive perfectly for like 4, 5, 6 laps without a single mistake, or the rubberbanding AI would pass me and would be impossible to overtake. I did not finish it, maybe I'll try it later on easy and with downgrading , but damm, it got really hard. This video reminded me with such accuracy of why I loved and hated the game so much.

[@RPGSPiTFirE]

I recently went back and played through the whole game on hard, and I have to say... Yes. Holy shit, yes. KURTS. KILLER. RIDE. It took me like two days to beat that one race, when everything before AND after it only took a few attempts at most. I actually managed to beat it without downgrading my car, but not without looking up guides and hours of cursing and screaming. I can't imagine trying to beat that level as a kid...

[@Gamebit257]

So, a bit of curiosity here. It seems to me that NFSU1 suffers from a weird thing on its physics. The more FPS you have, the more twitchy and sensitive the car handling and reactions are - meaning that Physics are tied to FPS. I've played this game both on a PC and a PS2 emulator right after another, and playing on the PS2, which offers a capped 30/60fps, makes the game much more predictable and playable, where in the PC - every turn the car would just give up and spin. This problem was fixed right after NFSU1, and the PC port of NFSU2 plays exactly as it should. Which means that you could try a PS2 port of NFSU and see if things improve.

[@polaski421]

not a new concept tbh, gta games at the time also had physics tied to FPS, in vice city, cars would be slower if you had the frame limiter off, in san andreas you would swim slower if frame limiter was off, minor stuff like the sirens being harder to enable on police cars and the likes with frame limiter off, etc. etc.

[@Gamebit257]

@@polaski421 Yes indeed. Another game that seems to have some issues with this is Juiced - a NFSU cousin so-to-speak. On the PS2, it feels just fine the handling when mapped to the keyboard (talking emulation here), but on the PC, the handling is way more reactive and intensified. Fortunately the game itself has a Steering Sensitivity option, which was set to half. Reducing it makes it close to the emulation.

[@Gamebit257]

@@TheCassla Beautiful, heh

[@DSL_Returns]

Very happy you showed a glimpse of Tokyo Xtreme Racer in this as well. Subbed!

[@Starfire_Storm]

This game is a hard victim of Nostalgia, while Nostalgia ends up ruining absolutely everything, it impacts some things more than others. I actually had some good memories of this game and I remember enjoying it more than UG2, then I replayed every single NFS game and I absolutely hated it, it fell to the absolute bottom of my list of NFS games I've played, just ahead of the nightmare that is 2015. This Nostalgia also affects UG2 and MW'05 in a negative way, while personally I didn't had much fun playing them as a teenager, most people remember them as being the greatest thing that has ever existed, and while they're very solid games, they're not even remotely as good as people make them out to be, personally, NFS Heat is better than those 2 games in every single possible way, yet people still cling to the pedestal they set up of those 2 games. People say all the time that they want an UG3 or an actual sequel to the MW'05 game (I actually really liked MW'12 and I like it more than the '05 game, but that's just me), but if they actually did that, the game could be better in every single possible way than it's predecessor, and the fanboys would still whine and moan about how it isn't as good even though it blows them out of the water. The prime example as to why not having Nostalgia for a game is a good thing is ProStreet, it was absolutely hated and loathed in the late 2000's, but then, people started to revisit the game and started to think "maybe this is actually a great game", which it is, and now people see it as the great game it is. Something similar is happening recently to MW'12, originally hated just because it was called Most Wanted and wasn't the carbon copy of MW'05 the fanboys wanted, more recently people are starting to realise that it's actually a great game in it's own right.

[@shira_yone]

One thing I really love from the Blackbox era that's still haven't been topped by the newer titles is the handling physics. I agree with you that Heat is very good overall than any old NFS games, but sometimes one can wonder if they can cherry pick the best Blackbox have offered and put it in a single game (that would've been NFS 2015 if the physics wasn't a disaster imo). For me Heat is a jack of all trades master of none (which isn't bad, just underwhelming) and felt unfinished (now we know why). I just hope (and I know different people want different things) one day there'll be an NFS game with physics reminiscent of Carbon, the oozing atmosphere and passion of Pro Street, intense pursuits where police use strategies and chases you in a crowd like MW, maybe bring back all the variety of events again (I like highway battle from Undercover and canyon duel from Carbon), this isn't Blackbox but perhaps we can have MW12 online experience as well? And lastly the deep tuning from NFSU2 (plus all the stuff from the new games!), all of this in one game. I'm not really all that nostalgic because I play these games plenty in recent times. I'm just commenting because I thought about what you said of how Heat is better than it's predecessors, and came to the conclusion that yes indeed, Heat is better than it's predecessors when I look at them individually. But collectively, they had aspects that is better than Heat. I'm just rambling and want to get my thoughts out I guess. TL;DR Heat is the best game overall, but not in every single possible way that some of it's predecessors have achieved.

[@castroabuful2468]

you just got everything out of my chest. thanks man.

[@armandgale9731]

The actual problem with MW '12 is that its just Burnout Paradise with licensed cars, plus the fact it was named most wanted, even though it has nothing to do with its story or mechanics. and now there's info popping out that Most Wanted 2 was a thing and it was scrapped due to time restraint because fuck EA

[@Starfire_Storm]

@@shira_yone Of course, if you pick and choose the best parts of the '03 - '08 era of NFS, you can make a much better game than Heat, no question about it, but as an individual game, Heat is better than all of those games, though I do like Carbon more, but that's just a personal thing. Personally, I would say that I feel some Nostalgia for the original era of NFS ('94 - '02), when there was just fast cars going fast on open roads, maybe that's why I adore Hot Pursuit 2010. I think my ideal NFS would be something like this: 1.- Map with very open roads like HP 2010 2.- The physics of MW'12 or Rivals, but refined for both open roads and city driving (since HP'10 physics would suck on city roads, but they're amazing at open roads) that game for normal races. 3.- Mix drag races from UG games with the Highway battles of Undercover, that could be great. 4.- I don't care much for customization, so either 2015's, Payback's or Heat's customization is more than enough. I don't want lots of variation if 90% of it looks awful, looking at you UG games. 5.- Cops... I dunno, I prefer more the cops on the closed games like HP2 or HP'10 or even Payback's cops. Never was a big fan of open world cops, but maybe Heat's cops would be fine. 6.- Car list... Varied, I don't want the car list to be dominated by JDM cars like the UG games or just Supercars like the original games. I think the games that achieved the best balance were Undercover and ProStreet and maybe Payback. 7.- Canyon duels in the mountanous area of the map, don't now if to use the normal physics of the game or to change them. 8.- Drift events. Depending on the area of the map the event is, the physics would wither be more HP'10 like or more MW'12/Rivals like. 9.- Progression. MW'05 progression is fine. That's what I think, but I do admit I'm a bit of a strange guy in the NFS fandom

[@Starfire_Storm]

@@armandgale9731 Burnout Paradise is a fantastic game, so MW'12 is also brilliant. I can guarantee that if it wasn't called Most Wanted, people would see it more fondly, because it's a great game.

[@jangelelcangry]

NGL, Underground's Handling feels better than 2 IMO.

[@MGR99]

I agree with the stuff he said about the games flaws, but recommending you to not play it? Nah man, this games difficulty and handling + that music makes it an experience unlike any other NFS game. I loved how intense some of those races got, if you made one mistake you might as well restart, but god did it feel good when you won.

[@TheBig451]

Those Lostprophets vinyl sure didn't age well...

[@rodracer4567]

I've played both UG1 and UG2 before playing Hot Pursuit 2, and I simply see no reason to touch either Underground game ever again. HP2 is too much fun

[@ianism3]

I played HP2 first, but otherwise same

[@Starfire_Storm]

Well, personally both UG games are not as good as every NFS game that came before except the original one, that one... isn't that good.

[@caraandmalik2108]

UG games are good there's not trash,

[@rodracer4567]

@@caraandmalik2108 I never said the Underground games were trash. Just not as fun as Hot Pursuit 2.

[@caraandmalik2108]

@@rodracer4567 but there better than NFS Heat.

[@lilwillio6779]

This was the first video I watched from this channel, great work dude!

[@ElisaTuscani27]

Never had a problem with that race regarding kurts rx7.

[@Antilli]

I still boot up Underground from time to time and I still love how it plays.

[@benke0]

I don't think it's that bad, I enjoyed first Underground more than Underground 2 and while the game it's really unfair on hard, I was able to beat it 2 times fully on hard.

[@s.baldrick3807]

IMO UG1 > UG2 in terms of the career, I gave up halfway through UG2 cause I just got bored. Whereas UG1 made me ragequit, lol

[@benke0]

@@s.baldrick3807 I never finished Underground 2, I tried a few times, first time I stopped at 50% because I didn't know that you have to buy a SUV, and with my later tries, I just couldn't play it past the 3 stage, because it got boring, driving to race locations was the worst and tuning parts started to look way too bad to even tune a car with high enough star rating. I seriously hate the open world in U2, it's just pointless.

[@s.baldrick3807]

@@benke0 I enjoyed the open world, but driving to race locations did get old pretty quickly.

[@someweeb3650]

I like how you say Underground has the most holywood nitrous, when the nitrous mechanics in underground are basically as realistic as you can get (Decent amount of speed for the tank size, can't refill the tank while driving)

[@HeroManNick132]

NFS Pro Street: Am I joke to you?

[@someweeb3650]

@@HeroManNick132 Prostreet was pretty arcade-y in the sense that you had to dump a whole tank, and would put in multiple tanks. Nitrous injection irl can totally be done by a held button.

[@davimatias4570]

Great review dude! Really looking for a NFSPS or UG2 review.

[@Kaceydotme]

All in due time :)

[@rabitec.]

I can't deny that I also had some severe frustration moments with this game, but I still love it and play it regularly.

[@leftoverlegend6024]

i got stuck on race 95 too, all these years later ive still never beat it.

[@revencorrigan6818]

I am so glad you brought up kurt's killer ride. Nfs underground was one of my favorite childhood games, i actually beat it all the way through once and i have two other accounts still to this day that are stuck on kurt's killer ride. I must have tride that race over 2000 times total and i have only one once and it was completely on accident, i somehow pit maneuvered kurt on the last lap on the shortcut with the cursed jump over the halfpipe thing. Seriously fuck that race!

[@brunoss6969]

Wait, what version of the game did you play? I don't remember having to deal with the problems you mentioned (on pc), I had no problems with the difficulty And when finished the game I could repeat anything without starting from the beginning.

[@Kaceydotme]

I played Xbox for the singleplayer stuff. PC (at least unmodded) also locks you out. I have a theory that the physics and AI in this game are somewhat influenced by framerate but I don't have science behind that.

[@brunoss6969]

@@Kaceydotme The last time I play the game was a long time ago but I'm 90%sure that what I said was true, and I remember that the biggest difficulty I had was against the boss with Nissan 350z by the end of the game.

[@nikki-lx3yf]

@@brunoss6969 i replayed the game on pc a few months ago and it definitely locked me out of underground mode when i finished it

[@JolluxMan]

No joke. I won Event 95 in the first try with Jarrus behind 0.2 seconds. I used a fully upgraded Honda Civic with Engine and Turbo bonus upgrades. Skill with sheer luck is a requisite in Event 95. FR

[@HeroManNick132]

In manual or automatic you did it? Probably automatic.

[@nikobellic3830]

21:38 Car did a tre flip

[@wolfodonnel7215]

Too bad it landed primo

[@zues2011]

Niko it would be an honor to go bowling with you

[@nikobellic3830]

zues 2011 Not during this time

[@Revidr-yt3pi]

I replayed underground a month back and I really enjoyed it. Finished it on hard in a week with no real issues

[@MilesFox92]

Everytime someone can't complete Event 95 without removing upgrades I feel like some kind of pro because many years ago I completed it with all my upgrades on MX-5 (never knew that making your car stock makes your opponents easier). Surely it took a lot of attempts, but it worked

[@C.A.P.F.]

Every few years I play the game on hard with a (fully upgraded) VW Golf. And yeah, the longer races tend to be frustrating... but 7 hours?! Holy cow that's insane! I would say 1,5-3 hours are realistic timeframes to get those marathon-races done.

[@TheHondaTuner]

Wasted Effort? Some do it for the money, for others its about the RESPECT XD

[@luisvila918]

The NFS III HP music on this video about a rice fest is pure heresy.