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Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights Review for the Nintendo DS (NDS)

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights Review for the Nintendo DS (NDS)

Burn Some Dust, Eat My Rubber

Racing is just racing right? Think again. When it comes to fast cars, there’s a world of difference between the sanctioned family fun of a NASCAR event and illicit underground street racing. For those who are enamored with the custom modded rides, busty ladies, status-driven egos, and urban landscapes of the latter, Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights offers an unhinged, high octane experience that aims to please.

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights screenshot

Though street racing culture may not be your cup of tea, it’s hard to deny a good racing game when you see one. If you look beneath the glitzy surface – HIN features menus laden with scantily clad models and pumping electronic music – the game engine is solid enough to give car enthusiasts what they desire. In HIN, players will take to the streets to compete in a variety of racing challenges across four major cities as they work their way through 10 different race leagues. In career mode you’ll start out as a rookie, and the road to the ranks of the racing elite is a long and arduous one. Progressing from one league to the next requires meeting a certain number of mission objectives in each. Whether it’s a matter of getting a perfect lap, breaking a speed barrier, winning a bet, finishing first place, spooking your opponents, or getting a high drift score, each goal is challenging and will frequently require patience and skill to persevere.

HIN introduces a unique drift mechanic that’s absolutely essential to master if you want to continue progressing through the game beyond the first few leagues. Drifting around corners is helpful during normal race as it allows you to regain spent nitro boosts. In drift-specific races, chaining numerous drifts is insanely tricky, yet completely rewarding when you pull it off. With some practice, it’s possible to drift through large portions of some of the twistier tracks for mega points. Controlling your racer is about as basic as it gets. The d-pad handles turns, there’s one face button for gas, another for brakes, and the right shoulder button fires up the nitro. Touch controls are limited to menu selections, and the touch screen mainly serves as a map. You can trigger the nitro with the stylus instead, or zoom the map in and out, but the touch screen is best left alone when in the thick of the action.

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights screenshot

Steering controls are a bit stiff at first, due in part to the poor steering capabilities of your early race machines. This improves as you pick up new cars to race. Early on, you’ll be plowing into guardrails and wiping-out at regular intervals. Unfortunately, you’ll often come to a near-dead stop when running into the sidelines, rather than exploding in a fiery mess, or flying end-over-end through the air. Adding vehicle damage would have been a nice touch, or at least a more realistic crash mechanic.

Races take place on many winding tracks across a handful of city locales including London, Rome, San Francisco, and Tokyo. The cityscape and scenery in each location is authentic. The graphics look sharp, although it doesn’t matter much when you get right down to it, because the scenery blows by at high speed once things get fired-up. Still, when you have a free moment to peek up on straight-aways it does look nice. Most of your attention will be focused on nailing the competition, as opponents are no walk in the park.

Completing objectives will unlock new cars, and it’s possible to get behind the wheel of some pretty awesome speed machines. A slew of major brand automakers are included: Audi, BMW, Dodge, Ford, GM, Holden, Honda, Hyundai, Lotus, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Plymouth, Renault, Subaru, Toyota, Lexus, TVR, Vauxhall, and VW.

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights screenshot

As the challenge increases, a straight-up ride won’t be enough to bury the competition. That’s when it’s time to hit the garage for some custom modifications. HIN’s simple interface allows for a wide range of combinations without making things too overwhelming for new players. In the garage screen, you can hand pick your car’s color, draw a logo decal, change its appearance, or beef up your engine, all by using the touch screen. Each car can be pimped out with different hoods, front and rear bumpers, or side skirts. Under the hood, you can increase your nitro refresh rate, boost engine power, and increase speed or acceleration. Paint jobs, accessories, and mods don’t come cheap, and you’ll have to win plenty of races to rack up some necessary dough.

For those who love to gamble, betting a portion of your winnings against individual opponents is a surefire way to make some fast money or end up in the poor house. Pink slip races were promised, though they don’t seem to be available in the DS version. Unlike most of the console versions of the title, the DS version does not include online play. Instead, you can connect wirelessly with up to three other players and test your mettle in head-to-head competition.

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights screenshot

Though fancy, unnecessarily fast cars, curvy maidens, and hip DJs will no-doubt be appealing to the majority of male gamers, HIN would do just as fine if it stuck to the racing without pandering to the testosterone poisoned masses. It’s an excellent racing experience beneath the shallow exterior, with plenty of unlockables and lots of crazy tracks to burn up.

Features:

  • Real-Life HIN Racing Experience – Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights combines an intense, addictive racing experience with the culture of the real-life HIN tour, the nation’s largest lifestyle custom car show.
  • Drift/powersliding races – perfect your skills in multi-car drifting races.
  • Unmatched Customization – be who you want to be – with 90 digitally scanned cars and over 250 aftermarket mods and numerous combinations of character features, players can treat themselves to the ultimate car and driver customization

  • Rating out of 5 Rating Description

    3.9

    Graphics
    Lots of nice detail that blows by you at high speeds. Realistic looking cars.

    3.6

    Control
    Tough to handle at times, yet about what you would expect if you’ve played a racing game before.

    3.5

    Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
    Lots of electronic music, if that’s your thing, a few engine sounds, and that’s about it.

    3.7

    Play Value
    Some challenges are just that, extremely challenging. Overall, there’s a lot to unlock and more than enough to keep you busy here for a long time.

    3.8

    Overall Rating Good
    Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
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