Need for Speed: Underground (also known as NFSU or Need for Speed Underground J-Tune in Japan) is the seventh installment in the Need for Speed series, and was developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts in 2003. Its the first game in the series to use the THX technology.

Underground completely rebooted the franchise, ignoring the previous Need for Speed games which featured sports cars and exotics. It was the first game in the series to offer a career mode featuring a storyline, and a garage mode that allowed players to fully customize their cars with a large variety of brand-name performance and visual upgrades. All races take place in a generic city at night called Olympic City, though the city bears some resemblance to New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Rather than exotic cars, Underground featured vehicles associated with the import scene. Underground was commercially successful, and inspired a sequel.

Plot

The player starts straight into the action, at a circuit race driving a uniquely styled Acura Integra Type R with a Mantis wide body kit, easily winning over his opponents...only to be woken up by Samantha from his daydreaming.

Need for Speed: Underground 2 (NFSU2 or NFSUG2) is a cross-platform racing video game and the eighth installment in the popular Need for Speed driving game series published and developed by Electronic Arts. Released in 2004, it is the direct sequel to Need for Speed: Underground, and is part of the Need for Speed series, available on Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and Mobile phones. Like its predecessor, it was also commercially successful, and sold eleven million copies worldwide.

The game entails tuning cars for street races, resuming the Need for Speed: Underground storyline. Need for Speed: Underground 2 provides several new features, such as a broader customization, new methods of selecting races, the "explore" mode (just driving around freely, like the Midnight Club series, in a large city known as "Bayview"). The City Center was based on Philadelphia, Beacon Hill was based on Beverly Hills and Coal Harbor was based on Camden, New Jersey, and Bayview as a whole is a microcosm of the west coast of the United States. Underground 2 also introduces several SUVs, which could be customized as extensively as other Underground 2 vehicles and used to race against other SUV racers. Brooke Burke is the voice of Rachel Teller, the person who guides the player throughout the game.

Need for Speed, also known by its initials NFS, is a racing video game franchise published by Electronic Arts and developed by several studios including EA Black Box, Criterion Games and Ghost Games.

The series released its first title, The Need for Speed in 1994. The title comes from a famous quote from the 1986 film Top Gun. All installments of the series consist of racing cars on various tracks, with several titles including police pursuits in races. Since Need for Speed: High Stakes, the series has also integrated car body customization into gameplay.

Need for Speed is the most successful racing video game series in the world, and one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. Over 150 million copies of games in the series have been sold to date.

In June 2012, following Black Box's restructuring, British developer Criterion Games announced that it was in full control of the Need for Speed franchise. However, in August 2013, Swedish and British developers Ghost Games, Ghost Games UK and Criterion Games joined forces for the foreseeable future of the Need for Speed series. At the time, Ghost Games UK staff consisted of 80% of former Criterion Games employees.

Need for Speed is a racing video game franchise. It's also a phrase showing a desire to go fast, usually in a vehicle, such as a race car; popularized in the 1986 film Top Gun. It may also refer to:

Need for Speed is an open world racing video game developed by Ghost Games and published by Electronic Arts, released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2015, and to be released for Microsoft Windows in 2016. It is the twenty-second installment in the long-running Need for Speed series, and was a full reboot of the franchise. It marks the series' second eighth generation installment, and was the first Need for Speed title to only be on eighth generation hardware. It marks the franchise's first return to the import scene and tuner culture focus since the release of 2010's Need for Speed: World.

Gameplay

The first gameplay footage of the pre-alpha build for Need for Speed was revealed at EA's press conference at E3 on June 15, 2015. The E3 presentation shows a part of the story, followed by the customization of a Subaru BRZ which showed the new and improved customization system, and the 'action camera' which was later to revealed to be one of the five different camera angles. There are five different gameplay types: Speed, Style, Crew, Build, and Outlaw where players can earn points for engaging in to progress in the game through five overlapping storylines. Need for Speed takes place in the fictional city of Ventura Bay and its surroundings which is based on Los Angeles.

Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed, later released in Japan as Road & Track Presents: Over Drivin', is a 1994 racing video game first released on the 3DO and then ported over to DOS, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It is the first installment released in the Need for Speed series. The premise of the game involves racing in sport cars, including several exotic models and Japanese imports.

The game was noted for its realism and audio and video commentaries. Electronic Arts teamed up with automotive magazine Road & Track to match vehicle behavior, including the mimicking of the sounds made by the vehicles' gear control levers. The game also contained precise vehicle data with spoken commentary, several "magazine style" images of each car interior and exterior and even short video clips highlighting the vehicles set to music.

Gameplay

The game featured both closed circuits and three point-to-point tracks, each divided into three stages. For the latter, traffic vehicles appear in races. Police pursuits are also a key gameplay mechanic, in which the player could be ticketed or arrested after a police car succeeded in catching up with the player. Players are arrested if he/she received a third police ticket, while the Sega Saturn version only required two tickets for the player to be arrested. Completing the tournaments (or entering a cheat) unlocks the "rally" mode, where car dynamics are changed to make for a faster 'arcade' experience, as well as the "Warrior PTO E/2", a fictional jet-powered sports car.