Outrun
The latest version of OutRun came to XBLA and PSN not too long ago. It features the 15 courses that were created for the previous OutRun game (Outrun 2) which was released for the original Xbox.
Now I have to admit, I haven’t played any version of OutRun since the original arcade version (and the emulated version in Shenmue 2). But I always liked it as a fun, old-school, arcade racer.
The concept around the game really makes it feel different from other racers. It’s still just a racing game, you try to pass all your rivals and get to the goal, but it also feels like a fast paced road trip. It’s just you, cruising to your destination, in your Ferrari, with an (arguably) hot blonde in the passenger seat. Each course is made up of 5 stages, when you’re coming up to the end of a stage you’ll get the choice to go left an right which means tons of re-playability for every course.
The demo version itself was pretty limited. It started up with your now famous Crusin’ USA style options. Choose your car (only one Ferrari was available), choose auto or manual transmission, choose your radio station (only one of these were available in the demo as well), then hit the road. (No choose your passenger option, which is sad as I’ve always been a brunette kinda guy)
Once you’re on the road you can switch to your preferred camera style. The usual 3 are available behind the car, the cockpit view, and in front of the car view.
The demo’s main limitation is the time limit, which doesn’t increase as you pass checkpoints. I played through the demo several times and always ended up running out of time around 50% through the second stage. I don’t think it’s possible to get to the 2nd checkpoint in the demo, but it may be.
The full game supports 6 players online, but I don’t really think this game would benefit from online play. There are so many better choices for that.
One thing that stood out for me was a so called “Heart attack mode”. The mode was locked in the demo so I never got to give it a try, but the description was intriguing. It was listed as a mode where you try to fulfill your girlfriend’s requests to earn hearts. (Heart’s generally popup through the regular racing game when you do something she thinks is awesome, the technical details of what gets you a heart escapes me)
I’ve always been a terrible technical racer. Games like Gran Turismo and Forza are almost unplayable to me. But these arcade style racers I really love. (I guess it’s because I can actually beat a race on normal without wrecking my car) But games like this are the fun everyman kind of racing games.
Anyways, it’s a fun arcade racer. There’s not many out there that are this much fun. (Maybe GTI Club on the PSN) So if you a casual arcade racer fan looking for something to play some quick races when you can I’d recommend trying it out. If you’re a hardcore racer who’s already playing GT or Burnout online every week, you might want to just stick with that.
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