Posted by boyo on Oct 27, 2010 16:58 (Oct 27, 2010 16:58)
The open road, the sun in your hair, and the hot lady in the passenger seat… it can only mean one thing. Outrun is back and if Sega mess this one up they’ll have enough hate-mail to make Mick Hucknall jealous. Richie Harkness takes a break from poison letter writing to travel coast to coast.
Well, as much as I respect the original Outrun I’ve never been a fan of that period of Sega’s history. Although the best of the bunch, Outrun was one of four or five desperately shallow but pretty looking Sega titles. Along with games like Afterburner and Space Harrier, and I found that once you’d enjoyed the fabulous music and Summery atmosphere you were left with very little indeed.
So I came to Outrun 2006 with fewer expectations than most of you, but oh my… Sega have delivered something special this time – this game will evoke the sort of tingly feelings that you never thought the PS2 would be capable of. You see, whilst Sony’s baby has played host to many great games, I’ve often felt that most were a little too clinical. Even something as beautiful as Shadow Of The Colossus can seem just a tad too crafted and for all their bravado, the GTA series of games achieved mass appeal with the cold, calculating efficiency of a mortician.
However, slapping Outrun into your PS2 makes the whole machine come alive in the same way that Crazy Taxi did for Sega’s short-lived Dreamcast. Radiating enough brightness to power a small city, even Outrun 2006’s menus seem to sparkle and the music screams ‘attract mode’ at you and makes you instinctively want to part with all your loose change.
So how does it play? Well, the options for the single player include the ‘Coast 2 Coast mode’, ‘the heart attack challenge’ and the ‘Outrun’. There’s also a full conversion of the Outrun SP arcade game thrown in. What this boils down to is either a string of races or a series of enjoyable driving challenges.
Starting with the races is your best bet and thankfully Sega pulls you in gently. The initial races are exhilarating, with Outrun 2006 strutting its stuff with the best sensation of speed you’ve ever seen in a non-futuristic racing game and handling so deliciously arcadey that you’d swear the game was the love child of Bomb Jack and Ms Pacman (and it’s possible, she’s a minx, you know).
Realism isn’t the order of the day, thankfully. Instead prepare for outrageous power slides that last for ages and tracks with enough S-bends to show them off all day. Even hairpin bends, traditionally Gran Turismo’s very own agents of suffering, can be taken at ridiculous speeds ensuring that the action never lets up for a second. In fact, for the whole time you play the game it’s as if Sega are personally massaging your shoulders and saying ‘go on, have some fun, you’ve earned it’. There’s no ‘International A licenses’ and car modifications to worry about here, just a bunch of rivals and whole town of traffic to weave through.
Outrun 2006’s coin-op roots do eventually tell and you’ll soon realise that this game is best spent in Sega’s traditional ‘pick up and play style’ of ten minute bursts. There’s a sweet difficulty curve and some truly addictive races to compete in. Additional depth is provided by the multiplayer and heart attack modes. The latter of these provides a series of challenges where your demanding passenger asks you to impress her by performing tasks as diverse as knocking over cones and dribbling a ball with your car. Getting those elusive ‘AAA’ ratings from her soon becomes a very addictive and enjoyable diversion from the main game.
Depth is provided by the shopping mode that lets you buy new cars, races and backing music using miles. Yes, in this game miles mean prizes and just racing is all you need to do to unlock everything from the shop. If this was a Sony game you’d have to perform a flawless lap around a real race circuit to earn enhancements. Not so here, win or lose you still rack up rewards. I love you for this Sega.
Special mention goes to the graphics in this game. Along with Soul Calibur 3 and Shadow Of The Colossus, Outrun 2006 shows why this generation of consoles shouldn’t be put to bed yet. Developers are clearly now just finding out how to get the most out of the machine and Outrun 2006 is jaw-droppingly beautiful on the PS2. The cars are gorgeously sleek and the scenery shifts around at an alarmingly fast rates.
Fans of the original game will be relieved to know that in-game tunes ‘Magical Sound Shower’ and the like are here in their original and remixed glory. And, whilst extra tunes can be unlocked, sometimes it’s nice to just turn them down and listen to the playful roar of your big, red Testie.
Outrun 2006 may not have much appeal to Gran Turismo fiends but that’s because a little piece of their souls died when they chased after all those licenses. Everyone else is guaranteed to have a blast with Sega’s first big hit of the summer.
This is an ace game - still play it now, but best with a Steering Wheel. Played the original XBOX version dual screen at Retrovision V back in 2005 for the first time - is a superb experience.
Dec 9, 2010 16:48:51 (
Dec 9, 2010 16:48
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