Anybody who’s been a gamer for any length of time can still remember the day they got behind the wheel of their first Ferrari. The wind digitally whipping through their hair, and their girly by their side as they cruised by the beach to the sounds of Splash Wave or Magical Sound Shower (nobody picked the other one). Everybody remembers OutRun.
“We were somewhere around Bairstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs took hold”.
Ever since that day, we’ve been craving a proper sequel. There have been sorta-sequels, like Turbo OutRun and OutRunners, but the longing for a true sequel has grown, but still we waited in vain.
The wait is over. Most of us have considerably less hair than we had in 1986, but our on-screen persona remains just as we remember him. So, what about the rest of the game? Same as it ever was, or have things changed to keep up with the Schumachers?
Yes, you can cry.
Seeing the red Ferrari streaking around corners and down hills is enough to bring a lump to the throat of any grown man, but there’s much more to it than that. You’ve got a choice of four Ferraris now, for a start, and one of them is yellow! And so will you be after a couple of plays with the trusty red car, and you realise you’re not up to the challenge and you have to use the yellow car, which is better suited for beginners. You see, there’s a new drifting mechanism, which completely changes the way the game plays.
It’s…it’s….YELLOW! What have they done?
At first you’re thinking, “Ugh!”, and wondering why they messed with such a timeless formula. After a couple of plays though, you get used to the system and in fact it becomes an essential gameplay element. Learning how to use it properly is a key to beating the game. Best of all, stamping on the brake pedal and flinging your car around the corner is FUN!
There are new gameplay modes too, such as Heart Attack. In keeping with the change of times, your girlfriend is much more demanding than she was in the ‘80s, and now insists that you impress her with more than the scenery. So, you find yourself having to pass as many cars as possible in a short space of time, or drifting as insanely as possible, in order to win ‘hearts’ from your bird. The more you get, the better your grade. Much as you’ll love Original OutRun mode, you’ll find yourself playing the other types just as much.
No, no, noooo… that’s not right at all!
I can honestly say that this was the most excited I’ve been about a new arcade game in over a decade, and I was desperately hoping that I wouldn’t walk away crushed by disappointment. After two minutes of play-time, I knew that wasn’t going to be the case, and it took every ounce of resolve to drag me away from the machine in the end. I was hooked all over again….
PAULEMOZ, August
2004.
RODENT CASH RATING -
Ten tens? All the money in your pocket. It’s worth it.
"Screech!"
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