Outrun 2

Ah, the Eighties. A time of shoulder pads, side ponytails, Frankie goes Hollywood (Frankie says “Relax!”) and the heyday of arcades.  In this period, one of the best arcade racers out there was OutRun, a racer released by Sega.  OutRun had you zooming across highways and byways with an excitable female passenger in a bright red Ferrari.  The game was fast paced, and provided smooth and quick gameplay for its time and garnered a pretty intense following.  Now, after many years, the sequel is about to be released exclusively on the XBox. While the arcade-style gameplay won’t likely appeal to the hardcore driving simulation crowd looking for the next Gran Turismo or Project Gotham.  However, if you want some classic arcade racing in the spirit of the good ol’ days, then OutRun 2 will have your ticket.

OutRun 2 is set to have several different modes of play.  There is the standard arcade mode, where you have to get to checkpoints throughout the stage before the timer runs out.  There is also a new console exclusive Heart Attack mode, where you not only must complete the race before the timer runs out, but also impress your lady friend by performing the actions that she calls out.  These can range from passing other cars to performing drifts.  If you don’t do these properly than you will receive a low rank at the next checkpoint. There is also a challenge mode, where you must perform tasks like drive through cones or race someone one-on-one.  Like the Heart Attack mode, doing the actions correctly will get you praise from your passenger, while doing them incorrectly will likely get you bludgeoned at the next checkpoint.

One neat addition to the arcade racing formula is the branching paths of each of the stages.  These paths are divided in terms of difficulty; by pulling to the right when the road forks, you’ll continually go down the difficult paths and by going to the left, you’ll go down the easier paths.  This is a great feature that increases the replay value of the game a lot, as you can race the same stage several different ways, be it through deserts or cityscapes or whatever route you choose.

OutRun 2 will also ship with a bevy of online and multiplayer features, ranging from eight person races via XBox Live or a System Link or a Time Attack mode where you can download a ghost car and race against it.

The graphics are fast and smooth, perfect for the arcade style of the game.  The Ferraris are very well detailed, and the backgrounds are vibrant, and the overall look is very polished with absolutely no instances of slowdown.

The music is pretty cheesy, which is okay, since the original had some pretty goofy tunes.  The songs have a real overdone 80’s feel to them, certainly something that fans of the original game (or any number of Sega games, for that matter) will appreciate.

With games like RalliSport Challenge, Project Gotham and <insert favorite XBox racing game here> already on the market, the XBox has a fantastic racing catalog right now.  Now with OutRun 2 getting ready to release, the genre will get an injection of lightning fast arcade action.  Look for it this October.