Reviewed: October 5, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Electronic Arts
Developer
Criterion Games
Released: September 13, 2005
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-4
ESRB: Everyone
9
9
9
9
9.1
Supported Features
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
I’ve been a hardcore Burnout fan ever since Acclaim launched the series back in 2002. Burnout Legends is the series first venture into the handheld realm, and not only is it without a doubt worthy of the Burnout name, it is quite possibly the most fun and addictive racing title currently available for the PSP.
Burnout is a game that is all about speed…high speed…blinding high speed, and with high speed inevitably comes crashes…high speed crashes…devastating crashes…slow motions crashes…crashes that you can control and make even bigger and more devastating.
Burnout Legends continues that grand tradition by combining all of your favorite locations and tracks from the first three Burnout games then completely redesigning the gameplay for handheld gaming while preserving the integrity of the core series.
While featuring locations from the original three, the gameplay is rooted in last year’s Takedown game, even more so than the recently released Revenge game for the big consoles. There is no checking traffic, so you still have to avoid everyone, but the giant world map is back, something I did miss in Revenge.
The World Tour mode of Burnout Legends takes you to all of the best tracks and crash junctions of the past games. I instantly recognized the stuff from Takedown but it took a bit longer for the déjà vu to settle in when racing around the airport tracks and other locales from the first two Burnout games.
World Tour is the place to start if you want to start unlocking cars, tracks, and new events in the main game. World Tour is comprised of several hotspots across the world map, each with multiple challenges that are unlocked as you earn medal in the preceding events. Races come in various flavors including standard Races, Burning Lap, Road Rage, Pursuit, Eliminator, and multi-race Grand Prix events. Of course those famous Crash Events are scattered throughout the World Tour and are just as fun as ever.
Crash Events have also been revamped for Legends, or at least the scoring system has. Instead of intersections full of bonus multipliers the game has become more rooted in the basics, relying on you to create all of the chaos and actually earn those million dollar scores without the 2x and 4x multipliers, and believe me, it can be challenging.
Pursuit Mode brings back the police car and has you chasing down and wrecking into the target car within a certain time limit. In the more advanced levels the target car will have other cars that try to block your path. Take them down to earn boost and help catch the real menace.
Each section of the World Tour has numerous challenges including those famous Signature Takedowns that require you to crash an opponent in a certain location on each track. You could try to do these intentionally, but chances are you can accomplish 60% of these goals through the normal course of the World Tour.
The game is further divided into classes of cars, like trucks, sports car, muscle, etc. Each of these classifications has upwards of a dozen possible gold medals, while the crash events are scattered across the entire world tour and are not class-specific.
The only real noticeable difference to the core gameplay is that the number of racers has been knocked down to four, you and three opponents, so it can be a bit challenging to find Takedown targets. The AI is also quite brutal with little to no rubber banding. If you fall too far behind to soon you may as well restart the race.
Burnout Legends is the perfect handheld game. Crash Events take less than a minute each and races are generally 3-5 minutes unless you get hooked into a three-race Grand Prix. EA has gone the extra mile to make sure there is plenty of exclusive content to entice existing racers to purchase this game, even if they have played the first three.
Legends comes with 5 randomly selected Collectors Cars from a library of 25 and if you want the other 20 you are going to have to play other people via the WiFi challenges to get them. The game also allows you to upload a demo race to another PSP and go head-to-head with only one copy of the game. This is a great marketing tool and should be standard on every game.
And if you can find three friends with PSP’s and copies of the game you can all engage in four-player races, crash events, pursuit and road rage modes. Wireless gameplay is pretty solid. There are some minor framerate issues and some noticeable lag at times but the overall experience is quite rewarding and fun.
Burnout Legends is not without its problems. The game had several places where it just froze up on me, often in the same place. Once particular race was at the airport on race two of a three-race Grand Prix where if I was involved in a wreck with the pillar by the airport parking area the game would lock every time. You can imagine how careful I was driving through there. The game also had a noticeable 1-2 second hiccup when the music changed tracks; very distracting when you are going over 100mph.
The Burnout series has always been on the cutting edge of graphic technology and Burnout Legends is no exception. The game is easily as good looking as the PS2 version of Takedown and in some instances, such as the world map and car selection screens, you’d be hard pressed to see any difference between this and the Xbox version.
The cars may be unlicensed fantasy rides but they sure look sweet, probably more so in the menus than the game, but then again, I play from the bumper view so I only see the other cars. They still break apart in spectacular slow-motion crashes that you can still steer using the after-touch system to steer your wreck and cause more damage. The particle effects, the debris, the sparks, and the fire – you just have to see it to believe that a handheld game could capture all this carnage.
Admittedly, the smaller screen can present some problems, mainly with the view distance when you are going 150+mph, but the designers have snuck in a few subtle tricks like enhanced headlights and taillights that make it easier to spot and avoid traffic.
The soundtrack features the traditional rock, techno, and electronica mixes that fit with the general racing theme. There is a good selection that will hold-up for most of the game and it’s featured with EA’s traditional Trax system. Surprising enough, the default mix actually tunes down the music volume.
Sound effects are good for the most part, but I was disappointed with the lack of boost effect, both audibly and visually. There is no real way to tell you are boosting without looking down at the boost bar and seeing if the flames are receding. The rest of the package includes various engine noises and devastating crash sound effects. Good stuff!
Much like the last game, World Tour is where you will spend the first 30+ hours of your Burnout experience. Races are great when you have longer periods of gaming time and Crash Events are great for pick-up and play gaming during a quick break.
It took me a solid 50+ hours to get gold medals on everything in this game and I still have to seek out others with their own copies so I can get those missing Collectors Cars. This is one of those games that you will carry with you – it’s just that addicting and fun to pop in when the whim strikes.
It’s not often I can wholeheartedly recommend a game for mandatory purchase, especially at full price, but Burnout Legends is one of those games that is just so much fun that you won’t be able to resist. Interestingly enough, Legends shipped the same week as Burnout Revenge and stores around my area were selling two copies of Legends for every Revenge.
Whether you are a fan of the previous games or just want to experience the absolute best in arcade racing in the palm of your hands, Burnout Legends is a game that you won’t be able to stop playing once you start, so grab a copy today and charge up that PSP battery.