Burnout Legends

"Racing mayhem in your hands!"

Burnout 3: Takedown for the PS2 and X-Box was considered by many to be one of the greatest “racing” games ever. I say “racing” because the highlight of the game was its impressive crashes where the game would slow down and give you an up-close view of the carnage you inflicted. Burnout Legends for the PSP is sort of a greatest hits collection of the Burnout series, providing tracks, cars and modes from the three games into one package. What results is a perfect fix for portable racing mayhem.

To start off with the bad points first (there aren't many), the frame rate in Burnout Legends is okay most of the time. But when there's too much action on the screen at once, there is a significant slowdown in gameplay. It doesn't occur for more than a few seconds though, usually because someone will get taken out and the frame rate returns to normal. Also a negative point is the lack of car details when playing. You won't know how fast the car is until you actually use it. Finally, there is the car graphics, which is a little too shiny for my liking at least.

However, these bad points hardly offset the greatness that is this game. The tracks in the game are greatly detailed and large in number. You can also choose to play them forward and in reverse. Also large in number are the various cars available in the game. They are locked in five separate classes: Compact, Muscle, Coupe, Sport and Super, with the speeds increasing from Compact to Super. In the World Tour mode, events are locked according to these classes. Of course, Electronic Arts didn't forget to include special vehicles that can be unlocked and used in Single Event mode. These cars have their own class: Race Special.

The modes in this game are plentiful and include Race, Time Trial, Pursuit, Road Rage and Crash events. You'll find further events in World Tour such as Grand Prix and Eliminator. It's a shame Eliminator isn't in the Single Event mode. Regardless, the sheer number of events found in World Tour mode (175 in total) will provide you with hours of exhilarating gameplay.

And once you complete the single player portion of the game, there's always the multiplayer aspect. Electronic Arts has stepped it up a notch in this area, providing not only collectible cars but the game-sharing ability as well. For the uninformed, the latter allows a person with a copy of the game to send a demo to a person without the game. The demo then can be used to play multiplayer or single player matches. The collectible cars are obtained through Collector Challenge mode in multiplayer. Each Burnout Legends UMD contains a unique Collector car for each of the five classes. Beating an opponent in Collector Challenge allows you to win your opponent's Collector car. But don't worry if you lose, you don't lose your car. Your opponent simply gains it.

There are two pre-existing control types in this game: Type A and Type B. Type A is for Playstation 2 players who are used to using the X button to accelerate. Type B is for X-box players who are used to using the right trigger to accelerate. So don't worry about adjusting to the PS2-friendly PSP if you're an X-box fan. The sound in this game is great. Crashes sound destructive while the traffic is honking their horn at the carnage. All EA PSP games come with a unique soundtrack, and the Burnout Legends soundtrack is a collection of enjoyable Punk Pop hits to accompany your racing.

In the end, Burnout Legends is one of the best PSP games to date. It has almost everything a gamer could want in a racing game: great graphics, great gameplay (both single and multiplayer) and great sounds. If you have a PSP, you should have Burnout Legends in your collection. And if you don't, Burnout Legends is a good reason to buy one.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/05