Burnout Legends

Written by Adam Woolcott  on September 30, 2005

Review: Just as long as you don't recreate Road Rage on real streets, it's all good.

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What Burnout Legends does perfectly is build on the addictive quality the franchise is famous for. Many of the events are designed for quick fixes, which is perfect for a portable format. Though the game is very heavy on Crash events Ц of the 175 total events in World Tour, 100 of them are of the Crash variety Ц there's still a lot going on to break up any possible monotony that could come around with so many things to participate in. Each one is different enough to break up the progression Ц while the races are usually pretty serious affairs with tough opponent cars, Road Rage features looser physics making it far easier to get takedowns, a wise idea considering the whole idea of Road Rage is to take out as many opponents as possible before totaling your own ride. Though the Eliminator event of Legends isn't quite as intense as in Revenge, since it's dictated by laps instead of knocking the last place car out every 30 seconds, it's still great. Only Pursuit really disappoints Ц it wasn't exactly great in Point of Impact, and though it's reworked to require a takedown, it's not always much fun, and if you're really good, they can last mere seconds. Seriously, Pursuit is as simple as intentionally crashing when your target is in range, get an aftertouch takedown which wipes their health down to practically nothing, and just give 'em one good ram into a wall...and it's over. It's nice to see it return, but it could and should have been done much better.

Legends is one of those games that translates well to PSP in terms of function Ц every button on the PSP is used, yet it never feels like they've cramped up the game to make up for the lack of the 2nd analog stick and L2/R2 buttons. The game does play well with the nub, though some of the cars can slip and slide far too easily which creates out-of-control scenarios compared to other cars that handle as if they were on rails. It's a little stiff on the aftertouch within Crash events Ц the car sometimes just doesn't quite go the way you want to, though sometimes it's more based on momentum Ц if you're going one direction, it's hard even with impact time to turn around a different way after a brutal crash. Fans of the games can jump right on in and play without getting used to anything, aside from perhaps the smaller buttons and more cramped feel Ц especially Xbox players used to the triggers that all racing games use on that console (not to mention those who use the original Xbox controller that's the size of Rhode Island).

The mistake in looking at Burnout Legends is comparing it to Revenge. Given that Revenge revamped pretty much everything, Legends can seem old since it's so heavily reliant on Burnout 3. Certainly the courses are all great (even the older ones), but at the same time, Revenge completely revamped the entire concept by introducing alternate routes and whatnot, making these straightfoward, linear courses a bit pedestrian in comparison. Same goes for Crash mode, which seems archaic now after spending so much time with the one in Revenge with such complicated junctions. Looking at Legends as an individual game, however, it's easy to see how amazing a job was done bringing such a massive game to the PSP Ц with all the events to complete and get golds on, you could put 20 hours or so into Legends, something unheard of not just for a racing game not named Forza or Gran Turismo, but for a portable system. Yet at the same time, the game is designed to fit the portable mantra of quick fix entertainment Ц never does Legends require you to spend hours behind the screen wrapped up in some lengthy event, aside from the Grand Prix events, and even those last 10 minutes at the most. This is one of those games that can last you months if you're a casual PSP player Ц not bad for $50. It's still disappointing that so little of the older material was used in any relevant way, but I can't honesty complain about what's not there when what is there happens to be based upon one of 2004's best games Ц and regardless of what's missing and what's not, Burnout Legends is yet another quality title in the books for Criterion.

Visually, Burnout Legends looks really good Ц especially for a portable game Ц but at the same time, doesn't quite keep up with Takedown or Revenge. Unlike, say, Ridge Racer, which was built for PSP directly, Legends obviously was ported over from the console versions, and it shows. Cars look good and the tracks retain all the great environments from before, but the sense of speed is a little slower, especially when you take it off Boost, and then it feels like a drag. It's still very fast, but compared to the console versions, it's a step back. In addition, it can be difficult to see the difference between an opponent car and basic traffic, even with the indicator right there Ц the depth perception is off a bit so you might slam into the wrong car from time to time if you don't have really quick reflexes. A great deal of the special effects are here though, from flying sparks, crazy crashes, and of course, the mayhem of a zillion cars slamming into each other. Which brings up another tolerable issue Ц Crash events can wind up in slowdown hell after a while, when there's dozens of vehicles on the screen at a time. But you know what? Burnout had some really odd visual flaws on the PlayStation 2 when it shipped, and by the time we got to Legends, those problems were all but gone. For a first effort on new hardware, it turned out pretty good, and I'll bet by the next Burnout PSP appearance, it will look even better.

One thing Legends does borrow from Burnout Revenge is its soundtrack. There's no original EA Trax this time around, as roughly 3/4ths of the Revenge tracks return for Legends. Unfortunately some of the better tunes from Revenge have been taken away, so no Maximo Park or Bloc Party for you! Instead, you can get Yellowcard, Junkie XL, Morningwood, The Dead 60's amongst others, for a total of 17 tracks. It's a shame nobody has gotten the message about using custom soundtracks using MP3s put on a memory stick pretty much everywhere, including Legends, which has no such options. Most of the usual sound effects make appearances in Legends, from the sounds of cars slamming into each other, the crush of a vicious crash, engines roaring, and horns beeping as you get close for a near miss bonus. What's weird is the sound you get when you rub against a car on a wall Ц it's like someone recorded one of those squeaking ducks when you start trading paint.