Outrun Online Arcade (XBLA)

Well here you go. My review of Outrun Online Arcade also available in all it's PDF glory. It is a bit long but for the less patient among us there is a nice little summary. Hopefully the first of many.

Click here for the full "HD" version

 

Warning: May contain sexism, strong language and words.

For anyone that doesn’t have the patience to read the whole thing here is a summary but please also llok at the PDF cause I took some pretty pictures.

Single player = Excellent

Multiplayer = Flawed matchmaking but ultimately great.

Outrun + Steering Wheel = Excellent arcade experience

R-Type = Rip off.

N.B: Any sexism that may be contained in this review is purely down to being in the 80’s mindset!

Intro:
Originally released in arcades in 1986 Outrun was a firm favourite around the world. Swallowing up children’s coins (mine included) like a Hungry Hungry Hippo in a tiny plastic ball factory. The series has seen versions released on pretty much every major home gaming system along with multiple pseudo sequels.

As time has marched on the graphics and sound have improved but the basic game play has remained the same. Race from a starting point through multiple stages of varying difficulty in a Ferrari with a girl by your side. Every boys dream (isn’t it?).
17 years later the world saw a true sequel in the form of Outrun 2 and this saw the advent of the online multiplayer experience thanks to Xbox Live. This is where the heart of the game lies, but I’ll come to this later.

Now we get a version of our own on the Xbox 360. Released on XBLA by Sega and developed by Sumo Digital, the team behind the latest generation of Outrun games, these include Outrun 2 and Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast for Xbox, and both are on the backwards compatibility list.

 
For 800MS points and about 330mb of hard drive space you can get Outrun Online Arcade which features, 5 single player game modes, multiplayer via xbox live, 15 stages, and 10 licensed Ferraris to drive.

The stages are the same as those from Outrun SP that were available on Outrun 2006:C2C. You always start on Sunny Beach, a beautiful sea front resort reminiscent of Miami. At the end of each stage the road forks and you have to choose. Left is the easier course right is more challenging. Your decision will dictate your ultimate goal.
There are 5 goals to aim for. ABCDE and a number of routes you can go to get there.

OutRun2 SP Courses same as Outrun Online Arcade


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OutRun_2006.

 
Single Player:
When you first enter Single player mode you choose your car. Unlike previous versions, there doesn’t seem to be any differentiation between each car. In Outrun 2 you could choose to drive Novice, Intermediate or Professional cars. This allowed you to choose a car with a balance of speed and handling that suited your skill level. In this version the only variation seems to be the number of gears (5 or 6) and this seems to have very little impact on your driving.

After selecting which symbol of masculinity you wish to drive you then get the transmission selection. Automatic, for those that only want to focus on 2 buttons, or manual, for those that can multitask. This selection can make a difference to your race times. Drifting is a major feature in Outrun, especially when taking a sharp corner. The game would much rather you drove sideways than forwards. To do this in an automatic requires releasing the accelerator, tapping the brake while turning and then putting your foot (finger) down again. This will send you sliding around the bend in a graceful arc but the slight braking causes you to lose some speed. In manual transmission you can execute a drift by shifting down a gear and then back up quickly while turning. This allows you to hold more speed going into the drift and can add valuable seconds to your overall time.

The next screen you come to is the game selection mode. Here you have 5 choices.

Outrun:
In this mode you race through each stage against the clock while you gain points. These increase according to your speed so the higher a speed you maintain the more points you’ll get, and you get extra points for drifting. You also get points for successfully passing traffic. This varies from 1500 for cars to 25000 for rivals and a plethora of others in between. If you hit traffic you’ll not get points for passing it. If you rear end traffic it will bounce comically ahead of you and disappear. This is the same for any traffic so hitting a bus and watching it go like a beach ball at a rock festival can be quite entertaining. You can also slip stream by following traffic to get more points. This will also allow you to push the top speed beyond the 300Kph limit. The ultimate aim of this mode is to reach the end goal with as high a score as you can muster.

Heart Attack Mode:
This is my least favourite mode. The girl that normally sits beside you being quite and waving her arms in the air suddenly goes all spice girls on your ass (Girl Power!). As before you race through each stage against the clock, but in each stage there are areas where the girl sets challenges for you to attempt. These challenge areas are indicated by a blue “Start” gate and a red “End”. Depending how well you do here you be awarded hearts and then given a rating. At the end of each stage you are given an overall rating depending on how well you’ve perform each of the tricks she demands. You’re aiming for AAA. Apart from this it’s still the same. Drive from the start through 5 stages to a goal. It’s fun at a certain level, but there is something annoying about being rated by a superficial bimbo (why would she be with him if he wasn’t driving Ferraris) who does bugger all. And let’s face it she isn’t even there for eye candy. That what the cars are for!

Time Attack:
This is the Hammerite mode that does exactly what it says on the tin. No traffic, no demands just race to the goal as fast as you can. When you select this mode you get an option to drive normal or tuned versions of the cars. In normal mode the top speed is restricted to 293Kph but this makes the cars a little easier to control. In tuned mode you can go 300Kph but the cars are a little twitchier.

Along with this you will also have the chance to race “ghost” cars. They can be distracting though and thankfully can be turned off in the options. They do allow you an opportunity to learn good lines around each stage so can be useful for the novice Outrunner, although the “ghosts” do drift at times you don’t really need to.

Outrun Mode 15 cont. Course.

This is the same basic premise as normal outrun mode, but instead of driving through 5 of the 15 stages you have to go through all 15 stages before you each your goal. Basically turn left at every fork, put your foot down and try to beat the clock while getting as many points as you can. This is an endurance mode. If you want to get to the end you’ll be there for the best part of 15minutes. That’s if you can get to the end.

Time attack 15 cont. Course.
Same as the normal time attack mode except you have to go through every stage. So again foot down, turn left at every fork and try and go as fast as you can. Another challenging endurance mode but a lot of fun.

Multiplayer:
Now this is where the real fun lies. After practicing your driving on the single player and beating every stage, this is your opportunity to show the world how good you are... or you can just go straight into it whatever you prefer.
This mode is one of the main draws of the game but is also hampered by one of the worst matchmaking systems I have ever seen. I can’t believe they couldn’t fix this for the XBLA launch. They’ve had 5 years experience of Xbox live WFT are they doing?

There are no ranked games, only player games and these don’t seem to be linked to any type of leader board. There are leader boards in the game but they are for recording your success in the various parts of the single player game. They do a good job of it and will separate those using automatic or manual transmission to give a true comparison but why no ranked online boards? Only Sega and Sumo Digital will know that answer. They don’t allow you to see times for each individual stage either, so although you may be the fastest person in the world on one stage and crap at the rest you can’t gain this as a bragging right. There is also no option to download “ghost” cars from the leader boards so you can’t learn the best lines from the experts. My thoughts are they have dedicated limited resources to the data servers and storing thousands of ghosts would be a little unrealistic. I can forgive them for that, but no ranked online boards, again WTF?

When you do a search for a quick match chances are you will find yourself in a lobby that is already in the middle of a race. Not too bad for normal races but for 15 stage races this is a nightmare! There is also no progress bar displayed so you have no idea how long you have to wait before you’ll get the chance to race. If you do decide to be patient and wait for a race there is also the chance that the host may have decided to give up on Outrun for the day. If this happens you patients is rewarded by an instantly closed lobby and you have to search again. GRRRRRRRR! Why it can’t just transfer the host I have no idea!
Anyway there is a way round this. You can either host you own match and wait for it to fill up or use the custom search option. In this you can select a number of criteria to meet your needs, such as location etc. When you search it will bring up a list of lobbies to join. On the right of the screen it will display the current settings. These are the usual fare. Course, Car Class, Catch-up, Collision and number of players. Each lobby can host up to 6 drift obsessed petrol heads. In the list of lobbies is the best feature of the online matchmaking. A little black icon of what looks like either 2 cars passing each other repeatedly or fists punching at you if you squint. Either way, if you see that icon on a lobby it means they are racing. So you can select the lobby that is waiting to roll. Ok sometimes they’ll have just started and you won’t get to select a car but you should get to race them.

Multiplayer course options dictate the goal you need to head towards. This restricts your choices when it comes to forks in the road. You’ll be forced to go down one and red arrows will indicate which that should be. This can force you into stages that you’d normally rather avoid but hey. If you are playing in Outrun mode online the leader of the pack dictates the route so happy days if that is you! Either way it’s all fun. When you get past the flaws with the matchmaking, the multiplayer mode allows you to challenge yourself against the world and even have a little friendly banter if the other players have a microphone plugged in and aren’t locked inside the world of party chat.

Graphically this game is perfect for what it sets out to achieve. Served up in 720P glory and crisp as can be it exceeds the majority of games XBLA has to offer. It’s almost hard to believe it was only 800points. It is basically a restricted version of Outrun 2006: C2C so it’s likely they chose to port this to Arcade rather than Xbox classics purely because the inclusion of achievements boasts sales appeal. There are 3 camera modes to choose from it’s hard to understand why. The 3rd person view is the best for this game and beats the bonnet or no car view hands down.

The audio is, well, arcadey. What more do you expect from an arcade port! A beautifully relaxing sound of the sea greets you in the menu. Whining engines that sound like a swarm of killer bees and screeching tires join you in the game.
The biggest part of the audio is the sound track. Whatever game mode you select you’ll get the option to select one of the six radio stations featuring classic outrun music that is guaranteed to relax you as you race. This music is extremely dated but surprisingly enjoyable and appropriate. If you don’t like it then just select your own music via the media blade on the guide button, but if you can’t stand the music of outrun then maybe you shouldn’t be playing the game! IT’S FRICKIN’ CLASSIC! Shame they didn’t include more of the music from the Outrun series.

But if you really want it take a wee peek here http://www.retrogamer.it/music/outrun2006.htm (Bet your glad you read this far now)

 
Controls:
Now the last area I want to address is the controls. These are solid and there are many options available to suit every player’s style. The button configurations are changeable in the help and options section. The other thing this game was really made for is the steering wheel. If you have forked out your hard earned cash for something like the official Microsoft wheel, like I did, you’ll probably want to use it. Well you won’t be disappointed. Although there is no force feedback and the rumble is weak (and only really kicks in when you are on grass or other surfaces you should really avoid) having the wheel powered is a must. Without power the steering is far too light for this game and you’ll find yourself shaking your arms around more than an angry farmer telling some cheeky kids to “GIT OF MA LAND!”.
The wheel really does take this game out of your *insert room here* and into the arcade. It adds a level of feeling to the game that you just don’t get with the controller, no matter how well designed said controller is. Outrun with a wheel simply goes from being fun to FUUUUNNN!!! Now if you don’t have a wheel this isn’t really a good enough reason to get one, it’s down to personal preference. As someone who started his affair with Outrun in the arcade playing without a wheel is like having sex without another person (but in reverse). Both are great fun but one makes your arms get tired.

Conclusion:
The last question remains. What makes this game worth getting? Well the simple answer is, if you liked Outrun 2 or C2C then you’ll love this. Why? Because it’s basically a cut down version of the same, fricking, game except the online is alive! With this you get HD graphics and the same great game play mechanic that makes Outrun a winner. Teamed up with Xbox Live and it is the ultimate in casual arcade racing. If this isn’t worth 800 MS points then nothing is. Alternatively if you don’t like playing online and don’t care about GS you may find it better to just go and pick up a second hand copy of Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast. Even without HD this game looks good.

No idea what Outrun is like? Try the demo and see for yourself. Don’t sit and compare it to Grid, PGR or Forza though. That’s like comparing your privates with a banana. They are completely different things. If they aren’t you may want to see a doctor or sell your body to science.

I love this game and if this is showing the quality of XBLA arcade to come then I’m getting ready to stock up on points. It also shows R-Type up as the complete fricking rip off it is and I loved the original R-Type .

Comments welcome.

Probably in the outrun thoughts thread in game discussion. I have put it in here now after Kent gave me his blessing .

This game will be removed from XBLA in DEC 2011, its already unplayable on PSN as Sega lost the Ferrari license.

Lets hope they drop it too 400 msp as 800 is abit steep if its going out of service.

Got this when it was on the weekly sale for 400 points ive played it like 3 times.
Oh and have some rep for that monster of a review

yeah

its a get it whilst its up day

great game and a shame they have messed up the licence with Ferrari (who seem to have it in for gamers if you recall the GriD debacle)

Very long review, too much info for me as I don't play Arcade Games. But rep given for amazing review.

You do realise the review is about 18 months old?

Good game. Stupidly hard though. Don't think I have a single achievement on it.

crap i wasn't even here 18 months ago

This game is now discounted to 400 pts and will be removed from XBLA for good in Dec.
Enjoy

Great game. Could do with boosting the online cheevs! Anyone??!?

I have it and have no achievements from it so I'll be up for it