(PSP) Burnout Legends review

A stunning portable entry in Criterion’s manic car-combat franchise that distils the core experience down into a perfect handheld title.

Developer	Criterion Games
Publisher	Electronic Arts
Franchise	Burnout
Genre	Racing
PSTV	Yes
PSN	NA only (incompatible in EU)

 

World-building & Story

As is usual for a driving game, there’s no plot in Burnout Legends, just a series of races – but there is an interesting enough world here. See, you’ll travel around the globe completing different competitions in the USA, Europe and Far East, but each location is fictional which allows the designers to have fun making wildly exaggerated versions of familiar settings.

Take for example Golden City in the Far East, which is everything you’d expect from an urban Chinese location – lanterns, markets, neon signs and tuk tuks. Conversely, Winter City in Europe is a mix of snow, trams and tight turns between traditional architecture – it’s always fun to see where you’re going next, making playing the game a real joy (even if the locations are all lifted from previous titles).

 

Presentation & Sound

For the most part, I’d say Burnout Legends on PSP is a pretty title with a few minor blemishes, but any issues are easily forgotten thanks to its rock-solid performance.

Car modelling is good – although they’re all fictional, you can kinda figure what they’re based on which makes collecting them a lot of fun. There’s a full damage model here – when you crash windscreens will shatter, bonnets will buckle and parts will go flying off, giving a great sense of immersion. I was most impressed to spot things like bumpers go flying off which you can then drive over to make sparks fly everywhere – Burnout has got a completely manic energy that works so well.

As previously mentioned, you’ll drive through some gorgeous locations too. Aside from cities which run the full gambit from Asian wonderlands to concrete industrial American zones (with really wide lanes, making the car combat very accessible), you’ll equally be treated to things like autumnal mountaintops full of falling leaves or gorgeous waterside vistas that stretch as far as you see. The mayhem happening on screen might be over-the-top, but the environments are fairly grounded.

Sadly they don’t quite hold up to scrutiny – perhaps it’s amplified playing on Vita, but I noticed things like some terribly stretched textures when crashing outside of the confines of the track or objects popping in from a fairly close distance. This is particularly noticeable with oncoming car headlights which can cause a few unfortunate crashes as you’re not given enough time to react, which can be frustrating.

Thankfully, any graphical concessions came with a clear goal in mind – that performance remains stable and Criterion Games undoubtedly knocked it out of the park with this one. I barely noticed any slowdown no matter what was happening on screen which is so important during the races – the only time it consistently happened was during a particularly large pile-up in crash mode, which is no big issue as you’re not controlling anything at this point.

Sound is impressive – engine and crash noises have a suitable authenticity to them, but it’s the punk-rock soundtrack that won me over the most. A collection of brilliant and fairly unknown licensed tracks (as was common for EA during the era) permeate everything and fit in perfectly with the game’s manic energy.

Soundtrack highlight – Bundy (Animal Alpha) 

 

Gameplay & Content

For me, probably the ultimate culmination of the car combat genre (and a worthy spiritual successor to things like Destruction Derby), Burnout Legends is a fast-paced, crazy racing game with more enjoyment contained in it than 90% of the contemporaries on the market these days – making it a worthy classic to revisit.

The main mechanics rely heavily on driving dangerously, which rewards you with new methods of driving even more dangerously. Everything is centred around a boost meter (triggered with R) which can be filled by things like driving into oncoming traffic, narrowly avoiding another car, drifting at full speed around a corner or – most importantly – making your opponents crash with a ‘takedown’.

See, each track contains various hazards that you can use to your advantage – you might shunt into the back of another racer to make them lose traction and veer off into a wall, or you might ram them from the side to crash them into a pillar (both of which will fill your boost meter). Of course, your foes can use those tactics too and doing so will cause you to lose a chunk of boost – making a brilliant risk/reward mechanic during races that really feels high-stakes.

Crashing (or causing someone to crash) will cause a brief moment of slow-mo allowing you to see the damage in all its glory – during this, you can also achieve ‘aftertouch takedowns’ by slightly edging your car during the wreckage and clipping another racer to make them crash, which is a really nice touch. There’s various other things like ‘signature takedowns’ which require specific environmental objects – but either way, you’re encouraged to cause as much damage as possible which is just a brilliant feeling.

The actual driving feels fantastic – more arcade-y than realistic, it allows you to drift wildly and reach insane speeds but I always felt in control of the vehicle (if I crashed, it was my fault). Enemy AI is aggressive and heavily rubber-banded – but this works well allowing you to engage in car combat constantly and since that’s the beating heart of the game, is a really smart choice.

The main mode here is world tour, where you travel across the globe in a series of increasingly flashy cars (starting with compact and ending with sports) and compete in different events. Most are straightforward races or time trials but some are interesting twists – eliminator removes the last-place racer each lap, while pursuit has you as a police car and you need to takedown a suspect within the time limit.

The two best of all are face-off and road rage though, which mix high stakes with some fantastic mechanics. The former is a 1v1 with a rival made incredibly tense by the fact that you know they’re just on your tail constantly (which you can see with the rear view), while the latter is a time-limited battle to get the most takedowns within the time limit without getting wrecked yourself. I had an insane amount of fun with both of them and they showcase everything that’s great about Burnout.

One extra mode that has been a fan-favourite for years is crash mode, which is fully in tact here. Playing out more like a puzzle, you drive a car into oncoming traffic and the objective is to do as much damage as possible – you’re then assessed (in terms of money) and awarded medals. It’s crazy but works well – best of all, although it’s part of world tour it can be played completely separately, meaning you can use it as a nice little break from racing if you’re hitting a wall (in some cases, literally).

By completing milestones in world tour, you’ll unlock new vehicles to use in both that and single player races, which is a nice incentive to keep pushing forward (you can also use them in multiplayer ad-hoc, but I didn’t have anyone to play with). If there’s one thing I’d criticise about Burnout Legends it would be that I only ever had three competitors in races (not counting oncoming traffic), but I presume that was done for performance reasons.

Overall, this is just a brilliant racing game – fast, manic and tonnes of fun, it’s exactly the kind of thing that makes a perfect handheld pick up and play title (the fact that there’s precious little like it on Vita other than Criterion’s own Need for Speed: Most Wanted makes it all the more worthwhile).

 

Conclusion

Criterion Games have always known how to craft an action-packed racing game, but for them to bring the full Burnout experience to the PSP is something else. Legends looks gorgeous and performs well but it’s the content that’s the star here – a tonne of races some insanely fun cities, each one bringing the manic car-combat the series is known for with a new twist each time, the game never lets up or gets boring. A true handheld classic.

9.0/10