It all began in 2001 on the PS2. As if from nowhere, along came a game which shunned glossy graphics and licensed car manufacturers in favour of high speed, sweaty-handed, twitchy arcade race action. Developed by Criterion and published by Acclaim, Burnout had an intensity unmatched at the time, and required total concentration to play, and was so involving that you found yourself unable to blink and breathe in as you zipped through gaps in traffic.
Burnout 2 followed and the legacy continued. A perfect structure and difficulty curve drew you through the game, an enhanced physics engine improved the cars’ handling and new exciting features like jumping were introduced. With the passing of Acclaim, Criterion had to look for new publishers and turned to a certain publishing behemoth with a UK base a few miles down the road from their own Guildford HQ: Electronic Arts. The result of this alliance was a very successful development of the brand in Burnout 3: Takedown. Rather than avoiding even the slightest contact with other cars, players were now encouraged to smash their opponents off the track, into oncoming traffic or bits of the scenery. While the old techniques of drifting, jumping and other dangerous habits would still fill the ever-present burnout gauge, attacks on your enemy racers were rewarded with huge dollops of boost. The less precise driving style disappointed some purists but won the game a new audience and became the most successful Burnout title ever, not least thanks to its hypnotic colours and effects and blistering frame rate. The combative new style was well suited to this particular iteration, the first to feature online play.
Now the entire history of a games legend comes together in the appropriately named Burnout Legends on PSP. Decide for yourself which version was the greatest, or simply appreciate all three on their own undoubted merits. Legends features the greatest moments from the series so far, all updated to look their best for the slinky new PSP handheld console. New gameplay and new cars feature as well, and naturally you can play your friends using the PSP’s wireless capabilities. A generous GameShare feature allows you to upload any level of the game to your friend’s machine so that they can enjoy it with you. Burnout Legends is a welcome addition to the PSP library.