Turbo Outrun - Arcade (30mins)

Continuing the road trip inspired by ERE.  Semi-decent sequel that deviates from the original template just enough to feel a bit wrong, despite also getting a lot right.  Firstly the route tree is gone, and it's now a linear racer split into four stages.  There's nothing wrong with that per se, as the locales are still quite fun/varied, but it removes a key ingredient from the marvellous medicine which results in the experience hitting a little differently.  It looks good (with some half decent weather effects popping up in certain areas), sounds okay (although these are not the tunes you were looking for) and plays well (it's basically Outrun plus a turbo button), it just suffers a little from being more of the same, and naturally less iconic. 

You can choose between three upgrades in a shop between stages, which doesn't really add much to the experience.  A rival occasionally appears spouting snippets of sampled speech, as does a police car, but I failed to work out the purpose of either during my credit fed playthrough.  I noticed that my squeeze was missing from the passenger seat at one point, so maybe the rival car pinches her if you collide too many times?  Anyway, she reappeared shortly afterwards but it was an 'oh, she's back' moment so I can't give you any answers.  I assume her tail was between her legs, and I trust questions were asked.  So what if he drives a Porsche?  She can't treat me like this it's Friday night for Christ's sake.

TLDR: Is it good?  Yes.  It it Outrun?  No. [3.5 out of 6]



Outrunners - Arcade (1hr)

I'm pretty sure I've read/heard that this was decent in places, but I think that may have been drowned out by the state of the Data East handled MD port, which wasn't favourably received iirc.  I gave that a quick go early in the week but it had some weird Dashin' Desperados style permanent split screen thing going on so I quickly reversed into a hedge.  Maybe it's an OK game, but from what I played I doubt it.  Quelle surprise alert: the arcade version is an absolute joy monster.  Whereas Turbo Outrun went down the straight-ahead nitro zoom serious racer route (while ditching the ability to select your own route), this brings back the breeze.  Blue sky bois rejoice; this drive feels like a jolly-up again.  At the very first fork in the road you get the option to turn east or west, with both turns taking you to a full-sized branching path Outrun game.  If you couple that with the wild '93 poly/scaler visuals and add the fact that it controls well that and tunes are legit, my mathskills round that up to Outrun².  Which is basically a glorious halfway house between Outrun and Outrun 2.  It's a shame that the theme of some zones repeat whether you head left or right, but the layouts differ so that's excusable.  Especially as the blue skies are actually replaced by blue seas at one point, with marine life swimming around above your head as you race through a (not particularly technically impressive, it has to be said) underwater tunnel.         

It's bright, bold, resolutely Sega and screams I AM OUTRUN at every turn, which makes it a glorious coin-op experience imo.  Up there with Guardians: Genjin Makai 2 and The Cliffhanger feat. Edward Randy as the most FUCK YEAH arcade games I've stumbled across since buying my double whammy of mame-ready monsters.  It's criminal that Sega spent time and varying degrees of effort porting the likes of Touring Car Racer and Manx TT to the Saturn while (the proper version of) this languished in arcade form only - even with no additions it would've offered better VFM than the vast majority of content light polygon racers of the era (Sega Rally gets a pass for being infinitely replayable).  Terrific stuff.  [5.5 out of 6].

Nope. Still splendid looking game though - saw in the arcade with the moving seat.

He gets props in Outrunners too.

Pisses me off that M2 kept giving us Sonic, Columns etc instead of some of these arcade only gems.

Look at that tunnel too.

I’m interested to see takes on the Master System exclusive OutRun games, OutRun 3-D, Battle OutRun and OutRun Europa. I had a quick go on Europa and it was weird - it had like a Cold War-style espionage theme?

EvilRedEye wrote:

I’m interested to see takes on the Master System exclusive OutRun games, OutRun 3-D, Battle OutRun and OutRun Europa. I had a quick go on Europa and it was weird - it had like a Cold War-style espionage theme?

Europa is definitely on my list.  One of the Sega mags loved it but I've forgotten which, which makes me sad.  As would remembering tbh.  *Sniff*.

Had a go at Road Rash for the Mega Drive. It really holds up in terms of the pantheon of Mega Drive into-the-screen style racers. The feeling when you crest a hill and get air is great. I remember it for the violence and brutality and was surprised to find you get kinda supportive messages from the other bikers before a race and then you all hang out together afterwards - completely forgot about that dynamic. I really like the soundtrack too. Completed Level 1, will have to see how I get on with the rest of it.

EvilRedEye wrote:

I remember it for the violence and brutality and was surprised to find you get kinda supportive messages from the other bikers before a race and then you all hang out together afterwards - completely forgot about that dynamic.

Accidentally walloping Natasha in the face was a horrible feeling.  Some riders would hit you and others would only retaliate iirc.  Not sure if it carried over into subsequent races but I always tried to be careful just in case.  Great game (the sequel anyway, I didn't play the original at the time).  

Read the novel next.

Whaaaaat?! Like… it’s pretty good? It’s a pretty good OutRun type bike racer for the Mega Drive and you can punch people. What’s not to love?

Never a huge RR fan either.

There were two games titled Road Rash, the Mega Drive original and the 3DO game that was then ported to a bunch of formats including Mega CD, PS1, Saturn and Windows. I’ve never played the 3DO version but it was over two years later when the Windows version came out so maybe it was quite dated by then. IMO the original has quite a pleasant Mega Drive retro look but the PC version of the 3DO game looks like they were trying to do photo realism with sprites…

Moot_Geeza wrote:

No tunnels in RR or Skitchin.

I don’t like Road Rash either then.

EvilRedEye wrote:

IMO the original has quite a pleasant Mega Drive retro look but the PC version of the 3DO game looks like they were trying to do photo realism with sprites…

That's probably why I didn't like it - it was damn ugly. Will check out the MD version.

I got the PS1 version with my console plus Medieval.

I don't remember playing RR for long.