Burnout Legends (Nintendo DS)

...games of course, this one Burnout legends is one I'll be playing for months. Most people would have heard of the game racing series Burnout. It's one of the best arcade racing series ever, and is also one of the fastest and most entertaining. Its mainly known for its success on the playstation 2, and xBox, so when it was converted to PSP, it came as a surprise, as to how well it managed to remain faithful to the Burnout brand and be possibly the ...
...system to its full potential. Burnout is a racing game with a twist, you have to crash and cause crashes not just race.

GRAPHICS - 7/10:
Overall I would say the graphics are pretty good. The cars are a bit pixelated, but the tracks look stunning, and the layout is virtually the same on PSP. There are some slight pauses and skips when it comes to the biggest of the takedowns and crashes, but other than that (which only happens ... more

INTRODUCTION:
I have just purchased myself a Nintendo DS, and with it several games of course, this one Burnout legends is one I'll be playing for months. Most people would have heard of the game racing series Burnout. It's one of the best arcade racing series ever, and is also one of the fastest and most entertaining. Its mainly known for its success on the playstation 2, and xBox, so when it was converted to PSP, it came as a surprise, as to how well it managed to remain faithful to the Burnout brand and be possibly the best racing game ever put on a handheld. Obviously it had to be toned down and changed to fit in with the Nintendo DS's limitations, but I believe they have utilised the system to its full potential. Burnout is a racing game with a twist, you have to crash and cause crashes not just race.

GRAPHICS - 7/10:
Overall I would say the graphics are pretty good. The cars are a bit pixelated, but the tracks look stunning, and the layout is virtually the same on PSP. There are some slight pauses and skips when it comes to the biggest of the takedowns and crashes, but other than that (which only happens on very rare occasions) the game is nice-looking. It keeps a steady frame-rate, which can cause a problem due to the sense of speed, when your going 160 km/h it doesn't seem like you are actually moving that fast, Burnout is all about speed and a lot of it, this is why I only give the graphics a 7, it does make up for this slightly when you boost, as the motion blur kicks in and all is good.

SOUND - 4/10:
Well what can I say here, very sub-standard, Where is the licensed music, most popular games today have some licensed music but this has none. The music in this game is cheap and nasty; you get the same midi tracks over and over again. The sounds of the engines roaring are about the only good point I could say about the sound. Even the crashes which are a major part of the game sound like a 12 year old has been let loose in the Criterion/EA programming studio and been allowed to make his own crash sounds!!!

ORIGINALITY - 9/10
The game in itself is not original as it is taken from the burnout series on the PS2/xBox, however the burnout series as a whole is very original, unlike most racing games out there, in this one you are awarded for crashing! Or while racing you get awarded for making other people crash by getting a boost. It gives a whole new meaning to the racing genre

GAMEPLAY - 9/10:
It's Burnout, what more do I have to say. This game is just so much fun, you get to crash cars, cause pile-ups and then the odd race or 2 thrown in along the way. There's several different modes to play in, pursuit mode, races, road rage, crash and the rest. The crash mode is probably the hardest thing this time around, because the other cars to crash into are virtually non existent! But the other modes are still entertaining and with the DS's limitations, I would say they have done a pretty good job in transferring it to the DS.

REPLAYABILITY - 10/10:
Burnout is one of, if not the longest racing game ever made, you remember gran turismo and trying to get 100% on that well that is nothing compared to this. There are a million and one things to do, the circuit mode will take hours upon hours to complete, and it never gets dull. There are loads of cars to unlock, signature takedowns to complete, crash headlines to get. . . Hours of fun.

OVERALL - 8/10:
Burnout has been brought to the DS by EA/Criterion in what seems to be a very smooth transition. True it still has it's problems, some of them sizeable, but when you consider that this is their first DS game together, it's a good start. All in all, I would suggest this for people who have already played a game in the burnout series, however if you have never played a burnout game before might I suggest renting the game before buying, or try burnout revenge on the PS2 or xBox first.

 

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