Duration: 8:26

768 views

0

Original Air Date: December 27th, 2009

The Sega Genesis/MD port of the original OutRun... (as Yu Suzuki's amazing Arcade game obviously came before it) it was the beginning of an overall great series. While the arcade game was excellent, this is still a pretty good adaptation, though there is quite a bit of sprite flickering and even ocassional drops in the framerate. On one hand, Sega managed to cram most of the stuff from the Arcade game, but on the other hand, they could have squeezed a little more overall detail into the game. The game uses a wide range of colors and has neat backdrops and four great tunes to race to (this game includes "Step on Beat", a great track), but it didn't edge out the competition in the way I think it should have.

In OutRun, you drive what is presumably a Ferrari with your girlfriend across the country, passing checkpoints before time runs out. You will come across several branching paths in the game that can lead to different stages with varying difficulty and also offer different endings depending on what route you take. Some of the roads really blind-side you and you may have as little as half a second to react to unforeseen turns in the road. The game handles well and never feels like a chore, but one thing about the driving is annoying; some turns are so sharp that you have to basically come to a stop to not get dragged off the road. If you're moving fast enough, a collision with an object will forcibly stop you and take away precious seconds. This is a game that I would say belongs in every Genesis/MD collection for historical reasons, as it was one of the greatest Arcade-style racers.

This is a video showing some stuff in the game (with a After Burner cameo in the video). Enjoy.