The last time I played an OutRun game was back in the very early 90s, and only for a few minutes. I wasn’t very fond of the series back then, but OutRun Online Arcade has changed my mind. As the ’Arcade’ in its title might suggest, this is something of a casual racer; you pick a car and transmission mode, the music you want to listen to, then pick a course and go to it. Most races tend to last about five minutes, though that time can increase in some of the fifteen course modes. A race tends to consist of five courses that can each be finished in a minute, going through a variety of places; a city’s coast and beachside areas, tribal ruins, a huge forest, icy roads, and even a Las Vegas-esque town. Each course has a forking path that lets you pick the next place to race at, and a checkpoint you must reach before time runs out.

GDN Quick & Dirty Review

It’s a simple pick up and play, arcade style racer. Despite various little bugs and odd design choices, the graphics look okay and it’s simply fun to play, so check it out.

While not as technologically advanced as you might expect, the graphics in OutRun Online Arcade are still pretty good. A lot of this is due to good course design; the game throws up lots of pretty scenery during idle moments in driving (such as the long straights after you’ve chosen your next course), and most of it is pretty colorful and nice to look at. Combined with around six different songs to listen to, each of which fit the driving theme but offer different moods, this game’s presentation is solid.

The actual racing isn’t quite realistic, but isn’t mindless either. Sound racing tactics like turning as little as possible on shallow curves are important, and reckless driving can result in your car fishtailing until you properly recover. On the other hand, slamming into a wall doing 180 MPH only stalls you for a few seconds with no lingering damage to the car, so they obviously weren’t going for full-blown realism. That’s fine by me; I’m not a racing expert so I appreciate these concessions. The controls are decent, very easy to pick up and play with only a little learning curve. It’s easy to get into, but only practice will make you a master.

Aside from the normal arcade mode of going through five courses within a time limit, there are plenty of other ways to keep you busy. Heart Attack mode is a driving challenge based on following orders from your driver’s girlfriend; things like drifting along a specific part of the road, or passing lots of traffic, or going through a series of gates in order to rack up heart points with her. You also have time trials complete with ghost cars to compete against, and you can play through fifteen course versions of some of these modes as well.