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> Results: Burnout Legends
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Smash ﾑem up! Drive aggressively! Rejoice! A fully featured version of Burnout is on the handheld systems. How could you not "get" a game that's about speed, aggressive driving, and spectacular crashed. The only problem with Burnout Legends are the limitations of the Sony PSP.
The good news is that this is a nice compilation. It's got maps and modes from all three previous titles, missing only the new stuff in Burnout Revenge. The resulting game is perfect for the pick up and go nature of handheld gaming because about racing, crashing, and spectacular crashes ﾖ and that's a good thing to have handy if you're bored, stressed, or on a crowded train. The secret to Burnout's success, I'd argue, is how it rewards you for being bad. Drive against traffic, going off jumps, smashing an opponent, hit checking, etc., all give you boost. Boost lets you go faster and is crucial to winning races. The bread and butter of the game is the takedowns. By nudging, slamming, pushing, crashing, or even just psyching out your opponents you are rewarded with slo-mo crashes, boost, and points. It's a lot of fun because it's presented so well and when you're taken down you can control your wreck and guide it into the path of oncoming rivals, or anywhere else. It's that touch from beyond the grave that makes this a must have for the PSP. The game conveys a terrific sense of speed and this works against the PSP. It's very hard to see cars up ahead and you will crash a lot before you learn to see this shimmery blob is a bus and that one is a rival car. The upside is how good the game looks and how well it plays on a letter boxed screen. There's still no replay feature. If I zoom on the track, amass a record number of takedowns, and then, to top it all off, go off a jump and land on two opposing cars? I want to record that and show it off. Why can't I do that? With multiplayer options, Crash mode, a huge variety of race tracks, environments, challenges, race types, and an almost perfect attention to speed and controls, Burnout: Legends is well worth the money, even if you're burned out on Burnout 3 already. It's a perfect stress reliever and a heck of good time. 
Some parents might shrink from the repeatedly mentioned "spectacular crashes" ﾖ this is an anti-social game where players are encouraged to slam into innocent commuters, use them weapons, and to do battle with rival drivers and make them crash in truly awful ways. The Crash Mode even rewards players based on the amount of damage they do. But none of this feels real. The game doesn't convey damage realistically, cars careen and bounce in a very videogame way and the game never crosses the line into bad taste. This is crash-ﾑem-up derby where nobody gets hurt, except those poor fake cars on the screen. Most kids know the difference between this kind of fantasy and reality, but some parents should avoid this one simply because it's a very intense game. Kids who are already hyperactive don't need this kind of stimulation. My 5-year old was fine with it. The rest of us do though, so bring on the crashy-smashy! Ahem, no seriously, this is a great game.
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