The first impression is good, Ferrari's models are amazing and the speed of the game pulls everything about 250 km/h (30 fps) at every single moment of play.
Your finger will push hard on the X button, while running in that Wipeout-style hoops, only in few (I say, FEW) occasions I encountered frame rate problems. In that cases, ps2 was pushed to its limits, I think, and there was no problems for the gameplay, indeed.
Sparks and environmental reflections are well reproduced, graphics, sometimes, remember me Burnout revenge's ones. Some of the lights effects (sunshine and so) are very similar to Criterion's blockbuster game.
In particular, I liked very much the effect in which grass ripped out by Ferrari's rear wheels!
Also your virtual pilot is mo-captured, some animations are silly and made me laugh: put your hand out of your Ferrari's window at 300 kh/h?? Fun, great! ;-)
Stages are neat, coloured and with great personality. I liked them because also after several hours of playing, they didn't bore me and now I can remember almost one distinctive particular of each one: Niagara falls, Brooklyn bridge, Las vegas lights and so on.
I think graphics are well improved, especially if we consider Sega's last releases (Shadow? Bleah!), the only 2 problems I recognized are rare frame rate decrease and some aliasing about some guard-rails.
Sound 7/10
Bgms are good, about 8 out of 10 (I love 1986's outrun remixes), but sound effects aren't so well improved.
Ferrari's engines (music for my ears!) aren't in the centre of attention, they are much a "noise", and this isn't good. Also voices are a little bit annoying, too acute in my opinion, but translation is complete and well done (I am playing the Italian version of the game).
Other bgms are j-rock/pop that remember me megadive/genesis golden age…sooooo '90!! :-)
Playability 9/10
Fantastic, this game could be played by a drunken monkey! :-)
OR2006 has the most intuitive gameplay I ever seen in a racing game: push X button to accelerate, tap square button to drift, that's all!
Game structure is very simple, drive through stages at maximum speed and avoid enemy traffic. In this case, very simple=very fun.
Game modes are a lot:
Coast to coast: a mission based structure in which you race against cpu drones or drive to satisfy your girlfriend on your right seat (drift as much as you can, pass trough light circles, wipe out cones in the middle of the track, and so on). The missions are, in general simple, but reaching the AAA grade in every stage could take you months.
Outrun: play the arcade-perfect porting of Outrun2 and Outrun2sp.
Heartbreak: satisfy your girlfriend as described, in a series of stages.
Time attack: classic time trial for every stage (30 in total, plus reverse ones)
Lastability 8,5/10
As said, game modes are a lot and fun, OR2006 can be played 8 hours or also 2 minutes in a day. It is fantastic for a easy and fast play but can, at the same time, enjoy you for a day-lasting session.
Every single play gives you "outrun miles", points that you can spend to acquire extras music, bonus colours for your Ferrari, new car models or reverse stages.
The good thing about it is that there are never game sessions that give you no sense of progression.
Final comments:
Because I loved Outrun in 1986 (I have MSX home computer version of it…20 years old!!!), I'll would give it 9/10, but OR2006 structure is actually inferior to other arcade racing ones (Burnout revenge or NfS most wanted, for example). It is a perfect coin-op game, probably the best pure arcade racing game, but I understand that someone could not appreciate it so much.
On the other hand, I think OR2006 is a game that will be loved by hardcore gamers and also played good by casual gamers that will like its control easiness and its intuitive structure.
8 out of 10, it is a very good game, buy it and…Welcome back in 1986!
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