OutRun was one of Sega’s greatest arcade success stories in the 1980s and a mainstay on its home consoles. The direct sequel, OutRun 2 took some 15 years to show up, and managed to build a large following despite the continually diminishing role of arcades in modern video gaming. After two relatively successful trips to home consoles, Sega’s decided to bring OutRun 2 to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network platforms under the new title of OutRun Online Arcade.

Sumo Digital once again takes over development of the home versions from Sega’s AM2 division, and they’ve done a bang-up job. Although released over five years ago, OutRun 2 is no slouch in the visual department, and Sumo Digital has done a pretty good job of capturing all of that original graphical splendour and bringing it into HD for OutRun Online Arcade. There are some brief moments of slowdown, but otherwise the game runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second. The soundtrack from the arcade version is also intact, with some fantastic modernised versions of the original OutRun’s classic synth tracks like Passing Breeze and Magical Sound Shower alongside some new instrumental tracks and a few cheesy rock ballads.


The basic OutRun 2 formula remains intact; players select one of ten different licensed Ferrari vehicles (which are unlocked from the outset in this version) and make their way from the West Coast to the East Coast of the United States (the OutRun 2 SP tracks). The difficulty of the journey is almost entirely up to the player – while courses do get progressively harder, players have the option of taking either an easy route or a hard route at the end of each course, leading them to one of five possible endings. The driving mechanics are designed around fun rather than realism, giving players an enhanced sense of control while maintaining an exhilarating sense of speed. Most players will have picked up the gist of the way the game handles and will be doing drifts around corners at 300km/h, and slingshotting from their opponents’ slipstream within about five minutes.

Single player offerings consist of OutRun Mode, Heart Attack and Time Attack. OutRun Mode is a basic race to the finish, and Time Attack is all about setting best times for different courses, either in the five track mode or a continuous fifteen course mode. Players’ best times are uploaded to an online leaderboard. Heart Attack is a bit different, though not at all related to cardiovascular disease. Accompanying you in your Ferrari is a rather lovely young lady whom you must impress with your mad driving skills. Your lady friend will yell out various moves she wants you to do like passing a specific car or collecting some coins – the speed and accuracy with which you do these moves earn you hearts, with the more hearts earned increasing your rank at the end of the run. OutRun Online Arcade might not have the depth of modes or tracks of OutRun 2 or OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast for the Xbox, but it certainly has enough to justify its meagre asking price of 800 Microsoft Points.


Multiplayer is not a new addition to the OutRun 2 lineage, but with the servers for the older versions now offline, OutRun Online Arcade is the only way to play online against human opponents. Up to six players are supported, with various game options such as collisions, catch-up and track selection available to the host. The host does have a slight advantage in that he always gains pole position, though the slipstream mechanic ensures other races are not easily left behind. Online play is quite smooth, with none of the slowdown in the single game and stable network code. You do get the odd latency spike, where cars will instantly pop around the track, but it’s otherwise problem-free. For some weird reason, Sumo Digital didn’t include online leaderboards or rankings, despite the option for ranked matches, so you don’t quite know where you stand against the rest of the world.

OutRun 2 might be starting to get a little long in the tooth, but OutRun Online Arcade proves that there’s still a lot of fun to be had with the game. OutRun Online Arcade isn’t the most feature-packed of the home ports of the game – it has the basic OutRun 2 modes and the 15 tracks from OutRun 2 SP, but is missing the mass of challenge modes and secret tracks from the other versions. On the other hand, it is the most visually impressive, with none of the texture compression or other compromises of the original ports and a resolution that is higher than the original arcade game, not to mention the awesome gameplay is completely intact and the online community is quite active. OutRun 2 is still one of the finest arcade racers ever made, and at 800 Microsoft Points, you really have no excuse not to give OutRun Online Arcade a try.