Publisher: Acclaim, www.acclaim.com
Ages: six and up.
Parental Advisory: Reckless car racing game with spectacular crashes
Violence
Rating: 
If you want to experience an outrageous checkpoint style racing game that
flies through densely populated streets filled with rush hour traffic, Acclaim's
Burnout delivers the goods. The action in this arcade racer is intense and
invigorating, and the game serves spectacular crashes.
In Burnout, you race against three other computer-controlled racers on tracks that take you through city streets. The game offers a single race, as well as a time attack, head-to-head competition, and a championship mode. And there's a survival mode asks you to simply complete a course without crashing.
As you would expect, the game gets more challenging the further you progress in the championship mode. While the early going is relatively easy, later levels become quite difficult. A good part of becoming competent with the game is recognizing the particular scenarios that the game throws at you, and appropriately reacting to them. In this regard, the game becomes somewhat predictable after awhile.
The crashes are amazing and the game replays them in slow motion and with a rotating camera. And if you like a particular crash, you can save it.
To rack up points, the game, much as Crazy Taxi does, encourages you to go for near misses with other vehicles. Here, the game includes a virtual heart monitor that ramps up with every near miss, and if you can top it out, lets you drive in an outrageous turbo mode.
The graphics are detailed and attractive and among the best that I've seen in an arcade car racer, on any platform. And the vehicles look equally good.
Overall, burnout is a great driving game that offers a convincing simulation of speed, excellent graphics, spectacular crashes, lots of obstacles in a crowded, traffic-laden city, and entertaining action. If you want to take a virtual race through a city during rush hour, Burnout is worth a spin.
