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Title Out Run
Company Sega/U.S.Gold
Game Type Racing
Players 1
HD Installable Yes (with Patch)
Compatability All (with Patch)
Submission Angus Manwaring Profiled Reviewer

Review
Out Run was a divine racing game that wowed myself and millions of others
when it appeared at the more affluent game arcades in the mid eighties.
The idea was to drive your red Ferrari (complete with blonde passenger)
across a map that featured a variety of gorgeous terrains including coast
roads, cliff passes and winding tunnels. The game was viewed from a third
person perspective just behind your car, and a variety of stunning tunes
(four, I think, with a Latin American feel) could be selected to inspire
or distract your concentration. In short, the game was brilliant; an
exhilarating race against time with beautifully detailed, cutting edge
graphics and a glorious and atmospheric soundtrack.

Now for the bad new, the Amiga conversion was less than inspired. A lot
less. True, this is a fairly early Amiga game but nevertheless, it is at
best mediocre and has no redeeming qualities. ...Well, the music isn't awful,
unless you have the sound effects on at the same time, whereupon it
immediately becomes so. Having said that, if you compare the music (even
unaccompanied) to the original work, it actually is pretty awful.

The update of the road and passing objects, (like trees, rocks etc) as well
as the other vehicles, is fairly poor, and rather than cause excitement,
you find that you try and overlook these failings. The animation of your
vehicle as it turns, and sometimes tumbles, is again pretty dreadful.

This is a game I'd recommend you avoid. It is actually playable, but it's
failings and complete lack of any inspiration dictate that if you look up
the word "naff" in the dictionary, you should find "U.S. Gold's Amiga
conversion of Out Run" written there.

If you want to see how a racing game of this type should be done, try any
of the three Lotus games, especially Lotus Turbo Challenge 2. That maybe
a slightly unfair cpmparison as Out Run is from an earlier era, but Buggy
Boy or Super HangOn demonstrate it's defficiencies equally well.