Burnout Legends (PSP) Review

I remember buying a PSP about a year after the console was launched. I remember playing it in a GameStop and realizing that I had to have it. It would be the perfect way to pass the time on those long bus rides to school in high school. Little did I know that the PSP would become a staple of my high school days for a few years until the UMD drive ultimately stopped working. One of my favorite titles from that period was a bite-sized version of my all-time favorite racing series, Burnout. Burnout Legends kept me busy every time I had a free moment before or after school, and I had an equally great time revisiting it all these years later.

Events

Burnout Legends is a compilation of the best parts of the first three console Burnout games. That being said, you might think it’s a simple cash grab, but it manages to stand out as a unique experience on its own. The main campaign is World Tour mode. In this mode, you start with one class (compact) and must win events to unlock more cars and events. You’ll unlock a new class if you unlock and beat the GP event. There are five classes in total. Crash events are separated from the regular events for some reason, but you still need to play them to unlock certain cars. There are 175 events, and you must get gold to beat the game. Going through the events can be a little monotonous, as many event types and tracks repeat regularly. This game is best played in short bursts, like most Burnout games.

Gameplay

Racing is as simple as brake, gas, and boost in Burnout Legends. It’s a typical arcade racer that doesn’t require much thought. You earn boost by driving into oncoming traffic, near misses, and takedowns. The crazier you drive, the more boost you’ll acquire and the easier it will be to stay in first or get a takedown on your opponents. Legends replicates what you’d see on home consoles, with some satisfying crashes. There aren’t as many particle effects or explosions, but cars still deform and break apart when they collide. You can even see car pieces flying through the air in certain instances. Aftertouch is also a part of the game, allowing you to control your wreck by slowing down time after a crash. This gives you the ability to take someone out even after you’re already wrecked.

Event Types

There is a healthy number of different types of events to complete in Burnout Legends. The series staple Crash Mode is there and takes away the multipliers found on home consoles in favor of just the bonus tokens scattered around the event. The goal is to cause the most destruction you can in an intersection, and it can be pretty tricky with the multipliers removed. Crashbreakers can blow your car apart and steer the wreck into some of those bonus tokens. Road Rage has you taking down as many opponents as possible before the counter reaches zero. Burning Laps are just time trials. Face-offs pit you against a single opponent and require you to beat them to win their car. Pursuit mode has you playing as a cop trying to take down a single opponent, which can be tricky unless you get ahead of them to do an aftertouch takedown, which gives you an automatic win. Eliminator sees you trying to stay ahead of the pack each lap, as one car is eliminated after each lap.

Presentation

Burnout Legends looks good on the PSP. It lacks the amount of traffic and effects that its home console counterparts have, but for a racing game from 2005 on a handheld console, you can’t ask for much more than what you get here. It can be challenging to see the oncoming traffic sometimes, but there isn’t enough traffic to pose a serious issue. The sense of speed starts slow but ramps up as you unlock some of the later classes in the game. The audio in the game is fantastic, with the twisted sounds of every wreck making you feel like you’re in the middle of it. The soundtrack is stellar, featuring early 2000s gems like Yellowcard’s “Lights and Sounds” and Finch’s “Ink.” There is a weird framerate issue where the game drops a few frames while switching songs. The only other framerate issues I had were during big wrecks in Crash Mode or when there were many effects on screen.

Multiplayer

If you’re lucky enough to have some buddies with this game and a PSP, you can do up to six-player ad-hoc wireless races. You can play races, road rage, party crashes, pursuits, and double impact mode. This is a two-player single crash event mode. Players can create a tournament of up to five rounds or a single game. I never got to try this, as I don’t know anyone with a PSP, let alone Burnout Legends.

Conclusion

Burnout Legends is a standout title from the PSP. I have very fond memories of it, and it has held up quite well over the last 19 years. If you’ve never played this one before, I’d recommend it. It can be a bit easy until later in the game and gets repetitive, but it’s a fun time and plays great with upscaled textures on an emulator (which I used for the screenshots) if you don’t have a PSP.