Lawrence.com

Around the office Burnout is inarguably heralded as the king of all arcade racers. Now the mini powerhouse that is the PSP gets its own version in Burnout Legends: an "all-stars" version of the series that theoretically borrows the best elements from the first three games.

For the most part, Legends succeeds in giving that same sense of urgency, speed, destruction and invigoration that we've come to know and lust after. That in itself is a major accomplishment. The main gameplay modes of Crash, Burning Lap, Road Rage, Eliminator and even the classic 5-oh Pursuit mode make their appearance with new tweaked Legends Face-off and Legends Grand Prix mode. Knowing that it packs so much content and retaining that Burnout feel, you could probably stop reading the review and head right out and buy it.

Interestingly enough, EA decided that Legends should be more of a community effort, so they packed tons of incentives to use the WiFi capability. You can have up to four people in a WiFi match and it plays smoothly. With a total of 25 unlockable cars, only a random five are available in your single player experience. The only way to get the other 20 would be to challenge your friends in WiFi. Even if your friend doesn't have the actual game, you can upload a level at a time to another PSP and play wirelessly level by level.

Thankfully Crash mode does not have the multipliers that plagued Takedown, yet it still has the money icons which do direct your path. Still, EA did a great job at choosing the best Crash junctions from the past and it all handles extremely well.

One of the weird nuances of Legends is that sometimes some tracks have weird hotspots where you'll crash by barely scraping the side of your car. In a fast-paced arcade game such as this, the design has to be more forgiving to senseless crashing. And while most of Legends is very forgivable as normal, some non-Crash-mode spots are bafflingly easy to wipeout. It's not prevalent but it is worth noting.

The graphics look amazingly detailed for the small screen and look almost as good as the PS2 version of Burnout 2. The speed is as intense, the crashes are as glorious and the artificial intelligence is as smart as the console counterparts. The sound is just as good. Clear, uproarious and loud. Sure, the non-fitting MTV2 sludge still fills the airwaves, but for a portable experience, this is bliss.

Burnout Legends is the first PSP game I will actually return to play. Many critics are forgiving on launch titles and will fluff the scores, but will never return to play them. (I mean, who is really still playing Lumines?) Legends deserves its praise and your lust to play again will prove it.

Graphics: A-

Sound: A-

First Play: A-

Last Play: A

Gameplay: A

Overall: 93% A