Today's selection is...
Sega Ages 2500 Series: Out Run
If you read my previous post where I held a showdown for all the unplayed versions of Space Harrier I owned, you might recall that I mentioned a compilation called the Sega Classics Collection on which there was a traumatically bad remake of that game.
In my brief summary of said monstrity I remarked that: "I don't think I can bear to see what they've done to OutRun." - Well the random-game-selector is playing chief tormentor today so here I am, facing that fear head-on.
It turns out that all of the games on this compilation are from the Sega Ages 2500 Series. These remakes were released as individual games on the PS2 in Japan from 2003 to 2004, but collected in the west in 2005 in much the same way as the more recent 3DS Classics Collection.
I wrote a dedicated post on how I feel about the original OutRun a little while ago, if you can't be bothered to read the whole thing then just knowing that it's called 'A love letter to Out Run' might give you a clue as to my thoughts.
And my thoughts on this version? Confusion, abundantly. It’s just so, I don't know, pointless, I guess.
They've taken OutRun and replaced every sprite with polygons - not even nice polygons, the game looks like it could quite easily run on an N64 (and that might even be doing a disservice to the N64). Then they've done horrible new versions of each of the three tunes (although the originals are there too), and that's about it.
There are some extra options that shuffle the courses around a bit but other than that this basically OutRun: Fugly Edition.
It's all a bit bizarre and I really don't know what to think of it.
On one hand it IS OutRun. The courses appear identical, the speed is good, the layouts are as you remember - but then something isn't quite right; I didn't make it to the first checkpoint without crashing on my first three tries, for example, and I've been playing this game for 30 years.
There's an argument that whatever small changes have caused this are welcome; mixing things up and making the game feel new is something a remake should try and do - and that argument is usually sound - but it doesn't fit the obvious goals of this version of the game. It's clearly aiming to re-create OutRun perfectly but with 'modern' graphics, so it should either do that perfectly or it has failed.
The alternative type of remake is to completely re-imagine the source. To further explore how this can work you only need look to the Arcades or the Xbox where, at the exact same time that these 'Sega Ages 2500' games were released, you could be playing the majestic OutRun 2.
And maybe that's the real reason for this game to exist; to placate the Sony faithful who felt left out of the glorious party that was happening on rival hardware.
Sumo and AM2 had taken the soul of classic OutRun and used it to create a completely new, fresh, and beautiful game that achieved the impossible by living up to the legacy of what is, for my money, the greatest arcade game ever made. Whereas this 'Sega Ages' version? It's not to change the original’s oil.
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