SEGA, you had me at Turbo Outrun!

Most people associate gaming with kids' classics like Outrun, Space Harrier and Streets of Rage are games that have lived on and continue to live on through adults. Nowadays, it feels as if SEGA has tapped into this and is on a mission to re-release most of their prized possessions, such as PowerDrift, a perfect racer in which you race across all sorts of weird and wonderful structures, or the legendary Outrun, it took me years to properly master this Yu Suzuki classic, it was like no other racer in the world.

But it's the imminent arrival of Turbo Outrun that has me real excited, it's not quite "Outrun" I mean you can't really compare the two, for example, the sequel is more of an atmospheric hi-octane race, that transports the player through nearly every road-like extremity. Gone are the branching paths and selectable soundtracks, but it does have better graphics and more features, including upgrading your car between stages, and more importantly, you can go turbo!

I agree with gematsu's recent website article, they mentioned this about the upcoming 3DS version "the centrepiece title of the collection is Turbo Outrun, which was the number one most requested title from a survey."

Read more at http://gematsu.com/2016/09/sega-3d-fukkoku-archives-3-final-stage-adds-turbo-outrun-three-new-ports-announced#K7hQPOSwbYWHq5pR.99

For me, it's great to see Turbo Outrun making an appearance. I'm not gonna lie to you, I've been waiting for a good home conversion for as long as I can remember, the game has been crying out for a great port ever since the SEGA Saturn and Dreamcast arrived. Just look what SEGA achieved on the Saturn with Galaxy Force 2, Outrun, Space Harrier and Afterburner, arcade perfection, so why did they ignore Turbo Outrun?

SEGA, past master and kings of the arcade during the 80's and 90's, weren't responsible for the horrors of the home conversion. I originally owned it on the Amstrad CPC, it was a colourful and valiant attempt, but it just couldn't match the pace of the arcade original, the Atari ST version very nearly made it, but it was far too choppy and lacked the thrills of the arcade, the C64 probably felt the closest of the lot, but despite having a thumping great soundtrack, the poor graphics and loading times killed what should have been a fast-paced experience. I've heard about the FM Towns version, and it looks like I missed out, but failing that, I've never played anything that competed with the arcade original.

This new 3DS Turbo Outrun appears to have nailed it, from what I've seen and heard, the game looks awesome! And according to various reports, improves over the arcade original by running in a re-programmed 16:9 format whilst using 3D. Yes, that's correct, this is the arcade 
Turbo Out Run, not the SEGA Megadrive version. SEGA put a lot of effort into their last Outrun 3DS port, so I can't wait to see how this ends up.


I just have one question for SEGA, is it too much effort to release Turbo Outrun as a separate download?

Turbo Outrun on the 3DS includes the following new features: 

Interim Save: Can instantly save the game state anytime

Interim Load: Loads the above interim save

Replay: Records own gameplay for later viewing. Replays can be fast forwarded

Select Function: After each four stages, it will be possible to freely change the three-part upgrades

Difficulty: Choose from five difficulty level stars; this feature is new and did not exist in original version

Time Limit: Choose from five-time levels
BGM Version: Choose from 2 BGM order types; TYPE 1 starts with Shake the Street, TYPE 2 starts with Rush a Difficulty

Gear Type: Choose between Switch (tapping the Gear Change button will switch between High and Low) and Hold (press and hold Gear Change for Low, release for High) types

Screen Size: Choose between Normal (4:3, same as the original), Wide (Screen stretched to fit with 3DS’ upper screen), Full (Fills the entire upper screen), or Reduced (To give the situation of playing in arcades)

Cabinet Type: Cockpit re-enacts the red cabinet most common in Japan. Deluxe is a white cabinet, the same as the first OutRun. Upright is playing while standing. Cockpit (Moving Cockpit) is the same cabinet as Cockpit but will move based on steer movement like Deluxe.

Equaliser: Process the sounds played from the game

Environment Sounds: If set to “On”, it will play various sounds from other game cabinets, to give the feel of playing in arcades

Engine Volume: The volume for engine sound can be set in three levels

BGM Test: Can listen to the in-game music anytime

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