OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast has the kind of overly exuberant and sun-soaked design that makes me more than willing to put up with its kind of clunky physics and intense grind because it is so beautiful to look at. When on the highway, the next stage's background elements grow out of the ground as the sky morphs into new colors. The stage variety is vast with each stage having specific corners meant to test the driver and visual language that spans from casinos to the Milky Way. This game came out when manufacturer-specific racing games were still popular, but this officially licensed, all-Ferrari lineup puts all of those games to shame by featuring the then fresh models while also going all the way back classics like the Testarossa and even further with the 250 GTO. It captures the free-spirited dream of the Cannonball Run, a cross-country race featuring fast and stunning vistas the same way the 1986 arcade game did while modernizing it for a Y2K audience with a healthy does of Frutiger Aero. Much like how the original is an aesthetic time capsule of the 80s, Coast 2 Coast is a hydrating injection of optimism for the future. OutRun 2006 radiates glee in every part of the experience.

Can't think of a more definitive driving game. OutRun's romantic vistas and roadsmart gameplay get translated perfectly to 3D, with tasteful additions like the slipstream, drifting and a cute mission mode where you make your girlfriend happy while driving that are absolutely faithful to the original game's purity. You could argue this sequel is a much easier game than the first, but it's above all a much more cozy game to play. Now you don't have to worry about things like guessing depth perception or playing tug of war with every turn! It's smooth driving and decision making at its most distilled, making for a game that's easy to indulge and explore to your heart's content.

I may have a fear of driving or a massive disinterest in car culture on the whole, but I love OutRun 2.

I loved the hell outta this game, my favourite OutRun game to date!

Brilliant music, beautiful visuals and amazing gameplay with immense replayability.

Loved it. Too bad I busted up my PS2, making it impossible for me to replay any games until I buy a replacement :(

OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast is probably canon.

The light turns green. The engine you've been reving starts putting power down the pavement. A few seconds pass and everything gets squished on the screen as speed really kicks in. You have a passenger. 'I wanna go far away' she says. Boy, me too.

The game is quite a package. Starting up you can choose between two games: Coast 2 Coast and Outrun 2 are both on the disk. You could log in to Outrun Online to play multiplayer via the internet and share unlocks with the PSP version. Some music tracks can only be unlocked in specific versions, so if you are playing the PlayStation 2 version a few music tracks will be unavailable to you. Just a little something to remind you that everything dies one day.

I'll explain the titular OutRun for those who have somehow never seen this concept, you get in a Ferrari, you drive on a highway. At the end of the stage the road diverts: you can choose between two stages. The map builds out like a binary tree from these choices. A timer ticks down. Reach a new stage and get some extra time. It's a classic for a reason, just prime video games.

Other than the classic OutRun mode, two other modes are also present. In Heartbreak your companion gives you mini challenges for each stage, ranking you on how well you do on them. Get a high overall ranking and you will unlock a new girlfriend. Race mode turns the map into a linear line of stages to drive through, throwing in a reversed mode and playing around with their order. Both of these are fun additions, I could easily imagine being satisfied if these were the only modes I played in the game.

The game's arcadey physics are heavily exaggerated. Ferraris are sliding around like Initial D cars here. Do a powerslide at 250 and barely lose speed. Engine response acts as if you had the biggest turbos on them, step on the gas and the power only really kicks in a second later. You are wrestling with the car just enough to use steering sparingly. The physics feel like what an eight year old thinks driving fast must feel like. It's so goddamn good.

To be frank, I was never really a Ferrari guy, but this game changed this. I love these cars. These versions are as real as they gonna get for me. The cars are grouped by difficulty, and it doesn't seem to have any differences in them within a category. The difference between categories is also negligible in feeling. I'm not entirely convinced that easier cars feel easier purely because the game tells me so.

We have two main mechanics. Slam the handbrake while turning and step on the gas again to do a Powerslide. They let you take tight turns at high speeds, but coming out of the turn you'll have to stabilize. At best you won't accelerate, at worst you will crash. It takes a while to learn when to use them, but the game usually is nice enough to warn you with big red arrows on the side of the road indicating harder turns. Now stay behind a car to Slipstream. Less air resistance means you accelerate quicker, this even allows you surpass the maximum your engine can do. Stay too focused on sticking to someones behind and you will miss the road. Both of these mechanics focus on bringing more out of your car than the manufacturer intended. They seduce you towards the edge. It's a delicious balancing act.

In the original OutRun (1986, as seen in Yakuza 0 (2015)) the cars simply had two gears: LOW/HIGH like a tractor. This served its purpose very well, you kept the car in low to let the torque get you moving, slammed it into high to start scraping the bottom of 300 kilometers an hour. All you really needed. In Coast 2 Coast however, the cars feature more realistic gears, ranging from 5 to 6. The vast majority of your time will be spent in max gear, very rarely shifting down to the one before it. It's fine I guess, not the biggest issue. I do feel like the low/high system was a lot cleaner. That was video games. This is something that sounds cool in a marketing blurb.

Please don't play this in automatic. Do yourself a favor.

I feel like I'm being too negative. Am I nitpicking? A normal person would not notice any of the things I'm talking about. Trust me on this though: go "far away" enough and your sanity too will shred off. The scenery relentlessly passes by. Every second you look at this game as an outsider is nonsense. Drive it and it all makes sense suddenly. This is Sega at their finest.