"Try to get as many 'HEARTS' as possible by meeting your girlfriend's demands."
In my review for the original OutRun, I referred to the game as an "i-15 simulator." Its distinctly Californian vistas and the frequency in which you pay witness to the most horrific car crashes imaginable rouse fond memories of nearly losing my life repeatedly on trips to and from my grandparent's home in Orange. Oh good, it was just a bus full of tourists that collided with a semi-truck and overturned, not me. Whew. Think I'll stop off for some McDonalds and pay triple the normal value for fries.
The original OutRun is a near-perfect simulacrum of this experience, and so it goes without saying that OutRun 2006's improved fidelity and more fluid controls provides a more accurate translation of that unique vibe. As with OutRun, your journey begins along the shore and branches out along one of several routes towards the more mountainous regions of California, and it's for this reason I picked it as one of the last games to play during my 2023 Summah Games series. It represents the trip back home. The vacation is over, it's time to leave the beaches and boardwalks behind and begin that long, harrowing trek back towards the drudgery of your everyday life - back to work and responsibilities, to the tired and familiar. It's the victory lap, and one last taste of Summah.
While the Shadow the Hedgehog-esque progression system accounts for a significant chunk of OutRun's replay value, Coast 2 Coast introduces a slew of additional modes and unlockables to pad out the game. Thankfully, a lot of this side content is worthwhile, and I personally found Heart Attack mode to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. In Heart Attack, you have to meet your girlfriend's "demands" in order to win her affection in addition to juggling your overall time. Girlfriends, am I right? All they do is nag, nag, nag. "Baby, take the trash out. Baby, you need to pay your bills. Baby, collect all the coins while drifting between traffic." Ugh. The ol' ball and chain...
The only real problem I had with OutRun 2006 is one that is uniquely me. I've spoken before about how I've been playing most PS2 games off a hard drive, and whether I just grabbed a bad dump of the game or there's some issue with the way Coast 2 Coast is being read in general, the soundtrack would not play for me at all. This is kind of a big deal, as anyone familiar with OutRun as a series would probably tell you. Listening to the radio is not only a major part of tying these games to the experience of racing through California, but the soundtrack is just really damn good. I resorted to playing the OST on my laptop, so this wasn't a total loss, but playing a deconstructed OutRun is less than ideal. Maybe I'll shell out 60$ for a used copy one day, but I'm not sure I like OutRun 2006 that much.
I'm going to eschew the Summah Index Scale for this one and say that the science on it is settled already. Probably for the best, as I've run out of goofy vehicle based "tests." Scraped the bottom of that barrel so hard I've broken through. Buncha bones on the other side... Concerning, but let's not dwell on that.
Not only is this patently Summah, but I can also see it entering into my annual rotation of games as something I can end the season on. That "trip back home" is just too perfect, and it is not something I am content with experiencing only once.
In my review for the original OutRun, I referred to the game as an "i-15 simulator." Its distinctly Californian vistas and the frequency in which you pay witness to the most horrific car crashes imaginable rouse fond memories of nearly losing my life repeatedly on trips to and from my grandparent's home in Orange. Oh good, it was just a bus full of tourists that collided with a semi-truck and overturned, not me. Whew. Think I'll stop off for some McDonalds and pay triple the normal value for fries.
The original OutRun is a near-perfect simulacrum of this experience, and so it goes without saying that OutRun 2006's improved fidelity and more fluid controls provides a more accurate translation of that unique vibe. As with OutRun, your journey begins along the shore and branches out along one of several routes towards the more mountainous regions of California, and it's for this reason I picked it as one of the last games to play during my 2023 Summah Games series. It represents the trip back home. The vacation is over, it's time to leave the beaches and boardwalks behind and begin that long, harrowing trek back towards the drudgery of your everyday life - back to work and responsibilities, to the tired and familiar. It's the victory lap, and one last taste of Summah.
While the Shadow the Hedgehog-esque progression system accounts for a significant chunk of OutRun's replay value, Coast 2 Coast introduces a slew of additional modes and unlockables to pad out the game. Thankfully, a lot of this side content is worthwhile, and I personally found Heart Attack mode to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. In Heart Attack, you have to meet your girlfriend's "demands" in order to win her affection in addition to juggling your overall time. Girlfriends, am I right? All they do is nag, nag, nag. "Baby, take the trash out. Baby, you need to pay your bills. Baby, collect all the coins while drifting between traffic." Ugh. The ol' ball and chain...
The only real problem I had with OutRun 2006 is one that is uniquely me. I've spoken before about how I've been playing most PS2 games off a hard drive, and whether I just grabbed a bad dump of the game or there's some issue with the way Coast 2 Coast is being read in general, the soundtrack would not play for me at all. This is kind of a big deal, as anyone familiar with OutRun as a series would probably tell you. Listening to the radio is not only a major part of tying these games to the experience of racing through California, but the soundtrack is just really damn good. I resorted to playing the OST on my laptop, so this wasn't a total loss, but playing a deconstructed OutRun is less than ideal. Maybe I'll shell out 60$ for a used copy one day, but I'm not sure I like OutRun 2006 that much.
I'm going to eschew the Summah Index Scale for this one and say that the science on it is settled already. Probably for the best, as I've run out of goofy vehicle based "tests." Scraped the bottom of that barrel so hard I've broken through. Buncha bones on the other side... Concerning, but let's not dwell on that.
Not only is this patently Summah, but I can also see it entering into my annual rotation of games as something I can end the season on. That "trip back home" is just too perfect, and it is not something I am content with experiencing only once.
3 Comments
@FallenGrace I could (and eventually will) find a better dump of the game, but having to yank the hard drive out and hook it all up to the PC... bleh. Having hard drive modded consoles is very convenient until you need to add anything to them.
My one friend absolutely loves this game too, looks rad
FallenGrace
8 months ago