Blur Review - Xbox 360

8

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 7
Audio: 5
Multiplayer: 9
Innovation: 7

Introduction

Much of my childhood was spent with the Mario Kart series. Hours in Mario Kart 64 (note: it doesn’t hold up today), and a surprisingly long time with Double Dash!! for Gamecube too – a game I felt was unfairly maligned by the press. When it came to Mario Kart Wii, though, I was disappointed. It felt like a B-grade effort with few standout courses. With Blur, Activision and Bizarre Creations unashamedly mimic the classic franchise, bringing arcade style power-ups to traditional car racing, and it’s awesome.

Gameplay

I was never a simulation car-racing fan. I know some people enjoy the tweaking of specs and slow progression up through classes, but to me the actual racing just never held the same excitement as a race with weapons. Blur presents a fantastic mix of the genres – real cars, real courses, unreal weapons. Let’s start with the latter. There’s a good variety, from the purple Barge that shoves passing cars sideways, to the red Shunt that homes in on players in front. The green Nitro gives you a boost of speed or, fired in reverse, becomes an instant air brake that helps avoid incoming attacks. Pink Bolts give you three non-homing shots, while orange Mines are exactly as you’d expect. There are Shield and Repair power-ups for defence, and the blue Shock sets up EMP fields in front of the first place cars to slow them down. So yes, you see the Mario Kart lineage. Unlike that game, weapons aren’t random and individual icons appear in different locations on the course, so you can make a beeline to the equipment you need.

The courses are set in the real world and often make use of sharp hairpin turns through city streets, which generally results in your car slamming into a wall at high speed. It’s just too fast-paced a game to want to release the accelerator and try to drift around a corner gently. You can spot the driving nuts online if they manage to corner correctly – everyone else is just here to have fun. With plenty of locations and a few different courses in each setting, there’s a ton of variety, though as with every game you’ll have your favourites. You’ll need to remember what they’re like when choosing between grippy or off-road cars, because despite the car class indication (A, B, C etc.) it doesn’t really advise you whether you’ll be driving through sand or water.

Single player is not really where the game shines, though it does offer a few favourable improvements over traditional driving game progression. When racing, you’re not only aiming to come first (earning you five ‘lights’), but also to show off by taking out other cars and pulling off stunts to earn fans. Everything from a tiny drift to a masterful use of Nitro to make a sharp turn easy scores you fans, and at the end of the race your total helps you level up. With each new fan level you unlock new cars, which will make it easier ...