When I originally heard about this game, I heard of it as real-car racing with Mario Kart-esque power-ups. That sounded pretty fun to me, but I had no preperation for HOW fun it would actually be.
Blur mixes the things that I love from my two favorite racing games, Mario Kart and F-Zero. From Mario Kart, you have fairly arcadey racing and a slew of power-ups to pick up while you're doing it to try and knock your opponents down a peg. From F-Zero, you have a great sense of speed, destructable cars (each one has a health bar, but you have to get wrecked like five times before you're actually out of the race), and very packed races. The races with 15-20 racers are very common, and they're great manic fun. The AI' difficulty ain't no slouch, but it's definitely defeatable (even for a racing scrub like me ;p).
For being a racing game fairly grounded in reality with its asthetic, the presentation of the game really does lend itself to the title of "blur." From the lights on the cars, to the lights in the cities, to the wonderful neon glow of the powerups, this game really does do a lot to create an impression of speed on the player. There were some races I didn't even mind doing over and over to try and achieve different objectives just because those particular tracks were such fun pits of mayhem and speed! This is the only 360 racer I've played, but it's definitely one of the prettiest last-gen games I've played.
The power-ups add SO much strategy to a field where they could otherwise take away. Just about all of them have a primary (forward) and an alternate (backward) fire, from the mines to the boosts. A mine can be dropped behind you, or it can be launched forwards as a very powerful projectile. A boost can be used for a boost of speed, or as a burst of breaking power to make a tight corner juuuust how you want it. A Shunt can be fired forwards as a red-shell-like projectile, or can be launched behind you for a scary thing for your opponents to dodge. I loved the strategy and the variablility the power-ups added. Almost no race ever felt like it was 100% settled until the final flag had been waved.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you like arcadey racing games, you will love Blur. As a big fan of Mario Kart and F-Zero, this definitely filled the void of a lack of F-Zero last gen for me. This is definitely in the running for my favorite racing game of all time, and was a total treat to come upon so late in the year <3
Blur mixes the things that I love from my two favorite racing games, Mario Kart and F-Zero. From Mario Kart, you have fairly arcadey racing and a slew of power-ups to pick up while you're doing it to try and knock your opponents down a peg. From F-Zero, you have a great sense of speed, destructable cars (each one has a health bar, but you have to get wrecked like five times before you're actually out of the race), and very packed races. The races with 15-20 racers are very common, and they're great manic fun. The AI' difficulty ain't no slouch, but it's definitely defeatable (even for a racing scrub like me ;p).
For being a racing game fairly grounded in reality with its asthetic, the presentation of the game really does lend itself to the title of "blur." From the lights on the cars, to the lights in the cities, to the wonderful neon glow of the powerups, this game really does do a lot to create an impression of speed on the player. There were some races I didn't even mind doing over and over to try and achieve different objectives just because those particular tracks were such fun pits of mayhem and speed! This is the only 360 racer I've played, but it's definitely one of the prettiest last-gen games I've played.
The power-ups add SO much strategy to a field where they could otherwise take away. Just about all of them have a primary (forward) and an alternate (backward) fire, from the mines to the boosts. A mine can be dropped behind you, or it can be launched forwards as a very powerful projectile. A boost can be used for a boost of speed, or as a burst of breaking power to make a tight corner juuuust how you want it. A Shunt can be fired forwards as a red-shell-like projectile, or can be launched behind you for a scary thing for your opponents to dodge. I loved the strategy and the variablility the power-ups added. Almost no race ever felt like it was 100% settled until the final flag had been waved.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you like arcadey racing games, you will love Blur. As a big fan of Mario Kart and F-Zero, this definitely filled the void of a lack of F-Zero last gen for me. This is definitely in the running for my favorite racing game of all time, and was a total treat to come upon so late in the year <3