This is a fourteen-year-old’s fever dream after glimpsing a poster for fast & furious: no characters, real cars, stakes, narrative, just a visceral piss-colour-graded world tour that could only have emerged from a series building upon itself in isolation without any real-world reference: an automotive dream-world, an underworld to Forza’s sunny utopia.

I yearn for a timeline where Burnout wasn’t abandoned, and for tracks full of character to remain at the core of the arcade racer experience. Despite tech advancements, even Paradise didn’t quite capture the off-kilter energy of Criterion’s peak of Takedown and Revenge.

Reviewed on Feb 19, 2023


2 Comments


1 year ago

the soundtrack in this alone... used to love racing to the Bloc Party and The Academy Is... tracks.

the only Burnout games i've spent a significant amount of time with were this and Paradise. Paradise was fun for what it is but obviously not the same thing as this one. i'd like to go back and play some of the other titles eventually.

1 year ago

Highly recommend Takedown, as it’s definitely their best. Though playing it after Revenge/Paradise may be a little jarring as it’s very bright&colourful with a slightly grating (now) pop-punk soundtrack, but it did have the best tracks and diversity of locations.

revenge does improve on certain areas (shortcuts/combat), and aesthetically seems more restrained/unique now (tho the 360 version has insane bloom).