Visually Burnout Legends is impressive. You have everything that Burnout 3 had visually, just at a smaller scale. This includes car reflections, wall scraping, ridiculous speeds, awesome frame rate, and metal bending crashes that are only exceeded by the replay cameras offered. The redesigned tracks from the previous Burnout titles are great to race on again even if you have played the prior games to death. The car models also impress, even if they are not licensed by auto manufactures. The presentation is great, giving gamers the old school map track selector, which was my favorite in Burnout 3. Choosing your next destination is a little wonky in Burnout Revenge, so I was happy to see the Burnout 3 way of choosing your route back in full effect. Overall, you will only be disappointed slightly if you are expecting something completely new, otherwise, this is Burnout at its core, and at its best, and holds up better than expected on the PSP.

Audio in Burnout Legends is exactly what you would expect from this series, nothing more, and nothing less. You have car crushing crash effects, high revving engine sounds, and your typical love it or hate it EA Trax music. Some of the sound effects from Burnout Revenge even make it into the game, such as the cheering crowds after a massive crash.

The gameplay, like in any good Burnout game, is flawless. You would think that a game that moves so fast and has so much crash potential would be frustrating and sloppy. For some reason that logic never has taken form with the Burnout series, and Burnout Legends, even on a smaller scale, plays just as well as its big brothers. You have all the speed, all the crashes, and all the modes including; Crash, Pursuit, Burning Lap, Road Rage, Eliminator, Race, Time attack, Legends Face Off, and Legends GP. You even have wireless Multiplayer action for up to four players in Race, Crash, Pursuit, and Road Rage modes. Want more? How about an all new championship structure, a progression system that offers frequent rewards keeping gamers coming back for quick bursts on the go. But that’s not all, you even have unlockable surprises in Burnout Legends, such as 25 unlockable cars, 5 of which you receive randomly depending on your specific copy of Burnout, with the other 20 unlocked by hooking up with friends via WiFi and playing challenges. Even cooler is the Game Sharing option, which allows you load a track from one PSP to another so two can race with only one UMD inserted.

To say that there is a lot under the hood in Burnout Legends would be an understatement. Criterion could have easily just ported Burnout 3 and gamers would have been content, and maybe a bit disappointed. The fact that Criterion went as far as to incorporate tracks that they had before the EA buyout is a great addition and welcome surprise. Fans of the Burnout series will be hard pressed not to be impressed by what was crammed into such a small disc. New fans of the series who are maybe trying Burnout Revenge for the first time can finally see what all the hoopla is about. In two words…BUY IT!