Burnout Legends

Burnout Legends for PSP is a 2005 arcade racing game from Criterion Games and Electronic Arts that brings the series’ high-speed, collision-heavy style to PlayStation Portable. Rather than adapting a single earlier entry, it reshapes tracks, crash junctions and event ideas associated with Burnout, Burnout 2: Point of Impact and Burnout 3: Takedown for a handheld campaign. The emphasis is on aggressive driving: reaching the finish line matters, but forcing rivals into wrecks and surviving the resulting traffic chaos are just as central to the experience.

The PSP game uses the analog stick or directional buttons to steer, with acceleration and braking mapped to the face buttons. Risky driving feeds the boost system: weaving through traffic, driving into oncoming lanes, drifting through bends and catching air can add to the meter, while a successful Takedown gives a particularly valuable reward. Takedowns occur when a driver sends a rival off the road, and the game also lets a crashed car be guided with Aftertouch during slow-motion Impact Time, creating opportunities to collide with traffic or another racer after the initial impact.

World Tour supplies the main single-player progression. Events are organized around vehicle classes, with medals and Burnout Points earned for performance and forceful driving. The points and event results unlock further rewards, including cars. Its event roster covers straightforward races, timed laps, Road Rage challenges built around taking down opponents, police Pursuit events, Eliminator races in which the last-place driver is removed each lap, and Face-Off contests against special cars. Single Event options provide a way to select race or crash activities outside that progression structure.

Crash events turn the usual race objective inside out. The player launches a vehicle into a busy junction and tries to create an expensive chain reaction, using positioning, traffic and Crashbreaker explosions to extend the destruction. A Crashbreaker can be activated after collecting the relevant pickup, while Aftertouch helps steer the tumbling vehicle toward more cars and bonuses. This score-focused format stands apart from the circuit events, making the same controls serve both precision racing and carefully timed pileups.

Burnout Legends also uses the PSP’s local wireless features for multiplayer. Players can set up individual matches or custom tournaments in modes including Race, Road Rage, Pursuit, Party Crash and Double Impact, with available events varying by player count. Collector Challenges add a competitive unlock path for special vehicles: players race head-to-head for the chance to add the opposing vehicle type to their own garage. The PSP version’s Game Sharing option is especially distinctive, allowing a host to copy a limited event to another PSP so a friend without the UMD can join a head-to-head game or try a single-player demo.

As a portable entry in the Burnout series, Burnout Legends is closely tied to the Takedown-era approach while drawing material from the franchise’s first three games. Its redesigned returning locations, large mix of event types and quick-access single events suit short handheld sessions without abandoning a longer World Tour. The game later received a separate Nintendo DS version developed by Visual Impact; the description here concerns the Criterion-developed PSP release, whose control layout, local wireless multiplayer and Game Sharing make it a distinct version of Burnout Legends.