FlatOut : Head On

FlatOut: Head On for PSP is a 2008 arcade racing game developed by Six by Nine and published by Empire Interactive. It brings the collision-heavy FlatOut formula to Sony's handheld as a portable entry built around the second game and its Ultimate Carnage-era material, rather than a direct release of the original FlatOut. The result is a race-and-wreck package in which finishing first matters, but so does smashing scenery, surviving impacts and sending rival cars spinning.

The central FlatOut mode acts as the game's career. Players choose from the series' derby, race and street vehicle classes and enter event sets that mix conventional circuit competition with more destructive diversions. Good tournament placings open the way to later events, while the money earned through progress can be spent on cars and their upgrades. The emphasis remains arcade driving: vehicles slide through corners, shortcuts can change a race, and hard contact is part of the contest instead of something to avoid at all costs.

Its tracks move between environments such as rural routes, desert terrain and city streets, with breakable objects and crowded courses that give the racing a deliberately unruly character. Checkpoint-style events and standard laps share space with destruction derbies, where eliminating or disabling opponents becomes the goal. The game also includes Beat the Bomb challenges, putting a time limit on reaching the next checkpoint before the explosive attached to the car ends the attempt.

Carnage mode concentrates the PSP game's more specialized challenges into a separate progression of 36 events. Carnage races reward both speed and the damage caused along the way, while derby battles and timed objectives ask for different uses of the same aggressive driving model. Completing the challenges earns medals and unlocks further content, giving single-player play a second route beyond the championship structure. A Single Event option is available for jumping directly into unlocked races, derbies and stunt activities.

The series' signature ragdoll stunts are also a major part of FlatOut: Head On. In these events, a suitably forceful crash launches the driver through the windscreen, and the player tries to send that human projectile toward targets or score zones. Activities use variations on sports and target games, including bowling, basketball and baseball-style challenges. They turn the crash physics from a racing hazard into the point of the event, creating a distinct contrast with the track and arena modes.

FlatOut: Head On supports PSP Ad Hoc multiplayer for head-to-head racing, and its Party Mode lets up to eight people take turns at stunt events on a shared system. That local, pick-up-and-play design fits the handheld release while preserving the series' mix of speed, damage and comic chaos. As the FlatOut franchise's dedicated PSP installment, it offers a substantial selection of career races, challenge events, destruction derbies and driver-launching stunts in one portable racing game.