I'm almost sad that it's not a game called "Outrun Clones" where you have to outrun clones of yourself, but car games always bring out a special thing in Ross.
If this was anyone else's video, "imitators of a popular game called Outrun" would probably be my first assumption, but "Outrun Clones" sounds exactly like the title of the sort of weird obscure complex game he'd play.
the closest I could think that matches that concept is an old flash game I played on newgrounds called "the running clone" but in that its just one long quick time event as you have to press arrow keys in reaction to help your clone dodge obstacles for as long as you can in deadly game show.
I love the surreal elements that you pointed out in Outrun for how true to life they are. Sure, as an ADULT you notice the minor differences and permutations that make a road trip interesting, but what kid DIDNT end up on a roadtrip down a highway, with hours of strikingly similar agricultural fields or forests or buildings racing past? Complete with mountains in the distance that never seem to get closer, and an unnerving sense of permanence despite the speed youre actually moving.
you might be right. Now that you mention it, taking a road trip in The Crew 2 gives me a very unique feeling, since the map is a condensed version of the entirety of the united states. Every time I turn it on and just drive for a while with no destination, I end up somewhere that feels so believable and it almost seems like I'm really there.
Honestly, this looks like the PERFECT subject for a Game Dungeon. The car ones always turn out well (Test Drive III, The Crew, Trackmania 2: Canyon, Quarantine...). The fact it's a medley of weird stuff also helps it along a bit. Also, the car from Slipstream is PURE late-G1 Transformers. It's literally Battletrap's (Or Generations Roadtrap's) Vehicle Mode. Now things are starting to make sense. More later.
@@verrufen2642 There's definitely no bad ones, but there's some I don't come back to that often. Tyrian, Wolfenstein, Black Future '88 and The Secret World for example, aren't ones I go for. I prefer the weird ones like Construction Bob, Bip Bop, Harry Buster, stuff like that.
With 80's Overdrive, I thought what might bug you about the background is that the parallax is not programmed correctly, so when you turn, the background layers that are further away move faster than layers closer to the camera.
I thought for sure the thing annoying you about 80s Overdrive was that the PARALLAX EFFECT IS BACKWARDS. It makes me feel physically ill to look at. The closer items barely move while the farther ones rocket around the screen. It's an incredible oversight.
I was looking at it the first time and wouldn't have noticed until Ross said something was wrong. Kind of surprised it wasn't this, but glad that you could pin it down.
I noticed it immediately and couldn't stop paying attention to it. It was jarring enough that I didn't even notice the thing Ross was ACTUALLY referring to.
That's not exactly right. While the backdrop and the road are pretty out of sync, nothing is backwards here. The far away scenery WILL rocket through the screen if you _turn_ which is what's happening here. You're not simply moving left or right, your point of view rotates with the car. And in some of the stages, like the mountain range, you *can* see the distant mountains moving slower than the closer ones.
Really surprised to see that the "CannonBall" source port wasn't mention here given how it's classic OutRun but with a shitton of improvements and QoL touches....and custom map support, which is one thing that Ross really wanted out of Slipstream.
I'm sure Ross didn't knew about it... I mentioned the same. It's an excellent port, and the RetroArch version has all the options for driving to the horizon with the OutRun surreal feel, environment, modern resolutions (panoramic 16:9, for example), and more!
@@DioBrando-qr6ye glad i found these comments when you say mugen... do you mean it lets you create custom tracks? that's kind of the entire point of mugen
Just to let you know, Horizon Chase Turbo was actually going for the 90s Top Gear racing games with modern graphics. This is up to and getting the composer of said 90s games on board.
Ross is the only person that can verbalize the feelings I get from videogame environments and backgrounds. I just want to be there, run around and explore beyond what I can in the games.
A simple door texture on a wall can make you wonder for ages what's on the other side. I think thats why video games are my favorite forms of media. Like the story telling power of things as simple as the windowed rooms of the test chambers in Portal is just amazing.
One thing I love about Ross Scott is that he DOES what he LOVES… too many “creators” these days chase ad revenue relentlessly, with intrusive commercials and sponsors, begging for subscribers, and blog posts asking what kind of “content” we want to see from them. People used to participate in UA-cam because they loved it… and Ross STILL DOES! Broadcast Yourself, Ross!!!
@@Mountainmonths Yeah i HATE it when artist are able to buy food and pay rent. they should all starve and live in obscurity, never having gained recognition. thats how you know its a labor of love.
shout out to all those streamers stuck playing the same game years on end because if they play anything different their viewers will leave them. it would be a personal nightmare to be stuck playing the ever-worsening Overwatch for the past 6 or 7 years... like i like the game, but for around a week tops then stop for a few months then check it out again (kinda stopped after the free2play stuff, all the To Do lists really took fun out of it)
@@psyivy9169if you're going to take the economic angle, people are allowed to express dissatisfaction with a product. too much algo optimization is eventually a bad thing anyway.
@@psyivy9169I bet Ross also wants to earn tonload of bucks , but it is like the cool looking girl who could open an onlyfans and get lots of money but decides to not do that because it is no cool
When I played the Jurassic Park arcade machine (the one with the seat that was on pneumatic pistons to simulate all the bumps) for the umpteenth time, I started to notice similarities with the way they did the world environments between JP and with Outrun. Sega really had a knack for parallax and fast-moving chunky sprites. And delivering that immersion, too. Like when you burst out of the cramped underground area out into the big field for the first time.
This is what I love about Ross. You literally never have any idea what the next Game Dungeon will be about. Could be a new game, could be some old forgotten PC RPG, could be OutRun. You just never know. It could be anything.
And the great thing about this Game Dungeon in particular is that it wasn't even one game. He pretty much reviewed the entirety of 2.5D racing games. They were short games so fairly short explanation was needed for each game and it didn't feel like he was rushing any of them. I think he should consider doing more of these multiple similar games in one Game Dungeon videos more often. Not for every type of game out there because a lot of them deserve their time to shine but at least does that are short enough to do so.
I'm really happy to see Slipstream mentioned and valued for what it is, it's been mostly made by a single brazillian dev and he has gone through multiple iterations on the game to add features and improve performance.
Ross - KInda surprissed that you didn't come across the Cannonball engine when researching this video. It's an engine which runs the original arcade Outrun but with a host of improvements... including the the ability to raise the camera, so that the player can better see the track ahead of them.
What bugs me in the maps of 80's Overdrive (and what I guessed was bugging Ross) is that the far background image layers scroll wrong. The correct way of 2d background scrolling is that the closer the layer is to the camera, the faster it scrolls. 80's Overdrive does it almost completely inverted.
Not only this, but the layers scroll in opposite directions, which makes it even more distracting and unreal. The motion of the horizon is so exaggerated it gives the impression of it being some bizarre theatrical effect that is right in the foreground.
Hey Ross, just discovered your channel about a month ago and been binging your whole library. So cool to see a new episode come out! Thanks for all the awesome and consistent content over the past decade.
Horizon Chase is actually a spiritual successor to Lotus Turbo Challenge, to tie it back in to the start of the video. The composer for the soundtrack is the same from those games/Top Gear for the SNES!
I had the pleasure of meeting the dev for slipstream and he is a very chill and nice guy. You can add your custom music to the game and canonball is my favorite mode!
@@crunchbuttsteak8741 That too! I wish they were differentiated by car choices and AI behavior too. For example, Tofu Boy would only drive the white Arashi, and while some rivals may drive aggressively and try to ram you off the road, Norman is pretty chill and focuses solely on driving.
Those have been in Pokemon a couple of times, and everyone other than me apparently hates them. I'd rather have the fun guy rather than the toxic competitor though.
I saw a Testarossa in the wild just yesterday, I had no clue it was a sign! Sega referred to their pseudo-3d titles as "Super Scaler" games. Super Hang-On, Power Drift, Galaxy Force II, Space Harrier, that kind of thing. It was outmoded by their Model 1 hardware with titles like Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing. You can best anticipate the intensity of curves by watching how far the road moves across the horizon. Braking is vital for progressing, especially on hard curves and dense road population.
A great overview, Ross. A couple shout-outs to Outrun-adjacent games like Rad Racer for the NES, and a couple of my guilty pleasures: Outlander (a Mad Max game in all but name) and Technocop (a hybrid between Outrun and a side-scroller). Not incredible games but do their own unique thing well!
Regarding 80's Overdrive: if you run out of money, try to enter a race. The game will prompt you into a car-cleaning minigame where you'll get enough money to enter the race. You'll always get this if you have no money.
Ive had the lovely experience of being a passenger in a very fast car while off my ass on LSD, the way the hills come at you, and the way any vertical poles like the fence posts seem to just stop moving.. outruns visual quirks make it very fuckin close to that experience. The road turned into a half pipe, curving up the sides of the car at one point on the highway as well. My depth perception was non existent in that car.. Shit, I may have had one eye closed the whole time. Who knows, weird stuff, good times. 😆 Thanks for the flashback Ross!
I kinda love that your brought up Desert Bus without explaining what it is and why it would take a team to marathon it. We all know the nightmare that is Desert Bus :>
In regards to the whole 2D/2.5D/3D categorization; the correct terminology for these kind of titles are "sprite-scaling racing games", as they make use of the scaling of sprites to provide an illusion of three dimensions.
Mechanically they're just 2D top-down racers with a different PoV - 2.5D games are usually 3D games with one dead axis when it comes to movement For me the bigger question is about 3D games that ignore an axis when it comes to physics like the pre-NR4 Papyrus racing games. In their case, they're 3D for all intents and purposes... but the cars never take off no matter who or what you hit
@@pissingeverywhere Nope. Sprite-scaling games were around long before the SNES was ever conceived of, much less released in stores and they continued to be made after the SNES' shelf-life. More to the point; Mode 7 is a graphics mode exclusive to the SNES console. "Sprite-scaling" or "psuedo-3D" is the correct terminology.
Car nerd here, thought I'd point out the first car you chose in 80's OD was in fact based on the BMW M1. It has a smaller engine that the Testarossa, in fact. Awesome video!
Correct. It's not nearly as fast as it looks. 3.5 liter naturally aspirated inline-6 engine, 270 horsepower, compared to the 385 hp 5 liter flat-12 in the Testarossa. A Mustang outruns this thing. On the other hand, that flat-12 is remarkably underpowered and overengineered. A common theme with Ferrari.
If yall like outrun clones check out "Oh, Deer!" by Necrosoft. You drift a station wagon avoiding deer on the way to grandmas house. Soundtrack by one of the streets of rage composers. 10/10
I was hoping there would be a mention of this too. Annoyingly I dont think there is a legit way to get a copy anymore. Delisted or removed on steam and itch for whatever reason.
Oh weird seeing Necrosoft mentioned on this channel. I listen to the Insert Credit podcast from time to time with Brandon Sheffield (their director). It’s weird since Tim Rogers (also on Insert Credit) is my other UA-cam long form games content goblin outside of Ross.
If Ross can will software into existence that auto-translates games from German for him, it's only a matter of time before someone here makes his ideal OutRun clone complete with Trackmania-style creation tools and custom track repository. Hopefully it's easier on his CPU than the translator was.
It’s weird now that you mentioned it...this feels like a mapmaker trackmaker would be amazing staple add ons to Outrun genre driving games... Oh no I also think it should be a lot like SSX Tricky to access different drivers/car configs/drips, & have those multiple path segments within the linear track so you can separate from the main course a bit before it meets up again, & different driving materials as a challenge or choice in courses (ice, gravel, snow, sand, dirt, mud, multiple pavement types, ways to create the weather you drive in + surface + time od day/year), & you can drive against every other driver or in 1on1 personalized vendetta drag race duels as options, or with style or challenge modes, or whatever, & try to chain courses as options post-game, add some secrets, ragdoll everything, do a license deal with Spotify or a specific set of labels that actually accommodates a full lifespan of the game + plans for how to hand over to new artists/labels once current licensing sunsets so there’s a plan to hand it over to a preservation + mod minded community after a natural game-span that isn’t a 😒whim of an executive who thinks anything under 5M User Base means they have to Old Yeller it behind a shed months after release 🥺. I’d want single player or multi, on & offline. Normally I’d play alone offline but tbh a Halloween Heck Ride where the challenge is to squish all the pumpkins with your motorcycle for Halloween only, with “golden pumpkins” findable or smthg, or a Harley Davidson sponsored Xmas Toy Run that did the solidarity ride plus was a fundraiser for Santas On Wheels or whoever - that would draw me to play online once in awhile as long as the events were not impossible for casuals to enjoy. Deathmatches should be optional lol.
I genuinely started mulling over how hard would it be to pull that off in godot or something... But eh, I've had my fill of outrun clones back in the J2ME days imho.
I think procedural generation could work, but specifically using a technique from two other games. Audiosurf and Beat Hazard. What they do is use audio files as seeds, and then score it with the file. So, what they do is make it out of your music. Now, imagine that with an Outrun clone. Use tonal data for the setting, use the highs and lows and stuff for the track shape, and it's as long as the song, but have a playlist mode where you cue up multiple songs for the long multienvironment run experience. Scoring is based on the distance you get on the track. Call it Tracklist.
Something similar already exists/existed - Riff Racer. Existed, because main server (since it was online competition like Audiosurf is) is now down unfortunately. You can still play it with a few tweaks, but no new scores are saved. Then we also have Melody's Escape, which is also another variation of Audiosurf, but without cars (more like Audiosprint, if you have ever played Audiosurf 2).
@@mantazzoOooh yeah, I forgot about those! Still, with the servers down, it's kinda sad. I'd love to see one that does the Outrun style and 2.5, allowing for a massive cache of sprites for all sorts of things.
Ross, with all the driving games you seem to enjoy, and October coming up soon, you should check out 'Beware'. It's a first-person driving sim in which you're followed by rural weirdos in varying vehicles, and have to use quick thinking, driving skills, and map knowledge to escape them.
Speaking of moddable outrun, there is one project called CannonBall, which is basically Open Source Outrun. It even have level editor so probably with some tinkering, you can make some mods to it
@@initial_kd BTW - just remembered that Hang On technically wasn't their first game using this type of engine. Buck Rogers (Sega 1983) came out two years earlier. Kind of choppy but still very impressive for something that runs on the C64. It's kind of the prototype for other arcade hits like After Burner and Space Harrier.
A little something about horizon chase turbo: It's meant to be a successor to the SNES top gear games (highly recomend these btw), which are still sold in Brazil (they still make SNES's and Sega Genesis, under other companies, they sometimes even make new games). It has lots of references to brazillian racing culture (as you can see from the DLCs). It saddly has no online multiplayer but its a blast with local play. The music is inspired by Top Gear too.
I call them billboard racers not just because they have a ton of billboards along the road but because it's the rendering technique used to simulate 3D.
Fun fact about outrun! The difficulty of the tracks correlate to which turns you take. if you look at the map in the lower right, the higher route you take the more difficult the tracks are supposed to be. Similar to Sonic level design, and both games were developed/published by SEGA. How about that?
I'm surprised there was no mention of Buck Up And Drive. I don't think it's quite what Ross is looking for, it's mostly just an endless mode driving through random environments, but it has some unique mechanics and visuals that make it a blast to play. It's definitely worth, at the very least, a look.
@@bosstowndynamics5488 I mean, it's not just some racing game. it's a 2.5D arcade racer from 2021. it's definitely within the scope of this video. it just plays kinda differently, there's mini turbos like in Mario Kart, and otherwise it has a lot of the qualities that Ross said make a game different from outrun in his opinion. nevertheless, I'm fairly confident the only reason it wasn't mentioned is that Ross just hadn't heard of it.
@@xchuck6871 I guess, but he did have a long list of other games that also fit those criteria that he mentioned as being excluded and only brought up to pre-empt people suggesting them in the comments. It's entirely possible he has heard of it but chose to exclude it and just thought it was so obscure no one else would notice
Oh my God this episode was amazing, you were so very articulate and captured everything good and bad about these games, and got me hooked on outrun 2006! This video is indeed impacting my life for the better, and I thank you for that!
The Outrun's feeling that you're travelling to different worlds as you drive reminds me of Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber novel, where Corwin drove a car to shift between several worlds.
My favorite game dungeons are ones where Ross really latches onto a menial aspect of a game because it offers a glimpse into the true madness of life, and then proceeds to review sequels/successors of the game until they fumble his vision for gaming greatness
Ross, the timely drop of this Game Dungeon gave me and my ragtag group of friends the motivation needed to win our local men’s basketball championship and save the youth center from being turned into a mini mall. Thank you for all you do!
Really surprised by the lack of Buck Up And Drive! on here. It was one of my most anticipated games of last year and I think it really delivered on the idea of a modern Outrun game with new unique mechanics.
There's a recent 2.5D racer with a more hand-drawn graphics style called Buck Up And Drive that might interest you for this type of stuff. It has a few extra things like a fighting game-style mode, and rail grinding like it's a downhill jam. The upcoming Victory Heat Rally is based on some of the later super-scalers as well.
I honestly could never get into it, even when there were news that the next would be the last. Got any recommendations on which particular one to start?
@@Skeletons_Riding_Ostriches I meant an episode of Let' Drown Out, and also WOW Quadralien episode would be a pretty a rough start, although definitely a good experience overall
I've been following this series for nearly a decade... rewatched most of the episodes at least half a dozen times... and somehow, that Balin art is the most random thing I've seen yet on Game Dungeon.
Oh that's why it didn't get mentioned. Very Ridge Racer in terms of textures, but with garish colors, and no distortion.Aaand it's trapped in early-access hell.
Here's one you might have missed or maybe it just isn't right. "Race the sun". it's minimalistic (red flag there) but it's got this way about it, since the "track" changes every day. Not every run, each DAY. But it's mostly just you on your (Ship?) vehicle trying to just keep going. There are gates that lead to secret levels with great art. It's great to play while listening to an audiobook.
As someone who road-tripped across America throughout the month of June from Boca Raton to San Diego to Seattle (inspired in part by your The Crew and Arcade America videos), I am very glad for this video. Thanks, Ross. :)
You mentioned you remember OutRun 2 being more vibrant, and since I also remembered it way more colorful and shiny I went looking and comparing footage and I think they changed some stuff when porting from the original arcade release, the footage from the arcade version has colors popping a lot more and a nice bloom, not as much as in the console footage but very noticeable. Also Horizon Chase is mainly inspired by the Gremlin Interactive's Top Gear series for the SNES/Mega Drive, which were very influential in Brazil. A lot of the vibes and the gameplay is a direct response to that series, not OutRun, but since during the 80's that's kinda how racing games looked overall I can see why someone would think that. The original games were also extremely fast, Top Gear 2 on later levels had crazy turns for the speed you went in, but in Horizon they really ramped it up to 11 since you really never slow down.
I was gonna go to bed but then I saw your vid come up. I got ready for bed, a tea, and a lot of roms on a steam deck to scrape. What a great end to the night! Thanks.
Something about horizon chase that made it special to me was the multiplayer. I bought the game because I was on an outrun kick at the time and thought it was a lot of fun, but when I showed my friends we COULD NOT GET ENOUGH. We spent all night playing the story mode and unlocking everything. I felt like a kid again lol. It was great.
Ross looking beyond the gameplay at the environment and imagining all kinds of stuff is why I love watching Game Dungeon. I recognize a lot of myself from Ross' approach to games and not only their gameplay but also their art direction and style.
I honestly thought this video was gonna be about Ross's continued efforts to evade his doppelgangers, but that's more on me for not knowing about Outrun. Still a treat.
Google says that 80s Overdrive allows you to wash cars to get a bit of money if you're broke. But it seems like it's hidden enough for Ross to miss it - and even knowing the option exists I have no idea where I'd go looking for it in the first place.
He Ross, i love the video every time. Just for fun trivia, the Testosterando looks based on the BMW M1. Intruder Turbo is the Ferrari 308, De Loan is Delorian (obviously), Aggressor is the Porsche 959, Penetrator is the Lamborghini Countach, and the Tensor V12 is the Vector V12. Please keep up the good work, absolutely love game dungeons. Thanks!
Horizon Chase NEVER tried to be like Outrun or Pole Position. The game is very inspired by Top Gear (the game, not the show). They even got one of the music tracks being very similar to one of the Top Gear ones (i think it was the first one), i think that track was even made by the original composer of the Top Gear one. All that explains why you probably didnt liked it much, because you were looking for something that was never there. Also, the game was first made for mobile and later ported to pc.
Here's an idea to improve Outrun's generic starts. Not only you get two or more starting areas, but instead of waiting for you to finish a route, put the split [or a 3-way split] about 50% of the way in. One path continues this track, while the other[s] will start adding elements of other tracks. Sticking to the beach theme, for example, one of these remains the coastline, while the other is into the urban area. You then add the regular road splits. In this case, though, both of the roads you took still count as the 'beach' track. They can definitely lead to different paths, but they do this by having one 'super size' stage at a time, rather than make you choose between Beach Stage A and Beach Stage B. I think that's really the issue Ross has. There's no variety to the start. But if you make the start itself have at least two options inherent to it, you can reduce the raw repetition. Maybe one path has more curves and the other is more straightforward but has more traffic.
To bring more context to Horizon Chase Turbo: the game fashioned itself as a redux of... Top Gear for the SNES! - a game that featured laps around a circuit, fuel management, and a nigh-inexistent need to brake for corners. In fact, the inspiration was so heavy that the development studio hired the original Top Gear composer to remix several of his own songs into Horizon Chase.
I mean, given the Sonic inspired touches of Slipstream, it's not surprising they went with a dissonant soundtrack. There's nothing more true to the soul of the Sonic experience than existential dread at 120 mph.
I have played a lot of these Outrun clones. I'm not a massive Outrun fan, I've always been more a sim guy, but I do like dabbling in a lot of these arcade racers. And I do have a lot of thoughts on most of the titles shown here. 1. Slipstream definitely captures that Outrun vibe. The speed is just about right and the sprite work is quite nice. Can't really complain on it but the skill ceiling really does not do anyone with old hands any favours. It really does favour quick fingers. Also, Marble Garden does resemble places like in Greece or Agrigento. If it isn't parched by the Sun. 2. 80's Overdrive. Odd title spelling aside, it is still pretty solid. I haven't gotten that far in it but it still fun. Although I can't help but wonder sometimes when people try to recreate the look of the 80s, they seem to go way overboard with the vibrant neon colours and constant synthwave. Well, it is part of it but only if you're like Michael Mann and you're producing Miami Vice, but the 80s wasn't *that* over the top colourful. Really, the show Murder, She Wrote seemed to capture the everyday look of the 80s better than Miami Vice. Also, I'm willing to give Ross the benefit of the doubt since he's no expert on cars, but my inner car nerd senses are tingling. That Testosterando Ross was driving is a BMW M1, basically a road going race car of the 70s and 80s. That "bug" is a Fiat 500... or at least a boosted 500. The only Fiat 500 that I know that goes that fast... aside from any Forza game is in R: Racing, which is a subject in of itself. The only Ferrari lookalike in the game is the Intruder Turbo which is based on the Ferrari 288 GTO. Again, car nerd. Also again, there is such thing as police precincts that have supercars in their arsenal. Look no further than Dubai which includes in their official police lineup an Aston Martin One-77, a Bugatti Veyron, a Ferrari FF, a Mercedes-AMG GT R, a Nissan GT-R, a Porsche 918 and even a Rolls-Royce Wraith. Australian police cars aren't as exotic but they used to run HSV Commodores as official cruisers, Subaru WRXs for mostly outback and patrol duty but now they mostly run souped up BMWs. 3. 198X. Definitely a game I had a beef with. While it is kinda fun, it doesn't hold your hand. I had to learn the hard way trying to find the "Continue" button. I checked and there isn't a button layout menu in game. I had to guess which button on the controller actually continued the game. So yeah, not fun. 4. Horizon Chase Turbo. I never really noticed how fast the game played until Ross mentioned it. I suppose my reflexes are a lot quicker but still not quick for this game. Yeah, it definitely favours the young if they can master it. The Senna DLC is perhaps the best of the game. I am a nerd for that time period of Formula One and Senna definitely was an interesting fella in the sport. 5. Cruis'n. Not much to say. I've played the original version when it was on the Wii. Still fun though. However, if Ross thinks the contrast in Horizon and other games were overblown, that's nothing compared to Cruis'n Blast which just assaults your eyes with constant blinding neon colours. Hotshot Racing seems to play more like Scud Race than Daytona USA. It definitely has a style and quirkiness to it, especially the ending shorts for each of the drivers. Forza Horizon 4 is... well, it pales in comparison to Horizon 3 and H4 is it's own little bag of controversy. Lastly, the only real OutRun game I played was OutRun Online Arcade on the 360. Really good little game that you can't buy anymore because of licensing issues. Still on my 360 harddrive somewhere. As for if OutRun will ever make a return, I'm gonna go with no. Right now, Sega is too preoccupied milking the Sonic franchise to care about most of their other IPs. Except for maybe the Like A Dragon series. I yearn for the day to see games like Sega Rally, Daytone USA and maybe Sega Touring Cars to make a return. Anything but constant Sonic games coming out of Sega. But that is but a pipe dream. And finally, the only OutRun clone that might be up Ross' alley that I can think of is Neodori Forever. It has multiple cities, procedurally generated tracks, good music and is challenging enough to keep you on your toes. Worth a look.
OutRun has adjustable difficulty by means of DIP switches. The time limits and the amount of traffic are adjustable by the machine's owner. And it very much pays to be using the original arcade machine controls. Analog steering, yes, but also the gearshift. One very important technique in OutRun is that, instead of using the brake, you can *downshift while at top speed*, with the pedal to the metal, to burn off some speed going into a turn. Your virtual Ferrari won't mind at all. As soon as you're pointed down the road, upshift again.
I love this channel; the only chill game retrospective channel where musing on Outrun turns into pondering an existential crisis involving a saying about the soul.
Holy crap, Ross mentioning Desert Bus (and their organizers Loading Ready Run) wasn't something I expected! Two of my favorite underrated channels on this website!
My boy! Out Run was a game i was trying to remember a few months ago as well. Great times! Love your content and glad you still make some after the Freeman's Mind hype.
I'm surprised to not see 'Buck Up And Drive!' on the list. It's maybe not a 1 to 1 because its added a trick and score system, but it's still very much an Out Run clone at heart and it came out within just the last year.
If you want a VERY weird Outrun Clone, look into "Oh Deer", it's an Outrun clone with a morality system that determines your route. Has an amazing sound track too.
0:53 I call them superscaler racers. Speaking of higher resolution, Cannonball is the original Outrun engine rewritten from scratch with new features like widescreen, high resolution and 60fps. Shout-outs to Buck Up And Drive! and Victory Heat Rally.
Always a good day when there's a new game dungeon. Doubly so when it's a racer as Ross just always has a certain passion and energy to him with these that is seconded only to the Halloween episodes.
Ok, now that you’ve said it, you’d be a awesome guest on Desert Bus For Hope! You should totally reach out to them and talk games. It’s an awesome charity event!
I have been looking for a true modern Out Run game for a long time indeed. I always get suggestions like the ones in this list but none is quite the same thing indeed, just like you showcase with this video.
You should check out 'dead end road.' It's a driving game that's not primarily about racing like outrun, but it's more horror themed. It's a little rough around the edges but kind of a sleeper favorite of mine. Also 'Buck Up and Drive.'
Im glad I'm not the only one who felt the speed in Horizon Chase Turbo. Once, I had some friends over at like 3 AM, and while we were chatting, I started playing HCT because i was trying to 100% it. I had gotten into the zone and was completely tuned out. After finishing a few courses in a row, one of them looked over and was just like "Man, I'm just watching, and I have no idea how you're doing that." The speed existential crisis is real.
Ross about the 80's Overdrive: "There's one thing that bugs me about it..." Me: "I bet it's the background parallax scrolling looking very weird for distant objects scrolling fast and near objects staying still." The Horizon Chase Turbo does render the 3d models like 2d sprites and you cannot really turn the camera. That could explain why it feels off even though it looks full 3d at first. This effect is quite easy to spot with bigger objects like buildings which act like 2d sprites. Also the Horizon Chase soundtrack was done by the legendary old school music composer Barry Leitch. As the game is a spiritual successor to SNES game Top Gear the soundtrack is continuation. I recall reading that Barry composed it like it would be his "last game soundtrack " and this would explain why it also has a slightly melancholic tone at places.
I'm sure it's not the same as what you're looking for, but I'm surprised Buck Up and Drive! wasn't in this video. It looks to me like exactly what you're talking about, but with some added stuff like car combat and rivals. Admittedly, it's got a bit of a speed problem too, but that's arcade racers for you. Anyway, hope this helps!
A little surprised there was no mention of Buck Up And Drive! Admittedly, it IS going for a different sort of thing, being, like, combat and trick focused, but it's definitely got heavy outrun inspiration. The mechanics might make it be too far to count, I suppose. Does do the 'textureless' thing. ...it also has a competitive 2p 'beat up the other player's car' mode which is pretty funny imo.
I'm almost sad that it's not a game called "Outrun Clones" where you have to outrun clones of yourself, but car games always bring out a special thing in Ross.
Isn’t that Echo game he played a couple years back kinda that?
If this was anyone else's video, "imitators of a popular game called Outrun" would probably be my first assumption, but "Outrun Clones" sounds exactly like the title of the sort of weird obscure complex game he'd play.
That game is called Mario Galaxy
no but seriously I like that idea too and want to see that being a game...
the closest I could think that matches that concept is an old flash game I played on newgrounds called "the running clone" but in that its just one long quick time event as you have to press arrow keys in reaction to help your clone dodge obstacles for as long as you can in deadly game show.
You mean like the parade level in A Hat in Time?
Oh look, a new Game Dungeon. Life suddenly has meaning again.
Except it's still not the next Freeman's mind. 🤷♂️
But we take what we can get
@@stealthfinger Who cares? Mooooore gaming dungeons. So many games, "Lost Vikings" forever also. Yeah.
Finally, I lost all purpose after losing my genitals to a penis flytrap.
Preach 🙏
One thing I like about Ross is he’s unabashedly pro-fun.
Thank you Ross.
Exactly.
Refreshing, considering all the constant propaganda from the radical, left wing, anti fun lobby.
I love the surreal elements that you pointed out in Outrun for how true to life they are. Sure, as an ADULT you notice the minor differences and permutations that make a road trip interesting, but what kid DIDNT end up on a roadtrip down a highway, with hours of strikingly similar agricultural fields or forests or buildings racing past? Complete with mountains in the distance that never seem to get closer, and an unnerving sense of permanence despite the speed youre actually moving.
you might be right. Now that you mention it, taking a road trip in The Crew 2 gives me a very unique feeling, since the map is a condensed version of the entirety of the united states. Every time I turn it on and just drive for a while with no destination, I end up somewhere that feels so believable and it almost seems like I'm really there.
Ah, another game dungeon. Now things are starting to make sense. I hope you and your family are having a happy labor day.
Labor go vroom vroom!
Welcome back Admiral
Go and spend some time with yours, admiral.
Always good to see you Admiral.
Thanks admiral
Honestly, this looks like the PERFECT subject for a Game Dungeon. The car ones always turn out well (Test Drive III, The Crew, Trackmania 2: Canyon, Quarantine...). The fact it's a medley of weird stuff also helps it along a bit.
Also, the car from Slipstream is PURE late-G1 Transformers. It's literally Battletrap's (Or Generations Roadtrap's) Vehicle Mode.
Now things are starting to make sense. More later.
Is there ever a bad game dungeon? 😅 I think I must have rewatched every episode at least a dozen times
@@verrufen2642 There's definitely no bad ones, but there's some I don't come back to that often. Tyrian, Wolfenstein, Black Future '88 and The Secret World for example, aren't ones I go for. I prefer the weird ones like Construction Bob, Bip Bop, Harry Buster, stuff like that.
That Maabus reference will never get old in Game Dungeon comment sections.
@@verrufen2642 idk I'm not a fan of Echo but that's mostly because I don't find the game in any way appealing or interesting
@@verrufen2642 Game Dungeons on games Ross doesn't really like don't tend to turn out that well.
This man has been consistently pumping out some of the best content on the entire internet for over 10 years and he doesn't get enough thanks for it.
i think its closer to 20 years at this point with freeman's mind (it started on the machinima website i think...)
I love how it's clearly just a happy side hobby. Though I wish it was slightly less of one, two Freeman's Minds a year is pretty torturous.
Larga mão de ser puxa saco
18 is your number.
Someone born on the release of freeman's mind 1 will be able to smoke before the end of the year.
Man, you know Ross is old school when he calls emojis emoticons.
I miss the early 2000s internet.
They're not the same thing, dude. :) is an emoticon, 😊is an emoji.
@@Bacxaber 😉🥺😠😇😝 are smilies!
@@Bacxaber Correct. That's why i pointed it out.
@@jcdenton2187 No, you insinuated that they're the same thing by different names. They're not.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.
Love the reference lol
"WAT? Get out of my scythe before I get to tear you a new one with it!"
Ye Lordeath, aka the stroyer of words, Terry Pratchett's
Ha, ha, ha! 😉
If Ross were a wizard, this wouldn't be happening.
I love the idea that Ross is a wizard
Damn selfish wizards. 😡
With 80's Overdrive, I thought what might bug you about the background is that the parallax is not programmed correctly, so when you turn, the background layers that are further away move faster than layers closer to the camera.
This bugged me the entire way through that segment, I was surprised Ross didn't mention it (or seemed bothered by it)
Same.
Right? My brain felt like it was bending through reality.
I totally thought this is what Ross meant to it looks wrong, but he never mentioned it. Very irritating indeed
Its one of those things that you might not see it, but if you do, you can't unsee it.
I thought for sure the thing annoying you about 80s Overdrive was that the PARALLAX EFFECT IS BACKWARDS. It makes me feel physically ill to look at. The closer items barely move while the farther ones rocket around the screen. It's an incredible oversight.
LMAO you're right. I knew something was off.
I was looking at it the first time and wouldn't have noticed until Ross said something was wrong. Kind of surprised it wasn't this, but glad that you could pin it down.
I noticed it immediately and couldn't stop paying attention to it. It was jarring enough that I didn't even notice the thing Ross was ACTUALLY referring to.
BIG SAME
That's not exactly right. While the backdrop and the road are pretty out of sync, nothing is backwards here. The far away scenery WILL rocket through the screen if you _turn_ which is what's happening here. You're not simply moving left or right, your point of view rotates with the car. And in some of the stages, like the mountain range, you *can* see the distant mountains moving slower than the closer ones.
Really surprised to see that the "CannonBall" source port wasn't mention here given how it's classic OutRun but with a shitton of improvements and QoL touches....and custom map support, which is one thing that Ross really wanted out of Slipstream.
I'm sure Ross didn't knew about it... I mentioned the same. It's an excellent port, and the RetroArch version has all the options for driving to the horizon with the OutRun surreal feel, environment, modern resolutions (panoramic 16:9, for example), and more!
Sounds like great food for a followup-episode
Exactly, Cannonball is exactly what he's asking for. Basically a mugen for 2D racers.
@@DioBrando-qr6ye glad i found these comments
when you say mugen... do you mean it lets you create custom tracks? that's kind of the entire point of mugen
Just to let you know, Horizon Chase Turbo was actually going for the 90s Top Gear racing games with modern graphics. This is up to and getting the composer of said 90s games on board.
Excellent music, BTW, can't play this game without humming along to every single track. I mean, yelling the music at the top of my lungs!
Yea, just looking at the gameplay I was like this seems more like Top Gear. One of my favorites growing up.
Yeah, everything about the game's physics are basically copied from Top Gear as well.
Ross is the only person that can verbalize the feelings I get from videogame environments and backgrounds. I just want to be there, run around and explore beyond what I can in the games.
A simple door texture on a wall can make you wonder for ages what's on the other side. I think thats why video games are my favorite forms of media. Like the story telling power of things as simple as the windowed rooms of the test chambers in Portal is just amazing.
I still miss matte backgrounds in film so I get it.
You could also touch grass too 😅
One thing I love about Ross Scott is that he DOES what he LOVES… too many “creators” these days chase ad revenue relentlessly, with intrusive commercials and sponsors, begging for subscribers, and blog posts asking what kind of “content” we want to see from them. People used to participate in UA-cam because they loved it… and Ross STILL DOES! Broadcast Yourself, Ross!!!
yeah my thoughts exactly. I'm so sick of all these sellouts. ross is a treasure
@@Mountainmonths Yeah i HATE it when artist are able to buy food and pay rent. they should all starve and live in obscurity, never having gained recognition. thats how you know its a labor of love.
shout out to all those streamers stuck playing the same game years on end because if they play anything different their viewers will leave them. it would be a personal nightmare to be stuck playing the ever-worsening Overwatch for the past 6 or 7 years... like i like the game, but for around a week tops then stop for a few months then check it out again (kinda stopped after the free2play stuff, all the To Do lists really took fun out of it)
@@psyivy9169if you're going to take the economic angle, people are allowed to express dissatisfaction with a product. too much algo optimization is eventually a bad thing anyway.
@@psyivy9169I bet Ross also wants to earn tonload of bucks , but it is like the cool looking girl who could open an onlyfans and get lots of money but decides to not do that because it is no cool
When I played the Jurassic Park arcade machine (the one with the seat that was on pneumatic pistons to simulate all the bumps) for the umpteenth time, I started to notice similarities with the way they did the world environments between JP and with Outrun. Sega really had a knack for parallax and fast-moving chunky sprites. And delivering that immersion, too. Like when you burst out of the cramped underground area out into the big field for the first time.
You seem like the type of guy who would commonly have to outrun clones.
Who knows exactly what's going on on the moon
Clones of himself, other people, or both?
well, he did play Echo
This is what I love about Ross. You literally never have any idea what the next Game Dungeon will be about. Could be a new game, could be some old forgotten PC RPG, could be OutRun. You just never know. It could be anything.
And the great thing about this Game Dungeon in particular is that it wasn't even one game. He pretty much reviewed the entirety of 2.5D racing games. They were short games so fairly short explanation was needed for each game and it didn't feel like he was rushing any of them. I think he should consider doing more of these multiple similar games in one Game Dungeon videos more often. Not for every type of game out there because a lot of them deserve their time to shine but at least does that are short enough to do so.
It could German
I'm really happy to see Slipstream mentioned and valued for what it is, it's been mostly made by a single brazillian dev and he has gone through multiple iterations on the game to add features and improve performance.
Ross - KInda surprissed that you didn't come across the Cannonball engine when researching this video. It's an engine which runs the original arcade Outrun but with a host of improvements... including the the ability to raise the camera, so that the player can better see the track ahead of them.
I love to turn off the traffic and timer in Cannonball and just drive.
@@keithfulkerson Indeed! I do the same! 🤜🤛
What bugs me in the maps of 80's Overdrive (and what I guessed was bugging Ross) is that the far background image layers scroll wrong. The correct way of 2d background scrolling is that the closer the layer is to the camera, the faster it scrolls. 80's Overdrive does it almost completely inverted.
Not only this, but the layers scroll in opposite directions, which makes it even more distracting and unreal. The motion of the horizon is so exaggerated it gives the impression of it being some bizarre theatrical effect that is right in the foreground.
Hey Ross, just discovered your channel about a month ago and been binging your whole library. So cool to see a new episode come out! Thanks for all the awesome and consistent content over the past decade.
You are in for a treat ❤
enjoy!
I envy you.
You only wait a month for a new Game Dungeon episode.
Welcome to the club ❤ I mean...dungeon?
@@pablosalgado293 That made me chuckle.
Horizon Chase is actually a spiritual successor to Lotus Turbo Challenge, to tie it back in to the start of the video. The composer for the soundtrack is the same from those games/Top Gear for the SNES!
I had the pleasure of meeting the dev for slipstream and he is a very chill and nice guy. You can add your custom music to the game and canonball is my favorite mode!
That Norman (Bob Ross) rival in Slipstream is what we need more of. It's not about winning or losing, it's about having fun lol
Hey, it's you!
There are also rivals that are expies of Takumi Fujiwara and Doc Brown.
and a neckbeard fedora guy game has some fun ideas for rivals
@@crunchbuttsteak8741 That too! I wish they were differentiated by car choices and AI behavior too. For example, Tofu Boy would only drive the white Arashi, and while some rivals may drive aggressively and try to ram you off the road, Norman is pretty chill and focuses solely on driving.
Those have been in Pokemon a couple of times, and everyone other than me apparently hates them.
I'd rather have the fun guy rather than the toxic competitor though.
I saw a Testarossa in the wild just yesterday, I had no clue it was a sign! Sega referred to their pseudo-3d titles as "Super Scaler" games. Super Hang-On, Power Drift, Galaxy Force II, Space Harrier, that kind of thing. It was outmoded by their Model 1 hardware with titles like Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing.
You can best anticipate the intensity of curves by watching how far the road moves across the horizon. Braking is vital for progressing, especially on hard curves and dense road population.
A great overview, Ross. A couple shout-outs to Outrun-adjacent games like Rad Racer for the NES, and a couple of my guilty pleasures: Outlander (a Mad Max game in all but name) and Technocop (a hybrid between Outrun and a side-scroller). Not incredible games but do their own unique thing well!
Regarding 80's Overdrive: if you run out of money, try to enter a race. The game will prompt you into a car-cleaning minigame where you'll get enough money to enter the race. You'll always get this if you have no money.
Ive had the lovely experience of being a passenger in a very fast car while off my ass on LSD, the way the hills come at you, and the way any vertical poles like the fence posts seem to just stop moving.. outruns visual quirks make it very fuckin close to that experience. The road turned into a half pipe, curving up the sides of the car at one point on the highway as well. My depth perception was non existent in that car.. Shit, I may have had one eye closed the whole time. Who knows, weird stuff, good times. 😆 Thanks for the flashback Ross!
I kinda love that your brought up Desert Bus without explaining what it is and why it would take a team to marathon it.
We all know the nightmare that is Desert Bus :>
Didn't he mention it in a really old video?
@@fnhatic6694 maybe, not the point tho
In regards to the whole 2D/2.5D/3D categorization; the correct terminology for these kind of titles are "sprite-scaling racing games", as they make use of the scaling of sprites to provide an illusion of three dimensions.
Mechanically they're just 2D top-down racers with a different PoV - 2.5D games are usually 3D games with one dead axis when it comes to movement
For me the bigger question is about 3D games that ignore an axis when it comes to physics like the pre-NR4 Papyrus racing games. In their case, they're 3D for all intents and purposes... but the cars never take off no matter who or what you hit
@DanArnets1492 recently i've been made aware of "SNES mode 7". I think that would be the most appropriate name for the technical/aesthetic confluence.
@@pissingeverywhere Nope. Sprite-scaling games were around long before the SNES was ever conceived of, much less released in stores and they continued to be made after the SNES' shelf-life. More to the point; Mode 7 is a graphics mode exclusive to the SNES console.
"Sprite-scaling" or "psuedo-3D" is the correct terminology.
@@Right_Said_Brett I've seen most call them "Superscalers" at least that's what Sega themselves called them.
Car nerd here, thought I'd point out the first car you chose in 80's OD was in fact based on the BMW M1. It has a smaller engine that the Testarossa, in fact. Awesome video!
Ohhh, yes, the M1! I was thinking that was a Lamborghini Jalpa. Good call!
Correct. It's not nearly as fast as it looks. 3.5 liter naturally aspirated inline-6 engine, 270 horsepower, compared to the 385 hp 5 liter flat-12 in the Testarossa. A Mustang outruns this thing.
On the other hand, that flat-12 is remarkably underpowered and overengineered. A common theme with Ferrari.
If yall like outrun clones check out "Oh, Deer!" by Necrosoft. You drift a station wagon avoiding deer on the way to grandmas house. Soundtrack by one of the streets of rage composers. 10/10
I was hoping there would be a mention of this too. Annoyingly I dont think there is a legit way to get a copy anymore. Delisted or removed on steam and itch for whatever reason.
I wonder just how many excellent indie games fall through the cracks like this.@@alanbalan3539
@@alanbalan3539Necrosoft indeed.
Oh, Deer is kinda what you get if you would combine Out Run with Hotline Miami, highly recommended
Oh weird seeing Necrosoft mentioned on this channel. I listen to the Insert Credit podcast from time to time with Brandon Sheffield (their director). It’s weird since Tim Rogers (also on Insert Credit) is my other UA-cam long form games content goblin outside of Ross.
If Ross can will software into existence that auto-translates games from German for him, it's only a matter of time before someone here makes his ideal OutRun clone complete with Trackmania-style creation tools and custom track repository.
Hopefully it's easier on his CPU than the translator was.
It’s weird now that you mentioned it...this feels like a mapmaker trackmaker would be amazing staple add ons to Outrun genre driving games... Oh no I also think it should be a lot like SSX Tricky to access different drivers/car configs/drips, & have those multiple path segments within the linear track so you can separate from the main course a bit before it meets up again, & different driving materials as a challenge or choice in courses (ice, gravel, snow, sand, dirt, mud, multiple pavement types, ways to create the weather you drive in + surface + time od day/year), & you can drive against every other driver or in 1on1 personalized vendetta drag race duels as options, or with style or challenge modes, or whatever, & try to chain courses as options post-game, add some secrets, ragdoll everything, do a license deal with Spotify or a specific set of labels that actually accommodates a full lifespan of the game + plans for how to hand over to new artists/labels once current licensing sunsets so there’s a plan to hand it over to a preservation + mod minded community after a natural game-span that isn’t a 😒whim of an executive who thinks anything under 5M User Base means they have to Old Yeller it behind a shed months after release 🥺. I’d want single player or multi, on & offline. Normally I’d play alone offline but tbh a Halloween Heck Ride where the challenge is to squish all the pumpkins with your motorcycle for Halloween only, with “golden pumpkins” findable or smthg, or a Harley Davidson sponsored Xmas Toy Run that did the solidarity ride plus was a fundraiser for Santas On Wheels or whoever - that would draw me to play online once in awhile as long as the events were not impossible for casuals to enjoy. Deathmatches should be optional lol.
You mean the Cannonball Engine?
I genuinely started mulling over how hard would it be to pull that off in godot or something... But eh, I've had my fill of outrun clones back in the J2ME days imho.
I grew up in Escambia county and I remember when they got that squad car. I think that the neighboring town, Gulf Breeze, also got a car like that.
the thing that stood out to me the most in 80s Overdrive is the funky parallax with a mountain racing through the background scenery
I think procedural generation could work, but specifically using a technique from two other games. Audiosurf and Beat Hazard. What they do is use audio files as seeds, and then score it with the file. So, what they do is make it out of your music. Now, imagine that with an Outrun clone. Use tonal data for the setting, use the highs and lows and stuff for the track shape, and it's as long as the song, but have a playlist mode where you cue up multiple songs for the long multienvironment run experience. Scoring is based on the distance you get on the track. Call it Tracklist.
Sounds fuckin' sweet! ^^
Something similar already exists/existed - Riff Racer. Existed, because main server (since it was online competition like Audiosurf is) is now down unfortunately. You can still play it with a few tweaks, but no new scores are saved.
Then we also have Melody's Escape, which is also another variation of Audiosurf, but without cars (more like Audiosprint, if you have ever played Audiosurf 2).
@@mantazzo That was a nice selection , but I wonder if there'll be more now. ^^
@@mantazzoOooh yeah, I forgot about those! Still, with the servers down, it's kinda sad. I'd love to see one that does the Outrun style and 2.5, allowing for a massive cache of sprites for all sorts of things.
Ross’s slightly odd personality truly brings alot of joy to many people. Often without us really understanding why. Humanity is lucky to have him. 🙂
Saw this in my feed and brought an instant smile to my face. Game Dungeon is such a special series
Ross, with all the driving games you seem to enjoy, and October coming up soon, you should check out 'Beware'. It's a first-person driving sim in which you're followed by rural weirdos in varying vehicles, and have to use quick thinking, driving skills, and map knowledge to escape them.
Speaking of moddable outrun, there is one project called CannonBall, which is basically Open Source Outrun. It even have level editor so probably with some tinkering, you can make some mods to it
I believe they call these type of games "scalers" - it creates a 3D effect by scaling sprites.
@@initial_kd BTW - just remembered that Hang On technically wasn't their first game using this type of engine.
Buck Rogers (Sega 1983) came out two years earlier. Kind of choppy but still very impressive for something that runs on the C64. It's kind of the prototype for other arcade hits like After Burner and Space Harrier.
A little something about horizon chase turbo:
It's meant to be a successor to the SNES top gear games (highly recomend these btw), which are still sold in Brazil (they still make SNES's and Sega Genesis, under other companies, they sometimes even make new games).
It has lots of references to brazillian racing culture (as you can see from the DLCs).
It saddly has no online multiplayer but its a blast with local play.
The music is inspired by Top Gear too.
I call them billboard racers not just because they have a ton of billboards along the road but because it's the rendering technique used to simulate 3D.
Fun fact about outrun! The difficulty of the tracks correlate to which turns you take. if you look at the map in the lower right, the higher route you take the more difficult the tracks are supposed to be. Similar to Sonic level design, and both games were developed/published by SEGA. How about that?
so left turns make the game harder?
basically yeah! @@jekblom123
I'm surprised there was no mention of Buck Up And Drive. I don't think it's quite what Ross is looking for, it's mostly just an endless mode driving through random environments, but it has some unique mechanics and visuals that make it a blast to play. It's definitely worth, at the very least, a look.
This is a long way from being Ross's first racing video, this is more a summary of Outrun-likes than the broader racing genre.
@@bosstowndynamics5488 I mean, it's not just some racing game. it's a 2.5D arcade racer from 2021. it's definitely within the scope of this video. it just plays kinda differently, there's mini turbos like in Mario Kart, and otherwise it has a lot of the qualities that Ross said make a game different from outrun in his opinion. nevertheless, I'm fairly confident the only reason it wasn't mentioned is that Ross just hadn't heard of it.
@@xchuck6871 I guess, but he did have a long list of other games that also fit those criteria that he mentioned as being excluded and only brought up to pre-empt people suggesting them in the comments. It's entirely possible he has heard of it but chose to exclude it and just thought it was so obscure no one else would notice
Buck Up also has one of my favorite options.
Yeah, I was kinda expecting Ross to at least make a side mention. It's not exactly like Outrun, but it has some DNA in there.
Oh my God this episode was amazing, you were so very articulate and captured everything good and bad about these games, and got me hooked on outrun 2006! This video is indeed impacting my life for the better, and I thank you for that!
The Outrun's feeling that you're travelling to different worlds as you drive reminds me of Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber novel, where Corwin drove a car to shift between several worlds.
My favorite game dungeons are ones where Ross really latches onto a menial aspect of a game because it offers a glimpse into the true madness of life, and then proceeds to review sequels/successors of the game until they fumble his vision for gaming greatness
Ross, the timely drop of this Game Dungeon gave me and my ragtag group of friends the motivation needed to win our local men’s basketball championship and save the youth center from being turned into a mini mall. Thank you for all you do!
Outrun has this feeling of roadtrip racing with a specific colour palet that was very much that era.
Ross is like a very late Santa Claus. He comes with presents, but you never know when he comes.
Each time Ross releases a Game Dungeon episode, my life gets better.
Not sure why, but I can watch this video over and over again and it doesn't get old
Really surprised by the lack of Buck Up And Drive! on here. It was one of my most anticipated games of last year and I think it really delivered on the idea of a modern Outrun game with new unique mechanics.
plus the option for the billboards is S tier ;)
There's a recent 2.5D racer with a more hand-drawn graphics style called Buck Up And Drive that might interest you for this type of stuff. It has a few extra things like a fighting game-style mode, and rail grinding like it's a downhill jam. The upcoming Victory Heat Rally is based on some of the later super-scalers as well.
I was just going to point out Buck Up and Drive
I finally realized today why Game Dungeon makes me feel so cozy.
Its filling the whole that is no more "Let's Drown Out."
Plus its just good content
I honestly could never get into it, even when there were news that the next would be the last.
Got any recommendations on which particular one to start?
@@Addsomehappy For some reason I think of Quadralian when I think of a Game Dungeon to recommend.
@@Skeletons_Riding_Ostriches I meant an episode of Let' Drown Out, and also WOW Quadralien episode would be a pretty a rough start, although definitely a good experience overall
I REMEMBER PLAYING THIS AS A KID, the environment changes absolutely wowed me back in the day
I've been following this series for nearly a decade... rewatched most of the episodes at least half a dozen times... and somehow, that Balin art is the most random thing I've seen yet on Game Dungeon.
Slipstream just makes me wish that Drift Stage had come out. The soundtrack to that demo was a Myrone Masterpiece!
Oh that's why it didn't get mentioned. Very Ridge Racer in terms of textures, but with garish colors, and no distortion.Aaand it's trapped in early-access hell.
Here's one you might have missed or maybe it just isn't right. "Race the sun". it's minimalistic (red flag there) but it's got this way about it, since the "track" changes every day. Not every run, each DAY. But it's mostly just you on your (Ship?) vehicle trying to just keep going. There are gates that lead to secret levels with great art. It's great to play while listening to an audiobook.
As someone who road-tripped across America throughout the month of June from Boca Raton to San Diego to Seattle (inspired in part by your The Crew and Arcade America videos), I am very glad for this video. Thanks, Ross. :)
You mentioned you remember OutRun 2 being more vibrant, and since I also remembered it way more colorful and shiny I went looking and comparing footage and I think they changed some stuff when porting from the original arcade release, the footage from the arcade version has colors popping a lot more and a nice bloom, not as much as in the console footage but very noticeable.
Also Horizon Chase is mainly inspired by the Gremlin Interactive's Top Gear series for the SNES/Mega Drive, which were very influential in Brazil. A lot of the vibes and the gameplay is a direct response to that series, not OutRun, but since during the 80's that's kinda how racing games looked overall I can see why someone would think that. The original games were also extremely fast, Top Gear 2 on later levels had crazy turns for the speed you went in, but in Horizon they really ramped it up to 11 since you really never slow down.
You know it'll be a good Game Dungeon when it starts with a legitimate warning.
A new game dungeon, I happy. It’s almost an hour long? I cry tears of joy
Nope! Gimme those tears. I'm in it. Now. Me need tears, now. Aye, aye, aye, sole tea!
Race the Sun is pretty surreal, but is probably too abstract to give you that feeling you were talking about.
I was gonna go to bed but then I saw your vid come up. I got ready for bed, a tea, and a lot of roms on a steam deck to scrape. What a great end to the night! Thanks.
So glad you brought up Outrun 06. Such a good evolution of the series, too bad it was more of a conclusion
Something about horizon chase that made it special to me was the multiplayer. I bought the game because I was on an outrun kick at the time and thought it was a lot of fun, but when I showed my friends we COULD NOT GET ENOUGH. We spent all night playing the story mode and unlocking everything. I felt like a kid again lol. It was great.
it is absolutely insane that this video come out days after i have played outrun for the first time in years in my yakuza 0 replay
Ross looking beyond the gameplay at the environment and imagining all kinds of stuff is why I love watching Game Dungeon. I recognize a lot of myself from Ross' approach to games and not only their gameplay but also their art direction and style.
I honestly thought this video was gonna be about Ross's continued efforts to evade his doppelgangers, but that's more on me for not knowing about Outrun. Still a treat.
Google says that 80s Overdrive allows you to wash cars to get a bit of money if you're broke. But it seems like it's hidden enough for Ross to miss it - and even knowing the option exists I have no idea where I'd go looking for it in the first place.
He Ross, i love the video every time. Just for fun trivia, the Testosterando looks based on the BMW M1. Intruder Turbo is the Ferrari 308, De Loan is Delorian (obviously), Aggressor is the Porsche 959, Penetrator is the Lamborghini Countach, and the Tensor V12 is the Vector V12. Please keep up the good work, absolutely love game dungeons. Thanks!
Accursed Farms can describe any game in such a way they become strange dreamlike places, fresh and new
Horizon Chase NEVER tried to be like Outrun or Pole Position. The game is very inspired by Top Gear (the game, not the show). They even got one of the music tracks being very similar to one of the Top Gear ones (i think it was the first one), i think that track was even made by the original composer of the Top Gear one.
All that explains why you probably didnt liked it much, because you were looking for something that was never there.
Also, the game was first made for mobile and later ported to pc.
Here's an idea to improve Outrun's generic starts. Not only you get two or more starting areas, but instead of waiting for you to finish a route, put the split [or a 3-way split] about 50% of the way in. One path continues this track, while the other[s] will start adding elements of other tracks. Sticking to the beach theme, for example, one of these remains the coastline, while the other is into the urban area.
You then add the regular road splits. In this case, though, both of the roads you took still count as the 'beach' track. They can definitely lead to different paths, but they do this by having one 'super size' stage at a time, rather than make you choose between Beach Stage A and Beach Stage B.
I think that's really the issue Ross has. There's no variety to the start. But if you make the start itself have at least two options inherent to it, you can reduce the raw repetition. Maybe one path has more curves and the other is more straightforward but has more traffic.
To bring more context to Horizon Chase Turbo: the game fashioned itself as a redux of... Top Gear for the SNES! - a game that featured laps around a circuit, fuel management, and a nigh-inexistent need to brake for corners. In fact, the inspiration was so heavy that the development studio hired the original Top Gear composer to remix several of his own songs into Horizon Chase.
I mean, given the Sonic inspired touches of Slipstream, it's not surprising they went with a dissonant soundtrack. There's nothing more true to the soul of the Sonic experience than existential dread at 120 mph.
The first sentence cements the very nature of Ross and the Game Dungeon.
"Will this be weird and dangerous? Yes ANYWAYS, continuing on...."
I have played a lot of these Outrun clones. I'm not a massive Outrun fan, I've always been more a sim guy, but I do like dabbling in a lot of these arcade racers. And I do have a lot of thoughts on most of the titles shown here.
1. Slipstream definitely captures that Outrun vibe. The speed is just about right and the sprite work is quite nice. Can't really complain on it but the skill ceiling really does not do anyone with old hands any favours. It really does favour quick fingers. Also, Marble Garden does resemble places like in Greece or Agrigento. If it isn't parched by the Sun.
2. 80's Overdrive. Odd title spelling aside, it is still pretty solid. I haven't gotten that far in it but it still fun. Although I can't help but wonder sometimes when people try to recreate the look of the 80s, they seem to go way overboard with the vibrant neon colours and constant synthwave. Well, it is part of it but only if you're like Michael Mann and you're producing Miami Vice, but the 80s wasn't *that* over the top colourful. Really, the show Murder, She Wrote seemed to capture the everyday look of the 80s better than Miami Vice.
Also, I'm willing to give Ross the benefit of the doubt since he's no expert on cars, but my inner car nerd senses are tingling. That Testosterando Ross was driving is a BMW M1, basically a road going race car of the 70s and 80s. That "bug" is a Fiat 500... or at least a boosted 500. The only Fiat 500 that I know that goes that fast... aside from any Forza game is in R: Racing, which is a subject in of itself. The only Ferrari lookalike in the game is the Intruder Turbo which is based on the Ferrari 288 GTO. Again, car nerd.
Also again, there is such thing as police precincts that have supercars in their arsenal. Look no further than Dubai which includes in their official police lineup an Aston Martin One-77, a Bugatti Veyron, a Ferrari FF, a Mercedes-AMG GT R, a Nissan GT-R, a Porsche 918 and even a Rolls-Royce Wraith. Australian police cars aren't as exotic but they used to run HSV Commodores as official cruisers, Subaru WRXs for mostly outback and patrol duty but now they mostly run souped up BMWs.
3. 198X. Definitely a game I had a beef with. While it is kinda fun, it doesn't hold your hand. I had to learn the hard way trying to find the "Continue" button. I checked and there isn't a button layout menu in game. I had to guess which button on the controller actually continued the game. So yeah, not fun.
4. Horizon Chase Turbo. I never really noticed how fast the game played until Ross mentioned it. I suppose my reflexes are a lot quicker but still not quick for this game. Yeah, it definitely favours the young if they can master it. The Senna DLC is perhaps the best of the game. I am a nerd for that time period of Formula One and Senna definitely was an interesting fella in the sport.
5. Cruis'n. Not much to say. I've played the original version when it was on the Wii. Still fun though. However, if Ross thinks the contrast in Horizon and other games were overblown, that's nothing compared to Cruis'n Blast which just assaults your eyes with constant blinding neon colours. Hotshot Racing seems to play more like Scud Race than Daytona USA. It definitely has a style and quirkiness to it, especially the ending shorts for each of the drivers. Forza Horizon 4 is... well, it pales in comparison to Horizon 3 and H4 is it's own little bag of controversy.
Lastly, the only real OutRun game I played was OutRun Online Arcade on the 360. Really good little game that you can't buy anymore because of licensing issues. Still on my 360 harddrive somewhere. As for if OutRun will ever make a return, I'm gonna go with no. Right now, Sega is too preoccupied milking the Sonic franchise to care about most of their other IPs. Except for maybe the Like A Dragon series. I yearn for the day to see games like Sega Rally, Daytone USA and maybe Sega Touring Cars to make a return. Anything but constant Sonic games coming out of Sega. But that is but a pipe dream.
And finally, the only OutRun clone that might be up Ross' alley that I can think of is Neodori Forever. It has multiple cities, procedurally generated tracks, good music and is challenging enough to keep you on your toes. Worth a look.
OutRun has adjustable difficulty by means of DIP switches. The time limits and the amount of traffic are adjustable by the machine's owner. And it very much pays to be using the original arcade machine controls. Analog steering, yes, but also the gearshift. One very important technique in OutRun is that, instead of using the brake, you can *downshift while at top speed*, with the pedal to the metal, to burn off some speed going into a turn. Your virtual Ferrari won't mind at all. As soon as you're pointed down the road, upshift again.
I love this channel; the only chill game retrospective channel where musing on Outrun turns into pondering an existential crisis involving a saying about the soul.
i clicked into this video thinking that we are going to outrun some clones
Holy crap, Ross mentioning Desert Bus (and their organizers Loading Ready Run) wasn't something I expected! Two of my favorite underrated channels on this website!
Ross, you are the only one who is able to make car games look interesting to me. This is why I love your reviews.
My boy! Out Run was a game i was trying to remember a few months ago as well. Great times! Love your content and glad you still make some after the Freeman's Mind hype.
I'm surprised to not see 'Buck Up And Drive!' on the list. It's maybe not a 1 to 1 because its added a trick and score system, but it's still very much an Out Run clone at heart and it came out within just the last year.
If you want a VERY weird Outrun Clone, look into "Oh Deer", it's an Outrun clone with a morality system that determines your route. Has an amazing sound track too.
🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🚙
WHA- WHERE IS THE GAME
@@RaTcHeT302 It comes as part of the game collection you get with any humble monthly subscription
MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION??
BLAH
@RaTcHeT302 Yeah, It sadly used to be drm free, even with the subscription you could just grab a month, download, and be done.
0:53 I call them superscaler racers. Speaking of higher resolution, Cannonball is the original Outrun engine rewritten from scratch with new features like widescreen, high resolution and 60fps. Shout-outs to Buck Up And Drive! and Victory Heat Rally.
Always a good day when there's a new game dungeon. Doubly so when it's a racer as Ross just always has a certain passion and energy to him with these that is seconded only to the Halloween episodes.
Ok, now that you’ve said it, you’d be a awesome guest on Desert Bus For Hope! You should totally reach out to them and talk games. It’s an awesome charity event!
I have been looking for a true modern Out Run game for a long time indeed. I always get suggestions like the ones in this list but none is quite the same thing indeed, just like you showcase with this video.
How about the Cannonball Engine Source Port?
@@XanthinZarda will look it up! Cheers!
This video got me HOOKED on Outrun and Outrun clones. I never realized how unique this game was
80's Overdrive came out in 2017, the same year as The Emoji Movie. This calls for further research.
You should check out 'dead end road.' It's a driving game that's not primarily about racing like outrun, but it's more horror themed. It's a little rough around the edges but kind of a sleeper favorite of mine. Also 'Buck Up and Drive.'
Im glad I'm not the only one who felt the speed in Horizon Chase Turbo. Once, I had some friends over at like 3 AM, and while we were chatting, I started playing HCT because i was trying to 100% it. I had gotten into the zone and was completely tuned out. After finishing a few courses in a row, one of them looked over and was just like "Man, I'm just watching, and I have no idea how you're doing that." The speed existential crisis is real.
Ross about the 80's Overdrive: "There's one thing that bugs me about it..."
Me: "I bet it's the background parallax scrolling looking very weird for distant objects scrolling fast and near objects staying still."
The Horizon Chase Turbo does render the 3d models like 2d sprites and you cannot really turn the camera. That could explain why it feels off even though it looks full 3d at first. This effect is quite easy to spot with bigger objects like buildings which act like 2d sprites.
Also the Horizon Chase soundtrack was done by the legendary old school music composer Barry Leitch. As the game is a spiritual successor to SNES game Top Gear the soundtrack is continuation. I recall reading that Barry composed it like it would be his "last game soundtrack " and this would explain why it also has a slightly melancholic tone at places.
I'm sure it's not the same as what you're looking for, but I'm surprised Buck Up and Drive! wasn't in this video. It looks to me like exactly what you're talking about, but with some added stuff like car combat and rivals. Admittedly, it's got a bit of a speed problem too, but that's arcade racers for you. Anyway, hope this helps!
A little surprised there was no mention of Buck Up And Drive! Admittedly, it IS going for a different sort of thing, being, like, combat and trick focused, but it's definitely got heavy outrun inspiration. The mechanics might make it be too far to count, I suppose. Does do the 'textureless' thing. ...it also has a competitive 2p 'beat up the other player's car' mode which is pretty funny imo.