For many people, including myself, Burnout is considered the best arcade racing series ever released. It was all about going as fast as you can, wrecking opponents’ cars, and causing as much havoc as you can on your way to victory. Not to mention, Burnout games have the best sense of speed out of all arcade games.
But, of course, the highlight of these games is the takedowns and the crash physics. The freedom to cause absolute carnage anywhere you want is what made the series so great.
So, while we are desperately hoping for another game to revive this series, let’s take a walk down memory lane and rank all the Burnout games ever released.
Burnout Crash
Burnout Crash was a spin-off made from a mode of the same name in the games. The goal? Drive on to an intersection or road and cause as much destruction as you can in the allotted time. However, that’s pretty much all there was to this game. Not to mention, it had a top-down view.
Burnout Crash was the game you played when you had nothing else. It was fun for the first few hours, but it got old pretty quickly. There wasn’t a lot of content either, which is also why it wasn’t received very well.
Overall, when you are generally talking about the Burnout franchise, you don’t count this game as part of it.
Burnout 1
Every popular franchise starts somewhere, and for Burnout, this was it. Released in 2001 for the PS2, Burnout 1 wasn’t anything special. It was a budget arcade racer put together by Criterion Games. Even they didn’t know how big this franchise would soon become.
Burnout 1 was made with a very low budget, so there aren’t a lot of cars, the tracks are limited, and the graphics weren’t really great either. Despite that, the game was endless fun. Of course, it was still lacking a lot of the features that are part of the Burnout DNA, but for a first game, this was pretty good.
Burnout Legends
Burnout Legends was mainly released for the PSP and later ported to the DS. When I recently borrowed a PSP from a friend to play some old games, this was one of the first I downloaded.
Burnout Legends is a weird mix of Burnout 2 and 3. You have all the cars, tracks, and game modes from both games crammed into a handheld version. However, it doesn’t have an identity of its own; it’s Burnout 2 and 3 slammed together.
If you do have access to a DS or PSP, it’s completely worth trying this game out. Ultimately, it has everything that makes a Burnout game a Burnout game — the crazy sense of speed, the takedowns, crash mode, fun tracks, numerous cars to play with, and much more. If you ever want to play Burnout on the go, this is it.
Burnout Dominator
Burnout Dominator is the only game in the series not developed by Criterion. It’s also the reason why a lot of people have not played this game or don’t care for it that much. Not to mention, it was released between Revenge and Paradise, so it was overshadowed and flew under everybody’s radar.
As for the game itself, it’s decent. The thing is, Paradise and Revenger were so good that this game feels stale in comparison. But, on its own, it’s a great game. You have all the classic modes and challenges like the Road Rage, Near Miss challenge, Drift Challenge, and Burnout Challenge. It was quite similar to Burnout 3, which is a great game. However, this game lacked the Crash mode, which is a core part of the Burnout series. Apart from the first game, this is the only game that lacks the Crash mode.
Overall, is it among the best Burnout games? No, there are many better options, but it still has its little space in the franchise.
Burnout 2
Burnout 2 is where the franchise started to find its identity. It’s where the fan favorite modes and features like Crash and Burnout were first introduced. The original was more of an experiment by Criterion—an idea they wanted to try. But Burnout 2 is where the foundation was laid for the future games. If you want to play an old Burnout game, then you should play 2 rather than the original.
Criterion takes everything good from the original and dials it up a ton. The races are faster-paced, the crashes more chaotic, and the soundtrack even better. You still have that high-octane racing and beautiful crash sequences, but there is also much more content to go around.
Overall, Burnout 2 feels more like a polished and complete version of the original, and it’s where the franchise started to find its footing in the arcade racing space.
Burnout Paradise
Burnout Paradise is the first game in the franchise to have an open world. Up till now, all you did was participate in events and races, but this game gives you access to a massive open world.
The events are also nicely integrated into the maps. You drive to a different intersection for events to start, which emphasizes exploration. Not to mention, Paradise City is such a great map, it’s tight city streets, wide highways, mountainside roads, and much more. Plus, the entire map is filled with shortcuts. This was my favorite part of the game, driving around the map finding as many hidden shortcuts as I could.
Apart from that, Burnout Paradise has everything you need from a Burnout game. The high-octane racing, the crazy crashes, throwing your opponents off the track, the thrilling game modes and challenges, and a wide variety of cars to choose from. When someone asks me which Burnout game to play to try the franchise, this is the one I recommend.
Burnout 3: Takedown
Burnout 3: Takedown is everything you love about Burnout on crack. The sense of speed is even crazier; it’s one of the fastest-feeling games in the franchise, and you almost feel like you are riding a rocket. For example, boost was first introduced in the second game, and it would give you a decent increase in speed, but in this game, you go crazy fast. That applies to pretty much everything in this game. In short, this is the most aggressive and fast-paced arcade racer ever built at that time.
As the name suggests, this was the game where Takedowns were introduced. You are smashing into other cars, driving them into walls, hitting them from the back, basically trying to “takedown” the opponent cars in any way you can. This feature added another layer of craziness to Burnout, and it became a core part of the franchise ever since.
In short, Burnout 3 is as crazy as it gets, not only in the Burnout franchise but the entire arcade racing genre during that time.
Burnout Revenge
You know how we talked about the craziness of Burnout 3? Well, Criterion decided that wasn’t enough, and so came Burnout Revenge — Burnout 3 on steroids.
The main part of the game was racing during rush hours, so it was even more chaotic. This was also the game where traffic checking was introduced. In Burnout 3, if you hit someone in the back, at most, you’d slow down, and the other car would drift to the side. But in this game, they go flying.
This results in some of the most chaotic races I have played. You hit ongoing traffic into opponent cars, and it sets a chain reaction of cars just flying everywhere, and you’re driving at god knows what speed, all to try and be first. It really is crazy to the point that it’s comical.
Burnout Revenge is the standard for what a Burnout game is supposed to be — pure, relentless chaos and carnage.
