These three tracks are some of the finest ever composed for a video game, and a strong case could be made for each of them being the best of the bunch. The original OutRun contained three tracks: Passing Breeze, Splash Wave, and the legendary Magical Sound Shower. The most important choice however, is made before the race begins: your song selection. Similar to Star Fox 64, this structure opens up many possibilities for subsequent playthroughs. You are presented with this choice after each section, until you eventually cross the finish line in one of five final locations. After traversing the California-esque Coconut Beach, you reach a fork in the road and must (quickly) choose your next path. OutRun is, surprisingly for a racer of the era, a game filled with choices. Also cool are the constantly changing locales in the game. The player drives an (unlicensed) approximation of a Ferrari Testarossa, which was without a doubt the coolest car (outside of perhaps a DeLorean DMC-12) in 1986 when the game was originally released in arcades. “Cool” is obviously a subjective term (watch the 1995 film Angus for one of the most endearing examinations of the topic), but I can’t think of a better way to describe OutRun’s aesthetic. OutRun is an important game in the medium’s history for many reasons, but perhaps its greatest accomplishment is being one of the earliest games to make the player feel cool while playing it.
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