Blur

aka: Blur Racerz
Moby ID: 46700

[ All ] [ PlayStation 3 ] [ Windows ] [ Xbox 360 ]

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 81% (based on 27 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 8 ratings with 1 reviews)

Arcade racing with style.

The Good

  • Excellent Presentation
  • Balanced list of power ups and weapons
  • Tons of vehicles to unlock
  • Navigating the chaos is super fun


**The Bad**
  • Virtually non-existent music
  • Sliding into turns is dicey
  • Inconsistent difficulty curve at times


**The Bottom Line**
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" they say, and even though such endeavors in today's gaming world will earn you more lawsuits than gratitude, the truth is, ripping off ideas from existing intellectual properties plays a big part in how the gaming industry evolves. Case in point: Bizarre Creations' Blur, a game that gives a nod to Mario Kart and it's legions of knock-offs, all while biting its thumb in their general direction. The blueprint goes something like this: real world cars, real world locales, flashy power ups, and high-octane racing filled with screaming motors and dazzling effects. On paper, everything sounds good; the execution, despite a few hitches, mostly lives up to expectations. The Mario Kart aspect of this game that, at first glance, looks like a lost title in the Need For Speed Franchise, is the power ups. Many of these you'll recognize as Kart-game standards -- Shunts function like homing shells (er, missiles), boosts do exactly what they sound like they do, and bolts are unguided projectiles that will throw your opponent off kilter and take a bite out of their health bar. There are also shields and repair pickups that will help protect you from incoming attacks and wrecking your car completely. My favorite power up is the shock -- this attack will victimize the car or cars that are at the head of the pack, similar to the much-cursed blue turtle shell from Mario Kart. Unlike the shell, however, the shock spawns three areas ahead of the cars that will damage and slow them down if they're driven through. These areas are big enough to be a challenge to navigate around, but small enough to give the drivers a fighting chance to swerve around -- a balanced alternative to the winged shell that you have almost no chance of avoiding. The presentation of Blur is its strongest feature. Cars are all well modeled and attractive, the neon-light color scheme gives off the ambiance of midnight street racing without seeming cheesy, and the in-game effects are a delight to watch. Cars will start to fall apart as you slam into walls and take abuse from other drivers, and the environments you race through are gorgeous and varied. Sound effects are good and crisp, filled with crunching metal and squealing tires, as well as the futuristic energetic punches of iridescent projectiles being launched from your vehicle at your opponents. Music stays a little too far in the background to be much of a factor -- in fact, sometimes during a race I noticed that there wasn't any music playing at all. So the wheels look real nice, but what's going on under the hood? I'm happy to report that the game play flows smoothly and the cars control pretty well how you expect them to. The game categorizes its vehicles into grippy, balanced, and drifty controls -- some will turn into power slides easily, but be more difficult to control. The grippier vehicles are far more stable, but it's substantially more difficult to get around those hairpin curves efficiently. Offering players the option of how they want their cars to control is much appreciated, but the system in place for drifting around curves is just a tad too unforgiving overall for an arcade racer. While you get a feel for how the cars control, you'll find yourself spinning out a little more often than you probably should. There is something to be said about practice, and with enough of it, the fussiness of the turning mechanics will become second nature to negotiate, but the journey to get to that point is not one that many casual gamers are going to want to take. Which brings me to my biggest complaint about Blur overall -- motivation. This is a game, both in marketing and practice, that wants to convert some of the Mario Kart audience to its stable. Considering Mario Kart is a safe haven for people who don't necessarily pick up a game pad every day, why would you try to entice them to a game that will take hours of practice to succeed in? It seems to me that Blur is trying to please too many people at once -- the hardcore gamers who cut their teeth on Need For Speed and the more laid back Mario-Karteers. I for one, love the concept, and have been wishing for something like this since the first time I played Mario Kart, But amalgamating the ideas of NFS and the Kart games doesn't necessarily mean that you'll combine the audiences as well, and I don't think that's likely to happen here, despite Bizarre Creations' best efforts. Still, Blur does manage to stand out of the shadows of the games that it's drawing inspiration from. It's a unique racing game; a fun experience for anyone who's willing to give it a few hours to grow on them. Whether you love Tuners, Exotics, or Hummers, and especially if you enjoy the idea of shooting them with lasers, Blur has a place for you in it's surrealistic over-the-top world. Take her for a spin.

Windows · by The Cliffe (1552) · 2012

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Jeanne, Patrick Bregger, Sicarius, Cantillon, Cavalary, Alsy, jaXen.