In 1986, SEGA first released Out Run in the arcades. Created by Yu Suzuki, you hop into a Ferrari Testarossa with your girlfriend and drive cross country, racing against the clock through beaches, deserts and more. Along with the great scenery was a soundtrack by Hiroshi Kawaguchi that had some of the most amazing and memorable songs of any arcade game. Now M2 has brought Out Run to the Nintendo 3DS remastered in full 3D. Does this port do justice to one of the most important SEGA/Suzuki games of all time? Read on to find out!

For those that have never played the game, you race from point A to point B in timed segments. At the end of each segment, you are given a path where you choose right or left until you reach the finish line. Some paths are easier than others and all vary from the beach to the mountains. There are five different paths or finish lines and completing each of those will get you five different unlockables that are new to the game. Four are tune ups for your car that will improve things like speed and being able to drive off road and not slow down. The fifth unlockable is arcade mode that features the original arcade game running in 4:3 ratio and at 30fps. Also new, is the option to lower the difficulty, remove traffic and even give you more time on the clock. This is a nice feature when you are just wanting to enjoy how great the game looks rather than just watching that clock and dodging traffic.

One of the first thing you will notice about this port is it supports widescreen, unlike M2's port of Fantasy Zone. This, along with fantastic 3D at 60fps makes for a wondrous sense of speed. I have really never been one to use the 3D on the 3DS but now that I own a new 3DS system, which has a much improved 3D effect, I use it all the time and in the case of Out Run, it really shows off how amazing the 3D effect can be in the game. The sense of speed, passing cars and trucks at 100 mph, buildings, trees all flying by are all well done. On sections of the road that have small hills, I found myself tilting the system trying to look ahead on the road like there was really depth there. If there is one game to show off the no glasses 3D effect it is this one hands down. Also the sound is great in the game. All the game sounds are true to the arcade original and this gives you that feel that you are playing in that arcade machine. Also true to the original, is the 4 song soundtrack from the original game, along with 2 new tracks that are so well done that you would never know that they were not in the original game.

This is hands down the best port of Out Run for any home console. The graphics are great and at 60fps with the 3D the sense of speed will amaze you. Even with all the other 3D ports that SEGA has done, and done well, this one is the best. If you are a 3DS owner, you owe it to yourself to spend the $5.99 and grab this game. It's cheap, its fun and it's maybe one of the best games on the system.

I give it a 5 out of 5.

3D Out Run is now available on the Nintendo E-Shop for the Nintendo 3DS and is $5.99.

Thanks to SEGA for supplying us with a code for review.

3D Out Run Review (3DS)