People should not call Bizarre Creations’ Blur “Mario Kart for adults” because it is not giving the game enough credit. Blur is an arcade racer with power ups and an online leveling system that reminds me of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s prestige system. At its base, Blur is similar to Need For Speed: all of the cars are licensed and each vehicle has its own attributes. Unlike the open world of Burnout Paradise, Blur has you zip through city and countryside on closed tracks (there is no traffic). There are rivals you must beat in what I call “boss fight races” to unlock their cars for use (race for pinks). Some cars are balanced and some specialize in areas like grip, drift or off road ability. This is where the Need For Speed similarities end.
As stated, Blur mixes standard arcade racing with that of kart style racing to try and give you a somewhat different experience from what most games in this vein are doing. In order for you to reach the top (and stay there) you have a variety of offensive and defensive items and enhancements at your disposal. For offense there is bolt (concussion missiles you can fire from the front or rear), barge (a shockwave that pushes opponents away), shunt (a homing energy sphere that flips an opponent into the air and damages them), shock (places three lightning traps ahead of you that act as EMPs) and mine (a land mine that can be fired forward or dropped behind). For defense, you have shield (protects the car for about 30-60 seconds) and repair (self-explanatory). Properly used, offensive items can provide defense as well, so strategy is key. Bolt and barge can be used to destroy a mine that is ahead of you. Shunt can cancel out a shunt that is following you or you can use bolt or mine as well. The nitro boost also has a double usage as it can just propel you forward or it can be a temporary airbrake which gives you roughly five seconds to orient yourself on a turn before it shoots you forward. In Blur, it is more about how you use your power-ups instead of which one you have.
Blur supports a whopping 20 players online and this makes for some chaotic and fast-paced races (someone will always be at your back or vice versa). Winning races earns you fans (experience points), and as you accumulate fans your fan status (level) goes up. Just about every fan status level unlocks a new car or car mod, which help you progress further into the game. When you reach max fan status, you can either stay there or unlock a legend car (removes fan status completely) so you can work towards more cars.
Blur takes user interactivity to a new level by marrying gaming and social networking. There are services that will send a post to Facebook or Twitter any time you get an achievement but this game allows you to decide when and what you want to post. Any event you complete can be posted to Facebook or Twitter as can photos you take in photo mode. You can also send pictures and info to the Blur web site. You can even exchange bragging rights by challenging your friends to beat your best time and so on.
Bizarre Creations is responsible for graphically flashy titles like Geometry Wars and the PGR series, so it is no surprise that Blur has very colorful, very polished and very beautiful graphics. The power ups employ lovely lighting effects as they flare across the screen. The cars and tracks are on par with PGR, so while this game is no Gran Turismo in terms of visuals, it is no slouch either. The eye candy is all top shelf so your eyes are in for a treat.
The sound design is also what you would expect from BC. All 20 cars on the track have their own engine noise and it can be heard distinctively amongst the vehicular carnage and the soundtrack. The in-game music is the kind of stuff you would expect from an “arcade street racer” so it’s bearable. Having a nice home theater system or at least a good sound bar will be worth the investment when you pop this game in.
I am in love with this racing game as it is one of only two racers I care to own (the other being Burnout Paradise). A friend challenged me in Blur recently and we played from around 11PM ’til the sun came up. This game is addicitve, adrenaline-pumping and ridiculous and I definitely enjoyed it more than Split/Second, which came out around the same time. I’ll never trade this game in and I will be playing it for a long time – care to challenge me?
