Out Run review: the racing game that was really about the drive

A red convertible sits at the start line with the top down. Before the light goes green, you pick a song off the radio. Nobody is chasing you. Nobody is racing you. There is just the road, some traffic and a clock.

Why does it feel like a drive and not a race?

Yu Suzuki disliked racing games in which cars exploded on impact, and Out Run is what that dislike looks like when you build a game around it. You drive a Ferrari Testarossa convertible and avoid traffic to reach one of five destinations before time runs out. There are no rivals to beat and no explosions to fear. The only enemy is the clock, which keeps you driving instead of restarting.

The other stroke of genius is the road itself. Near the end of each stage, the track forks and you choose a route. That means every run is a small story you are choosing as you go, and each destination ends the trip its own way.

A racing game that lets you pick the music and the road is really a game about freedom.

The radio is part of the controls

Before you start, you tune a radio and pick your soundtrack, composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi. It seems like a menu, but it changes everything. You are not just a driver; you are someone on a trip, and the song you picked is the one you are going to remember with that stretch of coastline.

The cabinets were built for that fantasy too: a steering wheel, a stick shift and pedals on every model, and sit-down versions shaped like the car that moved along with the road.

An American road trip that went to Europe

Suzuki's original concept was based on The Cannonball Run, the American cross-country car movie, and he first imagined the setting across the United States. His company's president thought the US too unsafe to scout, and Suzuki decided it was too large and empty for the design anyway, so he drove around Europe instead. Americans playing it never much minded. To a kid in a mall arcade, it looked like every convertible fantasy on television.

It became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1987 worldwide, and in American arcades the sit-down cabinet was the one with the line. You fed it a quarter, climbed in, and for a few minutes you were old enough to drive.

Playing it today

It is short and friendly, and a single run never outstays its welcome. That is the point. Pick a song, take the left fork, take the right fork next time. It remains one of the most relaxing things you can do with a timer running.