When I reviewed the original Burnout, I made the comment that it was the type of game that could be perfect with a sequel. For the time, it had an awesome gameplay system and excellent graphics. However, it lacked cars and tracks, among other problems. Well, developer Criterion got the message, and we now have that sequel; everything that made the original great was kept, everything that held it back was tweaked, and many new features have been added, making this game one of the best arcade racers ever made, let alone the best on the GameCube.

What makes the game so good? You and three other cars race around tracks set in cities, freeways, and mountain roads. That alone doesn’t make it great, of course, as there are regular cars filling the streets up just going along on their daily routines, obeying the speed limit. The trick is to race around them at speeds four or five times faster than they are going, with spectacular crashes happening if you can’t steer clear in time. Yes, this is Burnout racing, and it has been greatly improved over the original in just about every way.

The game’s sense of speed is pants-wetting. As you earn new cars through the game’s various modes (22 in all, each unique in attributes), the game gets faster and faster. The addition of the Burnout meter increases the speed even further. To fill this boost meter, you’ll need to drive against traffic, scrape by cars, drift around corners, and get airborne. A new feature is the ability to string Burnouts together, meaning that as long as you keep driving dangerously, you can chain ten or more together, making for some neck-breaking speeds - which becomes a literal statement if you crash into someone.

The crashes are what made the original so much fun, and the crash physics from the last game have gotten a tremendous overhaul. Before, cars would just dent, and a few windows would shatter. It was impressive at the time, but not in comparison to this game. If you sideswipe a car, you’ll get just a dent in door panel. However, after you bounce off that car, you may go barreling into a bus, which will turn it sideways, causing three other cars to ram into it, leading for the trailing 18-wheeler to finish off the wreck. By then, your car will be missing its wheels, fenders, hood, doors, and trunk, leaving you (and five or six other cars) with nothing more than a twisted hunk of metal.

While a crash like this isn’t too terribly common during a race, it’s the only way to play in the new Crash mode. You pop your car into gear, rush down a hill or around a corner, and then hit some unsuspecting motorist at just the right angle to cause as much chaos as possible. This offers up a unique concept. It’s almost like a puzzle game at 140 miles per hour, trying to find the sweet spot that will give you the highest score possible. There’s no better feeling than making that log-toting big rig jackknife, then seeing a city bus launch into the air and just hover there in slow motion. There are a total of 30 zones to tackle, which will keep anyone busy for a while.

The biggest and most important improvements of the new game are the tracks, the number of tracks, and the locations they are set in. Instead of a paltry seven tracks in two locations like the original, there are now fifteen to choose from six areas, including three point-to-point races. The game offers up a very cool track menu too, where you can see a physical map of the actual landmass, and each track is highlighted as you select it. That is, all 12 circuit tracks are seamlessly connected together with the three point-to-point tracks. Tracks lengths are varied as well, meaning you could have a five-lap sprint around the short airport track, or a two-lap marathon up and down the 88 Freeway. This makes for a convincing world that seems very realistic, and the graphics help to make it even more so.

Each of the six locations in the game are dead ringers for the locations that they are based on. People familiar with Southern California’s Pacific Coast Highway will see frighteningly accurate details in Burnout 2’s Big Surf tracks. The airport tracks have the feel of a real airport, with airplanes flying overhead all the time. The skyscrapers in Palm Bay are just stunning to look at, and the snow effects on Crystal Summit are insane. All the tracks are intricately detailed, including the road surface, dirt medians (complete with dust kick-up), construction cones and barriers, tunnels, bridges, and just about everything else you’d see on a trip in your own car.

The game’s audio is amazing. Every time your car shifts gears, you can hear the nitrous going off and the gears slipping into place. Tires squeal differently depending on the surface you’re going over. Cars honk at you as you blast by, complete with the Doppler Effect. Crash sounds are cringingly good. When you activate your boost, that’s when the audio really takes off. The background music (which is very good) is usually very quiet during a race, but when you’re burning out, the volume picks up tremendously, making for a high-tension experience. To top it off, it’s all in Dolby Pro Logic II, the best the GameCube can offer.

There are very few problems with the game. Traffic is abundant, but it’s still a bit predictable. Certain roads and intersections will have the same number of cars going down them all the time (though the cars might be different). Also, some cars swerve in an attempt to avoid an accident by turning into you, which is annoying, especially if you’re trying to win a race. Crash replays can no longer be saved to a memory card like in the original, although you no longer need to watch the same crash from three different angles during the course of the race. There are also some rare occasions were you collide virtually head-on with another car, but you simply bounce off without a crash taking place. Other than those complaints, the game is virtually flawless.

There is so much more to this game than can be mentioned here. The police pursuit mode, custom series cars, two-player races, four-player Crash mode, and some of the most hair-raising close-calls you’ll ever see in a game. You’ll be so addicted that it will get you thinking of doing all this stuff in your own car (which the game dissuades). If you’re into racing games at all, this game must somehow find a spot in your collection, because it’s about as perfect as an arcade racing game can be. Go buy it now!