It?s not often that I get really excited about a video game, but Mustang The Legends Lives is different.
First: It?s a racing game and I like racing games.
Second: It?s got all Mustangs in it, which is my favorite car. I?ve owned five of them over the years.
Third: It?s only $14.99. It?s one of the best values out there for the X-Box and other gaming consoles.
It?s not a true Sim type of game, there are a few limitations. This is more an Arcade type game. While there are 40 different Mustangs to drive, most you will have to unlock as you gain points and experience, you cannot tune them or upgrade them. The most you can do is pick colors, but a few (Concept Cars) you are stuck with only one color. There is also no damage when you hit other cars, guardrails and buildings, just sparks that fly so let it rip wide open.
The Mustangs are incredibly rendered and very accurate. There are 40 of them from 1964 to 2005 and include:
Production Cars: Classic (64-73), Mustang II (74-78) and modern SN-95 (94-04) cars. Coupes and Fastbacks, no SportRoofs or Convertibles. Models include GT?s, Boss and Mach 1?s and specialty cars like 1986 SVO and SVT Cobras including Cobra R?s and even the 6.1L Cobra R Concept.
Concept Cars: 1963 Mustang II, Cammer Fastback, 10L Boss 429, V10 Mustang Concept and GT-R, even the Ford Racing FR500.
Some are ?locked? under a tarp, and others will appear in your stable as you finish different parts of the game. I was disappointed that there are no Shelby Mustangs (65-70) in the game at all. There are also no ?Tuner? Cars like Saleens or Steedas either. The Mustangs each handle and even sound differently. They use a 5-Star Rating for 0 to 60, Top Speed and Handling so you can choose finesse over power and pick the right car for the right track. There is also a choice of transmissions, Auto, Semi Auto and Manual. Semi Auto will downshift for you, but will let you use the revs and wait to upshift.
You have 7 cities; Miami, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco and Los Angeles are street courses complete with oncoming traffic to drive around, while Long Beach is a bona fide road course racetrack. New York, San Francisco, New Orleans and Long Beach have standard and alternate track layouts with a few different turns and all have a reverse pattern available for a total of 22 tracks to race on. Chicago and New Orleans are nighttime races, while the others are daytime or at dusk.
While none of the cities feature actual streets, you will see landmarks that you will recognize. The backgrounds include The Golden Gate Bridge, NY Subway, The French Quarter, Miami Beach Art Deco District and various famous buildings in the skyline backgrounds. Living in Miami and having been to most of the other cities I?d say you will get a feel for how each city looks. Besides, flying off the hill in San Francisco just like in the movie ?Bullitt? is a thrill, especially when you jump over other cars. You can even drive the same Highland Green Mustang GT Steve McQueen used in that film.
The designers put in some other interesting scenery to race past in the cities like Bridges, Tunnels, Theaters (including Mann?s Chinese Theater), Stadiums , Amusement Parks (with active rides) , NY Subway trains, Chicago?s ?L? and Miami?s Metro Mover and of course various buildings. You even race past a Saturn V Rocket in New Orleans an obvious nod to the Michoud Assembly Facility where the first and third stages for that rocket used in the Apollo program were built. (Note: Today, the facility builds the External Fuel Tank for the Space Shuttles. I don?t believe they are open to the public nor do they have a full Saturn V on display)
There are three Single Player Modes, Career, Arcade and Challenge and two Multiplayer Modes (only 2 players and no X-Box Live support) Quick Race and Catch Up Race.
Career Mode: You enter a series of races and earn points based on your finish as you progress you earn Point Position Values and unlock new tracks.
Arcade Mode: You race Coin Op style and earn Credits to continue racing.
Challenge Mode: You get to try out challenges like Time Attack and Slalom races again unlocking new tracks and cars as you progress. The only downside is you cannot pick your Mustang, you have to race what the game gives you.
Quick Race: Is just that a quick race between you and another player. It?s standard split screen top and bottom. In Single Player Mode you race against 3 other ?comparable? Mustangs to the one you picked.
In most races you also earn Style Points for Power Sliding, Drafting, Braking Drift, Big Air, Near Miss and other high speed maneuvers. Slide around a turn and earn points, just don?t hit a fence or another car making the move or you lose the points for that maneuver. Style Points will also unlock certain Mustangs.
Catch Up Race: Pits two identical cars together where the winner has to lead the other by 100 meters for at least 10 seconds. The first race starts even up, in the next race the ?loser? then gets to start 10 meters ahead of the previous winner and the previous winner has to try to catch, pass and stay out in front of the other car to win. If the winner of both races is the same, the third race puts the loser 20 meters ahead at the start and continues in 10 meter increments each race if the same winner can prevail. Each race is worth One Point and the first to 10 Points wins the match.
No, this title is not as polished as some other racing games, but it?s not $49.99 either! The graphics are very good, while not quite being what an X-Box can produce. Active backgrounds with Mass Transit trains and Amusement Park rides is very cool and makes it seem more alive. Of course you have oncoming traffic to race around too. The game flow is good and fast and the movement is quite fluid. While the appeal may seem to only be to Mustang or Ford fans, I can assure you this is a fun, solid game and should appeal to most everybody who likes a good racing game, even those ?Bow Tie Boys?.
While I have not found any Cheats to the game I do have a tip. Once you unlock the Mustang II Concept (first of the choices when it appears) use it to race the races and you should win almost every time, at least I did. This will let you unlock other cars until you complete Career Mode Professional and unlock the GT-R and use it to set record laps.
RE: Video Game: Mustang The Legend Lives -
Posted on 02-08-2005 08:37
That sounds really cool. After playing the batmobile levels of Begins, I have been thinking about Burnout 3, but this sounds like something that would be cool too. A 10 cylinder Mustang just sounds like it would be a lot of fun. Too bad it doesn't have the retro-'05 models.
I must have missed it, but is this on all systems? My sister would at least be interested in it. She has an '02.
RE: Video Game: Mustang The Legend Lives -
Posted on 02-08-2005 13:45
Darknight wrote:
Too bad it doesn't have the retro-'05 models.
.
It does have 2005 Mustangs, four of the, two concepts and two production models.
It has the Silver GT Coupe Concept Car that was shown at the car shows last year. It also has an 05 Coupe and an 05 GT as well as the Mustang GT-R Concept.
It's for Playstation 2 and Game Cube as well as X-Box
RE: Video Game: Mustang The Legend Lives -
Posted on 02-08-2005 21:32
BATMAN: Yesterday, Today, & Beyond, all of it's sub-sites, or hosted sites are in no way associated, or affiliated with DC Comics, Time Warner or any of it's divisions.
Items cataloged in merchandise sections are not for sale. The downloading of video game ROMs is for backup and testing purposes only. If you do not own the actual game, the ROM is to be deleted from your hard drive within 24 hours.
Any money that may be made from Amazon Associates, advertisements, or affiliate programs will be contributed to the maintaining of this website, to provide the fans with the best that we can offer.
Home
