I thought I had a copy of Burnout Revenge, on disc, which I was going to dump and try running on Xenia since I've basically beaten Sonic Unleashed. If I did I couldn't find it, so I decided to just get a download copy and play it on my 360,which still works except for the disc drive.
I probably shouldn't have. That game is still terribly addictive (one of my college roommates had a copy and I played it so much he had to hide it from me). Those crash puzzles tickle my brain reeeeal good, and the sequel, Burnout Paradise didn't really have a comparable game mode, because its crash mode wasn't built around designed sections of level with known traffic flow but purely random. The fact that crashes in Revenge have an optimal solution to find is a big difference, whereas in Paradise the goal is to just rack up a high score in perpetuity which winds up being at least partially determined by luck. You can rack up a big damage bill, but it's not as good as solving the puzzle
Going back to both of them again (having downloaded Paradise Remastered for my PC), though, I think Paradise is a better game on the whole because the large single map gives you more options for navigation and the levels are all designed pretty similarly (the hills section vs the rural national park section vs the downtown section, etc.; less variety in level themes, though, suppose). One of the big problems with Revenge that was ameliorated in Paradise is that they don't gave a map for each area; shortcuts are usually marked very blatantly in the game with little glowy blue lights, but there's no indication which direction they go or how much they cut off, so there's more trial and error involved, and it makes route planning for time attack missions (called "burning lap" events in game) unnecessarily arduous.
Paradise had a roughly contemporaneous release with a side game that I haven't played but probably should called Burnout Crash. The fact that I have Paradise and its remake on PC likely helps explain why I didn't get Crash, as it only showed up on 360 and PS3, and never got a compatibility update for the newer Xboxes. No reason I can't try it.
There's probably a game on the android store that is basically identical to it in all but branding, and I'd probably get it if I knew what it was.
Also, since it's an early 360 game ported from original Xbox and PS2, there's a bit of a graphical boost but there is a fucking ton of bloom. Much more bloom than I remember. It's actually unpleasant at times, and the game looks worse than I remember it did. Plays fine though.
Burnout Crash is cute but not what I'm looking for. There should be more games that scratch the Revenge crash event itch, but if any exist I'm not familiar with them. They never seem to advertise on the mobile games I play
A lot of the China levels have really bad names. Some levels are ok, but "crispy fried truck"? "prawn smackers"?? Why so many damn food puns
I looked up footage of the PS2 and Xbox OG version. Apparently crash events had you tee off your car to get boost? Seriously, they put a golf meter at the start of the crash levels. There might be a level or two where you'd want to go slowly, but I do prefer the 360 re...make's(?) choice to just give you max boost and force you to top speed from the start.
Another change is that the previous gen's version's menu includes a handyap of all the routes, which was replaced with a render of sections from the level instead. I have to be honest, the older menu was better because I like knowing the shape of the course I'm running!!
Having started this game almost immediately after finishing Sonic Unleashed, I realized on a time trial event as I boosted through a roadside Italian Cafe that I was basically playing the same game but with more explosions.
The achievements in the game range from surprisingly hard (get a perfect on every mission in a given rank) to literally impossible (play online -- a lot of achievements are tied to online play)