Ludography
Super Burnout cover

1995 · Shen Technologies · Racing

Super Burnout

Atari exclusive

This game will get your adrenaline pumping and pin you to your seat with its 'G' force. As you lean into the first bend you'll feel like you're really there.

Released
1 May 1995
Platforms
Atari Jaguar
Genres
Racing
Developers
Shen Technologies
Publishers
—
Country
France
Age ratings
ESRB E

About

Super Burnout is a motorcycle racing video game developed by French studio Shen Technologies SARL and co-published by Atari Corporation and Virtual Xperience exclusively for the Atari Jaguar in North America and Europe in July 1995. It was also published in Japan by Messe Sansao during the same period. It is the first title to be created by Shen Technologies.

Heavily inspired by various arcade games such as Sega's Super Hang-On, Super Burnout is an arcade-style racer where players takes control from any of the available motorcycles against CPU-controlled opponents or against other players, with heavy emphasis on pseudo-3D sprite-scaling graphics at a high frame rate.

Keywords

  • high score
  • motorsports

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Super Burnout is an arcade-style racing game that uses a behind-the-motorcycle perspective similar to Super Hang-On and Suzuka 8 Hours, featuring both single-player and multiplayer modes where players race across eight tracks set in the United States of America, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, and Japan; there is no time limit present nor checkpoints for time extension. Each time that the player's motorcycle crashes after colliding with an obstacle or with another motorcycle, they are instantly respawned into the track without pause, however, motor oil may be spilled after crashing and it must be avoided to not lose grip of the vehicle. All of the tracks in the game are rated based on technicality, semi-technicality or high speed. Before starting, players can access to options menu at the title screen where various settings can be changed such as controls, automatic or manual transmission, number of laps, among other options that are automatically saved into the cartridge's internal EEPROM, which also keeps the best times obtained when playing.

The game has four modes of play: Trainer, Versus, Championship and Record. Championship, as the name implies, is the main mode of the game where a single player competes against six computer-controlled opponents over eight tracks. In this mode, finishing each race will allow the player to achieve a certain number of standings points, depending on the position the player finishes in; a first-place finish rewards a maximum of 20 points for each track, and the total maximum number of points possible is 180. Trainer mode is recommended for beginners to practice in any of the available courses with other opponents and refine their driving skills.

Development

In 1989, the demogroup Constellations was formed when Atari ST programmer Elysée Adé and graphic artist Kheang Tan met each other during high school in order to compete against other demoscene groups by creating demos that were capable of taking advantage of both the ST and Amiga, with a focus on fluidity. Originally a two-man team, the group grew when programmers Stéphane Bensoussan and Laurent Arquetoux joined them, creating their very first demo during this period. The group grew further when more people joined them including composer Alexandre Habekian and programmers William Ilzizine and Olivier Nallet, creating two more demos before the French division of Atari Corporation approached them and requested a demo for Atari STe to be featured in events and a promotional campaign. However, their activity dwindled when each member restarted pursuing their careers, while Elysée began writing articles for the French publication ST Magazine and eventually becoming editor-in-chief.

Virtual Xperience was a French video game development studio that was founded by Rodolphe Czuba in December 1993 as a successor to Retour 2048, which had closed due to management issues from two of their employees earlier that year. VX had three titles under development for the Jaguar; A platform game titled Indiana Jags, a shoot 'em up named Zzyorxx II and a space combat simulator called Starnet, neither of which were finished and released to the public.

Reception

Super Burnout received mixed reception upon release.

Dave Halverson of GameFan gave positive review to the game, praising the graphics and controls, remarking that "if you're looking for some good old fashioned racing, Jag style, Super Burnout should be your next purchase".

Legacy

After the release of Super Burnout, Shen Technologies began working on a vertically scrolling shooter project inspired by Raiden for the Jaguar titled Nexus, which was also known as Stellar X early in development and its original title can be seen teased on various tracks of game, while a message in French teasing the then-upcoming project is shown during the credits sequence. During its development, graphic artist Paul Tumelaire (who previously worked on various Delphine Software International titles such as Shaq Fu and Fade to Black) and programmer Julien Merceron joined the company to work on the project, but due to the arrival of both PlayStation and Sega Saturn, along with Atari cancelling any 2D title that were in development for the Jaguar, the project was ultimately terminated. The game was 30 percent complete prior to its cancellation.

Shen Technologies would later create Adidas Power Soccer 2 and Adidas Power Soccer 98 for Psygnosis on PlayStation, before closing their doors in 1998.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Atari Jaguar1 February 1995Worldwide

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.