OutRun 2: Special Tours unveiled

The expanded, reworked OutRun 2: Special Tours is to make its Japanese arcade debut next month, SEGA announced yesterday.

The new version has 15 new stages, and in a nod to the likes of Project Gotham are all said to replicate real locations across the US, including the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Times Square in New York and Sequoia National Park. We can also expect new cars to join the eight Ferraris in the game, including the '60s classic 250GTO, and the brand new the 512 Berlinetta Boxer.

Real OutRun-heads will be popping their corks to learn that the music from the 1986 arcade classic Turbo OutRun is making an appearance, while in gameplay terms things have been shaken up quite significantly, allow rival CPU cars to race against in the main Race mode.

In addition, Heart Attack mode has been expanded, multiplayer mode is to feature exclusively designed courses, while Time Attack mode will include the welcome addition of a new Internet ranking system, breaking down the classes by transmission type.

There's no word on a European release date as yet, but we’d expect it later this year, or early next - that's if you even have access to a decent arcade these days. As for a console version, there's no word yet, but following the disappointing sales performance of the recently released Xbox version it's not a given. We await an official response from SEGA.