Burnout Legends for the PSP was announced just a few weeks before E3, and after seeing early screenshots for the game, I eagerly anticipated its release. Somehow though, it completely slipped my mind that it might make an appearance on the show floor. So when I spied it at the PSP section in the Sony booth, I immediately made a dash for it.

Burnout Legends can be thought of as a "Best-Of" special, mixing together tracks and vehicles from Burnout 1, 2, and 3 while maintaining the gameplay mechanics from Burnout 3. Thus, gamers who are familiar with the slick pace and bump-and-grind racing action of the acclaimed racer last year will feel perfectly at home here.

Burnout 3 featured a blisteringly fast racing engine, so the number one question everybody has with the PSP counterpart is "is the sensation of speed intact?" The answer is a resounding yes. I was in disbelief that I was playing this game on a handheld, the speed is pretty much perfect. That's the power of the PSP, folks.

Of course, because I played Burnout 3 on the Xbox, the graphical quality of Burnout Legends was quite a drop. So the textures aren't as sharp, and the road and backgrounds look a bit pixilated. But it's safe to say that it's on par with the PS2 version, which looks fairly good in its own right. Besides, I feel that the number one priority in bringing the racer to the PSP was preserving the speed. The game just wouldn't be the same if the fast paced action was tarnished. Thankfully, that's not the case here.

All your favorite modes are intact, from road rage to crash junctions. Wi-Fi multiplayer will also be featured. I only had the chance to give the Road Rage mode a run, and bumping cars into rails and taking them out is as satisfying as ever. Control feels just right. I just can't stress enough how amazing it is to play what is fundamentally a carbon copy of Burnout 3 on PSP.

The one complaint I have about the game is that I think it would be much more interesting to have a port of the upcoming Burnout Revenge rather than 3. Revenge has much more intricate maps with jumps and multiple levels in the maps as well as a few new modes. Other than that though, Legends is shaping up to be a showstopper that fans should have in their collection.