We love super advanced driving games with huge garages full of real vehicles, physics that took a consortium of pHds to develop and more miles of tarmac than a Texas highway. But there’s a lot to be said for purity, simplicity and straight-up fun. OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast may be little more than a glorified arcade port, but that’s exactly what it manages to deliver.

Though there are options to unlock new cars and a pretty good 6-player online mode, this is basically the same game you’ve played in movie theaters and sports bars for years. Hop in a Ferarri and power down highways that look like the sort of fantasy San Francisco we’d move to in a second. Keep at it until you’ve won the coveted triple A rating on every track, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

OutRun 2 hit arcades in 2003, with the slight remix OutRun 2 SP arriving months later to offer more tracks and a drafting feature. This package collects them both, lets players draft on every track in the game, and wraps it all up in a slick set of menus cribbed from Ridge Racer. The only advanced technique is the powerslide, which quickly becomes necessary as the tracks twist like intestines.

Part of the attraction is OutRun's simple arcade play style. There are two modes: a super straightforward career mode and Heart Attack, in which you’ve got to perform on the roadway to impress a girl. Like a bored mafia princess, she’ll demand that you pass a convoy, hit other cars or not crash at all. Obey and the hearts will pile up, but be aware of the ticking clock which constantly counts down the seconds in every mode.

Unlike most racers, which do their best to chop gameplay up into tiny chunks, OutRun is happy to let players drive on. After unlocking several of the five interconnected tracks, the game will seamlessly offer the choice between easy and hard paths as you approach the end of one leg; simply veer left or right to make the choice.

And that's it. The only complications are other racers (five of them) and the plentiful traffic. Weaving between cars takes real skill, as a single bump can turn your vehicle into a pinball, rebounding from car to car. Drive fast, pass everything and keep doing it to earn time extensions. There's a basic arcade pass at physics, and instead of causing damage when you hit other cars, they'll just spin off and disappear, or take the bump and drive on.

No matter, though. Physics and damage or no, OutRun is an unmitigated arcade blast. It doesn't try to do anything it's not prepared to accomplish, and the racing is surprisingly addictive. The simple combination of ridiculously winding roads and powersliding is like chocolate and peanut butter, and Sega's got the proportions just right.

We dropped in the PS2 release, expecting it to exhibit all the visual failings of a PS2 title, but Sega and Sumo ported it well. The frame rate is almost always smooth and there's little aliasing or blemishes of any sort. The game's relentlessly cheery disposition comes across in every frame, adding to the addictive nature of the gameplay. It's just so easy to look at that you might end up playing for another hour. (Sega has ported OutRun to several systems, and it looks even better on the Xbox and great on the PSP as well.)

Objectively, the biggest complaint to levy against the game is the limited music selection. Sure, it’s faithful to the original, with both the 1986 versions of several themes and modern remixes of the same. But there’s no way to change the music while driving, and pretty much every tune in the game gets old really fast.

We'll make excuses for the tunes, though -- with great arcade racing comes repetitive arcade music. And the trade-off is worth it. As impressive as a racer like PGR3 can be, the learning curve and time investment aren't for everyone. OutRun 2 is just as entertaining, and almost as challenging, no matter what sort of digital driver you happen to be.