Anyone else enjoy the Runabout series of games?

[Warmsignal]

Runabout 2 was a game I enjoyed on the PS1 back in the day. For anyone who hasn't played it, it's a driving game where you are given several objectives to accomplish across a city landscape (usually smashing into and blowing stuff up) within a time limit. It's a pretty faced paced game, and has that arcade game feel, it's sort of along the lines of the Crazy Taxi series.

I just recently researched the series, because I only ever played part 2 and found out why that was. Apparently, the first game in the series was re-named for North America and they decided to call it "Felony 11 79". So they gave it probably the worst name in the history of PS1 games when they brought it over here, and the bland cover art is easily overlooked. However, Runabout 2 was brought as Runabout 2. Go figure?

Then apparently, another entry known as Super Runabout came out on the Dreamcast, which I didn't know about until recently. Then part 3 came out on PS2, but only in Europe for some reason. Lastly, there was a 4th Runabout that came out on 3DS and in North America no less, but they decided to call it "Crash City Meyhem" and give another sort of misleading cover art. What's the deal? Why didn't they just localize all of these games as Runabout?

I enjoyed part 2, and I'll be adding the rest to my wishlist in time. Anyone else ever play these games?

[stealthrush]

Runabout 2 was a game I enjoyed on the PS1 back in the day. For anyone who hasn't played it, it's a driving game where you are given several objectives to accomplish across a city landscape (usually smashing into and blowing stuff up) within a time limit. It's a pretty faced paced game, and has that arcade game feel, it's sort of along the lines of the Crazy Taxi series.

I just recently researched the series, because I only ever played part 2 and found out why that was. Apparently, the first game in the series was re-named for North America and they decided to call it "Felony 11 79". So they gave it probably the worst name in the history of PS1 games when they brought it over here, and the bland cover art is easily overlooked. However, Runabout 2 was brought as Runabout 2. Go figure?

Then apparently, another entry known as Super Runabout came out on the Dreamcast, which I didn't know about until recently. Then part 3 came out on PS2, but only in Europe for some reason. Lastly, there was a 4th Runabout that came out on 3DS and in North America no less, but they decided to call it "Crash City Meyhem" and give another sort of misleading cover art. What's the deal? Why didn't they just localize all of these games as Runabout?

I enjoyed part 2, and I'll be adding the rest to my wishlist in time. Anyone else ever play these games?

I only played the Sega Dreamcast game, always loved the variety of vehicles (including a pig!) and moped. Need to get around playing the PS1 games tho.

[scarface88fg]

I played Felony 11-79 back when I was a kid (rented it from Blockbuster) and it was a ton of fun. Being able to crash through a hotel lobby blew my mind! I think it was one of the first open world driving games that I played. That said, it took me the better part of a decade to find a copy of my own. I think it didn't get a huge print run. I haven't played any of the others, though.