Oddly enough, Blur was quite hard to find. I failed to find it at Activision’s booth and, eventually, I located a single kiosk on the outskirts of Microsoft’s booth. I’ve always been a fan of both Mario Kart and Arcade racers like Burnout, and combining the two seemed like an idea on par with greats such as peanut butter and jelly.

And well, yeah, it was pretty much everything I expected. I started the race in the back, used powerups to my advantage, and, eventually, worked my way to the front and won the race at the last second. Powerups included Barge, which send a shockwave out the left and right sides of the car, Shock, which functioned as your basic homing missile, and nitro, which was the requisite speed boost. You can carry up to three pickups at a time, and, if all three pickups are identical, they can be chained together for added effect (this got especially crazy when I chained three Nitro’s together). Four shields are at your disposal and using a power up replenishes the shield supply.

The actual racing had a persistent arcade flavor. The track I was in seemed not unlike the basins of the Los Angeles area, and staying on the sides proved to be a faster means of travel than going through too much and detritus of the acidic LA runoff. Branching paths were also available, which usually traded slower, muck filled paths for abundant weapon pickups.

Whether or not all of this bridges the gap between arcade fun to consistent, long term enjoyment remains to be seen, but the five minute demo certainly felt respectable.