Blur is a great proof of concept. Bizarre Creations set out to update Mario Kart's tried and true formula with real cars in a "mature" setting -- and for the most part, the developer succeeded. Racing has a great sense of speed, enemy AI isn't nearly as elastic (even in the harder levels) as in Nintendo's kart racer and the power-up mechanics offer a balanced selection of weapons, making gameplay more tactical than dependent on dumb luck.

However, between a poorly paced campaign, a small handful of available race modes and an uninspired sense of style (from the announcer to the menu layouts), I found myself wanting much more from the single-player campaign. The best part of the game is its plain-Jane racing but, unfortunately, Blur forces you to complete its two lesser modes (Destruction and Checkpoint) in order to get to all of it. Combine that with an exponentially increasing difficulty level in the game's later competitions and you've got Blur: a fun, interesting racing game with terrible structure.