OutRun (franchise)

OutRun is a series of "driving games" created by Yu Suzuki in 1986. The premise was unique at the time — rather than have the player compete in a race against other drivers, the player was put in a race against the clock, seeing if he could get through a driving course in a certain amount of time.

The series was initially very successful, with numerous arcade games and home console ports being done over the next several years. However, the popularity of the series started to bottom out by the mid-1990s, due to a combination of competition from the racing game genre (Sega not exempt) and home ports of questionable quality. No new OutRun games were released between 1995 and 2002. In 2003, Suzuki and his team at Sega AM2 returned to the franchise with the interestingly named OutRun 2, was was enough of a success to see several remakes on later arcade systems and home consoles.

The series's music, on the other hand, has continued to remain a staple example of popular and successful video game music, seeing soundtrack album releases throughout the past 20+ years, remakes of older songs in newer games like OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, and even appearances in non-OutRun games like Bayonetta.