In the late 1960s, the Indianapolis 500 commanded an almost mythical presence in American culture. Featuring a vaunted track and some of the most talented drivers of the day, the race had a plethora of diehard fans. However, as the speed of other sports cars increased, fans fell away from the once lauded event in favor of new and exciting races. Indianapolis 500 Legends for the DS attempts to recreate the glory days with a bevy of historical cars and versions of the track as they were during the race's most exciting period. Unfortunately, after about an hour of continual racing around the same track, the novelty begins to wear quite thin. Granted, there are brief moments when the game is interesting, though they all occur within that first hour. If nothing more, Legends serves as an interactive history lesson of the track and racers.

The way Legends' presents the evolution of the track and race cars is one of its biggest strengths. The game's narrative begins in 1961, a time when car racing was relatively obscure (the race track was still laid with bricks). After the first year, asphalt covers the track, the sidelines begin to change, and, most importantly, the cars become faster and more consistent. The first few cars went fairly unchecked and had no actual regulations placed on them. It remained this way for several years, and as technology advanced, so did speed and handling.

See this track? Get used to it, because it's the only one there is.

Much like its Wii counterpart, Legends for the DS features only one track, which changes aesthetically but ultimately plays the same after the first year. The game's various missions provide some variety; however, the game's AI is insipid at best. Perhaps, the developers were trying to prove that racing was once more respectful. Still, in practice, it's like racing someone's grandmother. The AI couldn't care less about winning races, and although their driving is not terrible, they follow such similar lines throughout that it grows absurd after a short while.

Each year represented in the storyline features different Legends - racers such as Mario Andretti - who have their own unique missions to complete. These tasks are similar to those of the Wii version, if not a bit more simplistic. And although they may seem interesting, repeatedly avoiding wrecks and completing the final three laps of a race becomes as tiring as driving around the same track endlessly. The game controls both through the touch screen and the D-pad, and the D-pad proves to be the better of the two. The stylus moves each car's steering wheel on the lower screen, which can be inaccurate, causing a loss of the feeling necessary to steer these cars. The pit mode, which allows the player to change the tires and fill the gas tank in between laps, also uses the DS' stylus. The pit mini-games are interesting at first but, like most features in Legends, grow repetitive quickly as completing each requires the same basic movements.

Graphically, Legends is slightly below average for a DS title but remains generally passable. The overall visuals of the game repeat too often, and the addition of new cars between years is more an evolution then a revolution - nothing looks significantly different from year to year. Also, the game's particle effects look terrible. The DS is certainly not a graphical powerhouse but, at this point, creating smoke clouds that look strikingly similar to those from an Atari 2600 game is unacceptable.

Likewise, the sound design remains incredibly pedestrian throughout, featuring the sort of average sound effects expected from any low-budget game. The engine noises are not particularly horrendous, although they all sound strangely identical. The retro soundtrack in Legends is at least interesting, and it sounds like it may have actually come from the era of the game's setting. This is actually one of the strong suits of the game, and the music sounds better than most of the other in-game audio.

The graphics are pretty bland, to say the least.

Legends' multiplayer mode supports up to four racers, but unless you can find other players with some skill, it's no more interesting than the single player. There are no additional modes either, with standard racing being the only option. It actually might have been interesting to perform some of the mission modes against other players, (especially the timed races) or to race for points. Nevertheless, racing live opponents is generally no more interesting than taking on the AI.

Indianapolis 500 Legends seems to be founded upon some interesting ideas, but the game ultimately suffers from far too much repetition. Between the graphics, sound and dull gameplay, Legends is one of the most average games ever created for the DS; absolutely nothing stands out. For fans of racing history, this game may be worth a rental, but for everyone else, we advise you to steer clear.