First installation of the Burnout-series on handheld consoles combines the best features of the first three games: Burnout, Burnout 2: Point of Impact, and Burnout 3: Takedown. Aggressive racing is still the centerpiece attraction of Burnout Legends and the player's task is not only to win the races but also crash opponent cars as much as possible. Opponent takedowns, drifts, and other stunts award Burnout Points which in turn unlock new cars and other awards.

One player games can be played as single events or as a World Tour where the player needs to compete in different races and succeed in them in order to advance through five car classes (Compact, Muscle, Coupe, Sport, and Super). In addition there is the Crash mode, where the goal is to create as much wreckage as possible by ploughing the player car into the traffic. The different race types include Race, Time Attack, Road Rage, Pursuit, Face Off, Eliminator, Burning Lap, and Grand Prix. Multiplayer game modes include Race, Road Rage, Pursuit, special Crash modes Double Impact and Party Crash (all these can can be played as single events or as a tournament), and Collector Challenge where the player has the opportunity to win other player's Collector cars.

PSP version game sharing feature allows others to play multiplayer events or single player demo without their own Burnout Legends UMD.

DS version Multi-Pak support allows two player games without additional game cards. More than two player games require multiple game cards.