The Cruis'n trilogy are some of the most popular, and most successful, arcade racing games ever, in the US at least. Maybe even the most successful, I'm not certain. The home ports always have issues, because the games are designed for a sort arcade experience and often don't have the content to last as home console titles -- and indeed, the most recent one, Cruis'n for the Wii, was widely mocked -- but the arcade games were super, super popular for a reason -- they're pretty good play-for-a-few-minutes kinds of games.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thenewguy
In the US, Cruis'n USA for the N64 was of course successful because it was one of the few N64 games available in 1996 and was a port of a popular arcade game, but it was generally considered a somewhat weak port, with limited content (just the arcade tracks, and some tracks can't even be played outside of the "Cruise the USA" mode! The only hidden cars are accessed via cheat codes and not unlocks, too.), and worse graphics than the arcade version had. That latter fact disappointed people, because the arcade game had had an "Ultra 64" logo in it, so people thought that the N64 would have graphics like that, but actually the game uses its own board, and the U64 thing was just marketing. Nintendo did get rights to the Cruis'n name, though, which is why all Cruis'n home system games are Nintendo-system exclusives -- they couldn't release them anywhere else.
While I do like Cruis'n USA, even in its N64 version, I will admit that it's got somewhat limited content. Once you've played through the main mode, there's not much else to do... there are no unlocks or anything, either. At least it's fun the first time through, though, for sure. However, the two sequels, World and Exotica, are both MUCH better on the N64. Both add lots of additional, exclusive content, have much lengthier single player modes, unlockable cars there to get to keep you playing longer, and four player splitscreen modes too (USA is two player only). Both add variants of the default tracks that give you more roads to drive on. Exotica particularly has a lot of content, with something like 4 versions of each track available -- there's a drag race, a lap race, a short race, a long race, and the normal version. It also has a LOT of cars to unlock, and you unlock cars by miles driven, so it'll take a while to get them all. World and Exotica also have better graphics than USA, as well. Neither can quite match the arcade games, but for the N64 they look pretty solid. Oh, and Exotica has a couple of pretty amusing alternate graphics modes you can unlock, too... they're fun stuff. :)
As for the other Cruis'n console games, Velocity on the GBA isn't a very good game. Exotica for GBC is also poor. Cruis'n for the Wii, though, is okay. It's a port of the first Fast & the Furious arcade game, and is the only one of those three Cruis'n-a-likes (made by a studio made up of ex-Midway staff) to get a home console release, unfortunately. The game reverts back to almost to Cruis'n USA's N64 port, features-wise -- it's two player only, has only the tracks and no variants or additional modes or anything, and has seriously lacking replay value -- but, even though you can beat it in just a few hours, I do think it's fun. It does have a new car customization and upgrade system, and cars to buy with your winnings, which is nice, but it's not enough to keep it going for more than a few hours, unless you REALLY want to upgrade every car all the way or something. Also, the severe bashing the graphics got isn't fair, that 'Car Vault' picture isn't the way the graphics usually look. It is a somewhat older arcade game, but for the Wii the graphics are tolerable, though not great. It's the fun Cruis'n gameplay that makes it worth playing anyway, though even I didn't buy it for full price -- with such a thin feature set, I couldn't quite justify buying it for full price. Had they added to it like World and Exotica did on the N64 that'd be a different story I think.
