Cruis’n USA was one of the Nintendo 64’s first big hits. I wasn’t interested in racing games at the time, but I still remember seeing it everywhere. That might have to do with the N64’s small library, but it’s hard to deny that there was a fair bit of hype behind this one. In the arcades the Cruis’n series has always been big. It didn’t take the developers long to release a sequel in Cruis’n World, and thankfully they ported the game to the Nintendo 64. While the first release was a disappointment Cruis’n World is a big improvement. It’s still highly regarded among Nintendo 64 enthusiasts, and that’s why I had to give it a look. Is Cruis’n World worth playing today? Well, let’s take a look!
Midway does a great job of conveying the themes of their games through their titles. Whereas the last release had you racing across various tracks based on real world locations in the good old US and A, Cruis’n World sets it’s sets higher. Each track here is based off of a different country. The developers obviously didn’t know a lot about the regions on which it based because they focused on some very generic elements. For example, the Moscow course is littered with factories and even the red square, but things get a bit derivative in the China stage where you’re competing on a track along the top of the Great Wall of China. Egypt features a road that drives through the pyramids, and Australia is pure outback. The tracks are really over the top but I actually liked this.
Other courses include Hawaii, New York, Kenya, and a few others. Honestly I have no issues with the theming here. I think Cruis’n World is superior to the previous iteration just based on this fact alone. You can also choose from several different vehicles to use as well. Apparently the developers couldn’t secure any licensing rights to real cars so they all have strange names like the Orca, or Serpent. Honestly I don’t care about this. What does bother me however is the way that the developers highlight their differences. Instead of generic categories like acceleration, or handling you instead have numeric values for more realistic settings. This includes things like skidpad, aero coeff, and power. I don’t know exactly what these mean to be honest, but I’m not a big auto guy. It’s weird that in an arcade style racer they didn’t make things easier to interpret here.
If you’re like me you’re just going to choose a car in the color that you like. I don’t blame you. Your only other option is automatic or manual transmission. The racing engine itself is a little wonky, but not so much as to ruin the experience. You accelerate with the A button, brake with B, and that’s pretty much it. The reason I say it’s ‘wonky’ is because the handling is very twitchy. The Cruis’n titles are unlike any other racing games you’ve played in this regard. Your car doesn’t really slide so much as it constantly tries to make hairpin turns. Everything is too sensitive here, and it’s something you have to get used to if you’re going to spend any amount of time with this title. Once you get used to the controls making sharp turns is a bit too easy.
Cruis’n World does a poor job of simulating tire grip on the tracks. To be honest it’s hard to care because the game is fun in spite of this issue. This is mostly because of the track design. As I mentioned earlier the developers strived to hit the most popular reference points for each country. The race tracks however are a lot of fun to compete in. Generally you have two sides of the road with traffic driving in the correct direction in both. Hit one of these vehicles and you’ll lose some time, but there’s no damage meter so you don’t really have to worry much. You’ll fall behind but it’s not hard to catch up except on the higher difficulty levels. To be successful in Cruis’n World you have to be ready to avoid obstacles, and make skill based turns.
Unfortunately the physics engine leaves a lot to be desired. The developers made this one incredibly unrealistic, which I don’t usually mind. They really should have fine tuned this however because hitting obstacles just feels off. You basically bounce off of things and flip around, and it doesn’t make much sense to be perfectly honest. Simple things like hitting ramps feels very unnatural. You don’t really get air so much as you bounce off of them. Honestly it feels like something out of the 8-bit era, and the original had this same issue. Why it wasn’t ironed out before release is beyond me. You have to accept and get used to the physics engine because the rest of the game is pretty solid to be honest. Still, I’m surprised this aspect survived the testing process because other racers were doing a lot more.
Cruis’n World is based off of the same engine as it’s predecessor. It’s very pleasant visually, and with some notable upgrades. The polygon count feels higher, and the framerate stays more consistent. What’s more is the backgrounds have a lot more detail now. There’s a lot more scenery to take in, and with more moving parts to boot. The tunnels in particular are chock full of detail and look amazing for the hardware. It’s also very colorful which goes a long ways to making it still visually appealing. Unfortunately there’s a lot of fog and pop-in. That’s to be expected with the territory. Thankfully it’s far off so it doesn’t impede gameplay. The soundtrack is a massive upgrade and almost sounds CD quality. Be warned; that Cruis’n World theme song on the menus will in fact get stuck in your head.
