Cruis'n Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 6th March 2008

Share:

Digg It

Let's go Cruis'n

Cruis'n Details:

	Racing
	Nintendo Wii
	Midway
	Midway

Out Now

N/A

Whilst some games strive to be the most accurate racing simulators the world has ever seen, some seem to go in the other direction and concentrate on arcade style fun. Cruis’n can be easily described as an arcade racer without any shadow of a doubt.

Coming from Midway’s classic arcade title, this Wii version features two modes of play Circuit and Arcade as well as a multiplayer split screen option for two players. Circuit is the games main mode in which you take part in races across various locations such as Times Square, Central Park and the LA ghetto. To proceed to the next race you must finish in the top three positions and each time you start a new race you are able to add an upgrade to your car. These include things such as adding nitrous, engine upgrades that affect your cars acceleration or changing your cars spoiler to improve speed. It’s a very simple system and to be honest frighteningly unrealistic as neon lights seem to increase the aero dynamics of your car? But hey this is an arcade racer. As you progress through the circuit mode you unlock new cars and tracks, these can be accessed in the games arcade mode at any time.

Races themselves are done in an over the top arcade style, with big jumps, a huge amount of destructibility in the game environment and all manner of stunts that simply would not be possible. These include sudden side wheelies used for avoiding cars, wheelies that see your car launched onto its rear wheels with fire blazing out of the exhaust pipes whilst giving you a short burst of speed,you can also perform car vaults that see your car summersault through the air. It’s all very over the top if not a little too much.

The game is controlled by holding the Wii remote horizontally, making you feel like you’re holding a steering wheel as you have to steer by tilting it in the appropriate direction. For the most part it works very well, but if you make sudden movements you will skid all over the road so subtle movements are required.

The game offers a fairly good challenge, AI controlled racers will get ahead quickly and while catching them is pretty easy, expect to lose time when you bump into walls, cars and so on. Also as you progress through the games circuit mode the tracks themselves become more challenging.

It would be nice to say that Cruis’n runs bug free, but on several occasions I noticed a lot of slowdown, even when there wasn’t much happening on screen, also on one occasion my car seemed to suddenly fall beneath the road only to resurface after about five seconds.

Graphically the game looks like your typical arcade racer, car upgrades are exaggerated and while the game does feature licensed cars such as Nissan Skyline’s, Toyota Supra’s and Mitsubishi Evo’ s they aren’t the best representations that have ever graced a video game. Overall Cruis’n looks a little dated.

Sound in the game, is pretty poor, sound effects aren’t very realistic and the game features the typical techno tracks you expect from an arcade racer. Voices in Cruis’n are mainly featured in the games menus and in all honesty they are terrible and very false sounding.

At times Cruis’n can be fun, with the ability to pull off crazy stunts out of the blue. While the game won’t appeal to racing purists fans, arcade racers may find something they like. However the game is let down by a few problems most notably the slowdown issue. It is fun, but not the best arcade racer.