Rush: The Height of Arcade Racing, Part 1

Back on March the 20th, I made a post about Cruis’n, an arcade racing game series that made its way from the Nintendo 64 all the way to the Nintendo Switch, with (most) of the entries being in good, while some were... less so. At the end of the post, I mentioned that I planned to make a series on arcade racing, and fear not, those plans have not been canned. This is a birthday post for a recent viewer of the blog, who happens to love this game series, but next week I’ll be back in with the Duke. Today’s blog post is all about Midway’s Rush series, which, at least in my opinion, is the height of arcade racing. This post will be split (I don’t have the time right now to do the whole Rush series justice), though I will post the second part sometime soon. Right, let’s get into it.

RUSH-rush-rush-rush...
Image Credit: GameSpot

It's Rush, baby.
Image Credit: Game Developer

Is it real? Or is it RUSH? This was the slogan of the first game in the series, San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing. Only months after the original Quake game, Rush was released into arcades in December, 1996, running on a modified version of 3dfx’s Voodoo Graphics chipset with some modifications. The game plays across San Francisco, although this rendition is not true to its real counterpart, as the locations were changed to be more fun in-game. The original arcade version includes eight vehicles, playable across three maps based off of San Francisco. In October of 1997, San Francisco Rush was updated to San Francisco Rush: The Rock, including four new tracks (one of which is the Alcatraz track, originally intended for the N64 version) and four new cars. This led to the release of a Nintendo 64 port, which included all the content from the original arcade version, as well as three new tracks and all of the cars (other than some from The Rock). Early 1998 saw the release of a more barebones PlayStation port, including only three tracks (plus a new bonus one), a different soundtrack, a modified announcer and some gameplay changes, such as fiddling with the gravity. The PlayStation port was followed by a Windows version, San Francisco Rush: The Rock – Alcatraz Edition. This version took advantage of the Quantum3D graphics card (a spin-off of the 3dfx hardware powering the original arcade release), so much so that until a fan fixed it, the game was blocked from running on anything other than Quantum3D. Soon after, San Francisco Rush: The Rock – Wave Net was released, which is an updated version of the arcade release with online multiplayer capabilities. Rush is a very fun game, all about speeding through the tracks and getting in the air. It’s certainly one of my favourite arcade racing games, and it was great enough to receive a sequel.

The PlayStation port is a bit... lackluster in the graphics department.
Image Credit: ArmadilloZero / YouTube

Now with stunts.
Image Credit: Viperr818 / YouTube

Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA, released in November, 1998 onto the Nintendo 64, is to San Francisco Rush what Cruis’n World was to Cruis’n USA: a massive expansion of the boundaries of the predecessor. Sure, Rush didn’t expand to the whole world like Cruis’n did, but no longer are you stuck in the Golden City. Rush 2 includes tracks based off of Las Vegas, New York, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Seattle, and more. The car selection was also upgraded to 16. Strangely, Rush 2 was only released for N64, unlike the first game, which was released for arcade and then ported to home consoles. There were, however, apparently plans for a PlayStation version and a Windows 95 version, but there is no significant evidence to prove it. Because of this, Rush 2 has never received any modern rereleases, such as in the Midway Arcade Treasures collections, but we’ll get to that later. In my opinion, Rush 2 is certainly a worthy sequel to Rush, and in some ways, I enjoyed it more. Like its predecessor, Rush 2 received a sequel in 1999, the game that truly put Rush on the map.

Drive the future!
Image Credit: GameSpot

And now with rockets too.
Image Credit: LeopardYiu's Storage Wiki 

Remember how Rush 2 went country-wide? This time, we’re going sci-fi. San Francisco Rush 2049, released in June, 1999, is what happens when you take a reasonably grounded racing game (albeit with some silly bits here and there) and make it futuristic. Rush 2049 doesn’t have the large amount of cars like Rush 2 did, but what it lost in quantity, it made up for in quality. Rush 2049 features customisation for handling type, engine type, tire type, frame type, wing size, tire rim style and car colours. The game also has only a few tracks, less than the previous game. This could be seen as a bad thing, but this game really makes up for it with its soundtrack. The 2049 soundtrack is awesome; you should be listening to it while reading this post. The game was ported to Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 in 2000, with some changes such as the addition of stunt wings. The arcade version of Rush 2049 was upgraded, also in 2000, to the Tournament Edition, with some added tracks/cars and online multiplayer. A 2003 version, San Francisco Rush 2049: Special Edition, is a rerelease of the Tournament Edition, minus the online multiplayer, as Midway’s servers had shut down. San Francisco Rush 2049 is one hell of an excellent game, and is definitely one of my favourite arcade experiences.

Fun.
Image Credit: GameFabrique

That’s not the end of Rush. When I next talk about Rush, I’ll talk about the handheld games, the Midway Arcade Treasures collections, and that time that Rush went to Los Angeles. I hope you’ve enjoyed the post, and to the birthday boy, happy birthday. Another little thing I forgot to post last time was that I got shout-outed (probably not a word but who cares) in a YouTube video. Check out CD-ROM Fossil’s video on Knights of the Temple here for a bit of info on my amazing creation that I, ahem, created for him. Next week, I’ll be discussing something Duke3D-related, but I’m not sure entirely what yet. Well, that’s a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Cruis'n: Arcade Racing ft. Doom and Fast & Furious

What's this? An arcade racing series that made its way to handhelds using the DOOM Engine? Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, and today's topic is Cruis'n, a good old arcade racing series consisting of six games and a whole lot of fun. This post will span the Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Wii, Switch and of course, arcade, all in the lead up to another special arcade racing post in the future. Without further ado, let's get cruis'n.

Cruiiiiiisiiiiin, yeah, Cruis'n USAAAAAA
Image credit: Arcade History

Cruis'n started back in September 1994, first appearing on Midway's V Unit arcade system, an arcade system consisting of only four games. Cruis'n USA, the first title in the series, is quite a simple game: pick a car, pick a track, drive. The game takes place across the USA, with you starting off in San Francisco and finishing the game in Washington, D.C. Cruis'n USA was one of two games, alongside Killer Instinct's original arcade version, to be part of Nintendo's "Ultra 64" lineup of arcade systems. Ultra 64 was eventually renamed "Nintendo 64" (the console we know today), and Nintendo ceased development for arcades. In December of 1996, Cruis'n USA was ported to Nintendo 64, albeit in a slightly different form, with a few differences: the woman who awards a trophy at the end of a race is wearing more clothes, some billboards were removed, killable animals were removed and Bill Clinton is no longer bathing with bikini girls in the back of a car. In March, 2008, Cruis'n USA was rereleased for the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console, but before this comes the second installment in the original arcade trilogy.

Bye bye, Bill.
Image credit: Atlas Obscura

Cruis'n WOOO-OOOO-OOOOOOOOORLD!
Image credit: GameFabrique

November 1996's Cruis'n World is a vast improvement when compared to USA. While keeping the same overall style of gameplay, World is, as the title suggests, not just based in the USA. You get to race in 14 different countries (you even get to race on the Moon in the N64 version!), you have more cars to race in, up to four players can play in multiplayer and this game introduced stunts. World's June 1998 Nintendo 64 port was also more successful when compared to Cruis'n USA, and is widely regarded as the best of the N64 ports. World was the third of four games to run on Midway's V Unit system, after Cruis'n USA and War Gods, with the fourth and final title on the system being Off Road Challenge, the fourth title in Midway's Off Road series. Cruis'n World is the second game in the original trilogy of Cruis'n games, so let's talk about the third one.

War Gods has a playable character called Kabuki Jo. Awesome.
Image credit: VicioJuegos / YouTube

Just look at this flyer.
Image credit: Jtalledo / Wikimedia Commons

Cruis'n Exotica, released for arcades in 1999, is a strange game. As you can imagine, Exotica is an exotic game, and certainly changed the tone from relatively normal to all-out funky. No longer are you playing as an unseen driver hidden behind a black window in a 1963 Chevrolette Corvette, because you are now a Martian driving in some strange car with rocket boosters! Is driving on the Moon too silly for you? Well, you can drive in Atlantis, the dinosaur-infested Amazon and Mars! This third entry ran on Midway's Zeus II hardware, which was only use in one other game: The Grid, a 2000 arcade third-person shooter featuring some characters from the Mortal Kombat franchise. Exotica was also Cruis'n's debut title on handhelds, receiving a Game Boy Color on November 6, 2000. Developed by Crawfish Interactive, creators of some of my favourite Game Boy games (Street Fighter Alpha 3, Ecks vs. Sever and Ballistic: Ecks. vs Sever), Exotica on the GBC offers a similar experience to its N64 and arcade counterparts, albeit in a much more simplified and slightly less enjoyable way. Cruis'n Exotica marked the end of the Cruis'n series on Nintendo 64, but not the series as a whole.

It's not the worst, but there are certainly better GBC games and ports.
Image credit: GameFabrique

We got this...

...from this.
Image credits: World of Longplays / YouTube
Lee's Outlook / WordPress 

The Game Boy Advance saw the release of Cruis'n Velocity in November, 2001, which has quite an interesting story behind it. Velocity was developed by Graphic State, an English company who started off their business on the Game Boy Color with LEGO Stunt Rally. Their second released game, Cruis'n Velocity, ran on the engine being used for the then-in-development first-person shooter Dark Arena. Dark Arena's engine is a modified version of DOOM's Jaguar engine for GBA, which in itself is a modified version of the id Tech 1 engine. So, Cruis'n Velocity runs on the DOOM engine. Wow. If you've played Dark Arena, or even DOOM II on GBA, you may recognise some of the visual style and texture quality. In terms of gameplay, Velocity is better than Exotica's Game Boy Color port but still not quite as fun as the original N64 games. It's still quite strange why they would use a first-person shooter engine for a racing game when plenty of other racing games had come out perfectly on the GBA (V-Rally 3 is an excellent example), and the limitations of the DOOM engine do sometimes act as a detriment to Velocity as a whole. Well, that's DOOM covered. So how does Fast & Furious fit into the grand scheme of things?

Raw Thrills was formed in 2001 as an arcade game company, consisting of former Midway employees and starting off making gambling games. Raw Thrills' first title was Target: Terror, a 2004 light gun shooter for arcade systems that eventually saw release on the Nintendo Wii, published by Konami. Their second game was The Fast and The Furious, released in July, 2004, that sported oddly similar gameplay to the Cruis'n series. Like the film it is based off of, The Fast and The Furious received many sequels: The Fast and The Furious: Super Bikes, a bike-based game released in 2006; The Fast and The Furious: Drift, a game based off of the third film in the Fast & Furious franchise, released in 2007; and The Fast and The Furious: SuperCars, a spin-off released in 2010. SuperCars received a revision after the Fast & Furious license expired, and Super Bikes received two non-F&F sequels in 2010 and 2019, respectively. However, the original F&F game from 2004 received a Wii port in the form of Cruis'n in November, 2007. Cruis'n is essentially F&F 2004 but it's even worse and it's on the Wii. Well, that's Cruis'n on the Wii in a nutshell. Until 2017, it seemed like the Cruis'n series was over, but one more game was yet to be released.

Spot the difference.
Image credit: The Gaming and Hobby Channel / YouTube

Cruis'n's back.
Image credit: Best Buy

Cruis'n Blast is the latest game in the Cruis'n series, released in 2017 as Raw Thrills' 31st game. Being the first true Cruis'n game since 2001 (name changes don't count), Blast was quite exciting for Cruis'n fans. It added tons of new maps, tons of new cars, looks great graphically, the visual aesthetic is beautiful and it takes the silly factor of Exotica to a whole new level. Blast's 2017 version was good enough to receive a Nintendo Switch port, published by GameMill Entertainment (most well known for Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing) in September, 2021, almost 20 years since Velocity appeared on the GBA. Unlike previous arcade to Nintendo ports of the Cruis'n series, Blast adds in tons of new content, including 24 new maps. Never before have you been able to cruise (pun intended) through the streets of alien-invaded London as a Triceratops alongside a fire engine and a Pegasus. I'm not making that up. Cruis'n is truly at its peak with Blast, and it may be difficult to top it.

So that's the Cruis'n series, the first in a collection of blog posts on arcade racing series. I'm still divided on what I'm going to blog about next (trust me, there's a lot of stuff), but I hope that you enjoyed this blast, or should I say cruise, through the past. Well, that's a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

**Cruis'n Blast is available on Nintendo eShop**