WHOA OHHHHHH! How cheesily epic was the intro to this game? Actually how epically cheesy was this game in general? Still, I bought it, it being one of the few (and I mean one of less than a dozen) games to come out relatively around the time the Nintendo 64 came out.
It’s kind of ridiculous how few games were available for this system when it came out. That seems to me like a bit of a mistake, regardless of the quality of the launch titles. Super Mario 64 was the only really solid title out for the system in the first couple of months.
I would have thought that Nintendo would have learned their lesson but their latest Nintendo Switch console isn’t that much better in terms of the number of launch titles available as that number is in the “fews” (the Switch just came out at the time of my writing this, likely well before it goes live on the website).
Anyway, let’s talk about Cruis’n USA itself. When I revisited this game, my controller wasn’t properly set, hence being unable to turn on anything close to resembling a donut shaped pool float, let alone a dime.
After I got that sorted, I started having fun again. It’s basically Rad Racer for the Nintendo 64; it’s just not regarded with anywhere near the same esteem because Rad Racer was a bit of a game changer when it came out. But Cruis’n USA was (yes was) pretty at the time of launch and almost fooled you at the time into thinking it was as good as the arcade… just for a second.
Anyway, it’s a loose and kind of buggy seeming racing game, but it happened to be the first road racing game for the 64 bit/3D realm of Nintendo. As such, I liked it. I played the crap out of this game, as much as I could at least. I unlocked the different colors/levels of each car. I unlocked the hidden vehicles and had a fun little time with them like… a cab I think… and a jeep maybe. Yeah, a fun if not largely unmemorable little time.
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