Cruis 'n World
System: Nintendo 64
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Midway Home Entertainment
Released: 1999
Capabilities: Controller Pak Compatible, Rumble Pak Compatible

The Game

The sequel to Cruis ‘n USA. In this game you race on various tracks across the world, from the USA to France, and even the moon. This game’s predecessor was plagued with horrible pop up and just loads of fog. Will this game improve over Cruis ‘n USA’s flaws, or just seem a rushed sequel? Let’s get onto the review and find out.

Graphics

Leaps and bounds over the graphics in Cruis ‘n USA. All the cars look superb and there’s a great variation between them all. And they actually have animations on them besides just sparks, like you can see a couple of dents and such and even heavy exhaust when you rev up your engine by pressing accelerate twice. The environment your racing on is beautiful! There’s so many different tracks you’re racing on, weather it be asphalt, a gravel road, or racing under a really big aquarium, everything just looks great in the game. Also a problem in Cruis ‘n USA was there was loads of pop up. Well, pop up still occurs in this game, but there’s a whole lot less of it, and most of the pop up that occurs is covered up by fog. Also the 2 player mode ran rather slow in this game’s predecessor, but that’s not the case here, even with up to 4 players playing you can get the game to run at a smooth speed without much slowdown.

Sound

Around this time of gaming most arcade racers were starting to put lyrical songs into most games for a great experience, some examples of this were Street Sk8ter, and Crazy Taxi, but Cruis ‘n World stuck to the original formula of the first game and included it’s own music, it may not have had lyrics in it, but they still fit the game right, and sounded ten times as better as the one’s in Crus ‘n USA. Also that same lady does some voice overs again and comments over the national landmarks, like she’ll say “Ooooh, Eiffel Tower!” Just like the way she did it in the original. All the sound effects are pulled off nicely and everything sounds the way it should be, like collisions sound like real life collisions, revving the engine sounds like revving the engine in real life and so on.

Game play

The controls are easy to learn in this game, just like they were in Cruis ‘n USA. The control stick allows for realistic steering, and the shoulder buttons operate the brakes, while the Z trigger accelerates. And of course, if you don’t like the default controls, you can always customize them to fit your needs. A cool new feature in the game is if you tap the accelerate button twice your car will “rev up” and will cause a little speed boost, which is kinda cool.

Now the game is a lot like the original, choose from a lot of cars to start out with and you pick a track to race on that you beat in the Cruise the World mode. Up to 2 people can be in Cruise the World mode where you have to finish 1st in every track in order to advance onto the next. Another new feature here is the tricks point systems, most tracks now have ramps, and while you’re in the air, by pressing a certain button combination you’ll do some type of stunt or spin and will be awarded for points for it. The more points you accumulate you’ll be awarded with new cars, and upgraded cars. You get to save all your trick points on the controller pak. Of course it’ll take some time to earn the points in order to unlock the hidden stuff, but then again it makes it worth your while because this time it won’t be let’s just get the race over so we can get 1st place, now it’s just a tad more challenging, but then again there’ll be some people who won’t feel like totaling up all those points just to unlock some new stuff.

Replay Value

The 4 player mode is what will get you hooked playing this game for a while. If you loved only playing with just up to 2 players in Cruis ‘n USA, then you’ll be going insane playing with 3 or 4 players simultaneously. This mode is just so fun to play, and you’ll be playing for hours with your friends. Also the new trick point system is cool, because you’ll be playing for months just trying to get all those points totaled up so you can unlock the new vehicles.

In Brief

+: Far better graphics than Cruis ‘n USA, Now 4 players can play, Trick Points system in very innovative

-: Still a little bit of pop up, although it’s not that noticeable, not many people will want to spend hours getting trick points to unlock stuff

The Final Ratings Rundown

Graphics: 8.8
Sound: 9.5
Game play: 9.0
Replay Value: 8.7

Overall: 9

Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 9

Final Analysis

This game ends up being way better than Cruis ‘n USA. There’s way more cars and tracks to choose from, plus the trick system is really cool, and you’ll just be playing multi player mode forever now that up to 4 players can play. So if you’re a fan of arcade racers, or just the Cruis ‘n series, then don’t waist any time and go buy this game right now!