Nintendo 64: |
San Francisco Rush |
  |
Midway
Racing game
 |
The videogame industry is a weird thing. What I mean to say is that there are some companies that specialize in creating ture, foul, unmitigated crap, but then, somehow, with the same in-house development teams that created the other monstrosites, is able to program a wonderful, cheer inducing game. Midway is such a company. After years of the God-awful Mortal Kombat series, the horrid Cruis'n USA and a slew of other stinkers, Midway has finally given us the goods. The goods being, of course, a little thing known as San Francisco Rush. Technically, the premise is that it's a racing game. In reality, it's what happens when you take Sega's Daytona and oh, I don't know, SimCopter, and lock them up in a motel room with a case of vodka and some Barry White CD's. You may throw that old Atari game Race Drivin' into that unholy menage-á-trois, if you like. The point being that you have a game that involves cars, where you are careening down the steets of the notouriously hilly City by the Bay at breakneck speeds, spending as much time in the air as on the road, and probably flipping end over end or doing a corkscrew for good measure. |
Visuals |
I really don't know what to say. Rush looks very good, as far as N64 games go. It's got nice car designs, with some fun textures on them, and the framerate seems to stay nice and high, contributing to a real feeling of speed. Of course, it does sufffer from the graphical malaise that afflict most N64 games, that is the very noticeable blurring due to rampant anti-aliasing, as well as a definate lack of textures in the backgrounds. On the plus side, the fog, which in some games is so thick you need a machete, has actually been controlled. And since SanFran is supposed to be foggy anyway, Midway gave the player the ability to toggle fog from Turok-having-trouble-seeing-hand-in-front-of-face fog, to a slight haze that lends more visibility than Goldeneye. Not as clear as I would like, but an improvement. The programmers also went a long way towards creating nice-looking, convincing polygonal environments, which lend favorably to the entire look of the game. |
Merits |
This game is much more than just a driving game. Called a "flight-sim" by some, the incredible different options that you can do in Rush, like just driving around to see the city of SF, or trying to collect all those hard-to-find keys in order to get all the secret cars, is what really makes this game rule. I also liked that the programmers took a lot of effort in making the tracks, since every track can also be played backwards, mirrored, or backwards-mirrored, making for a completely different experience. You will find different shortcuts and routes when playing like this, and also new sights! Oh, yeah, you can also prove your mettle in the special "You're IT Mode" against a friend. |
Flaws |
First of all, the game can be very hard at first if the difficulty level is not set to "Very Easy", especially in the Circuit Mode. Although it would be hard to play, a four-player split-screen mode would have been interesting. Another thing that I didn't really like is the fact that the shortcuts are so hard to take, that some aren't even worth it because by the time you finally learn how to get through it alive, the distance that you gain is insignificant compared to the pain involved in actually getting into it. |
