Cruis'n Blast | Switch | Crazy racin'! - "stupendously entertaining, infectiously energetic racer" - EG 8/10

[Drumstick]

Same here. To be fair N64 Mag were usually spot on the money.

[Tomous]

I treated their word as gospel back then

[Drumstick]

https://ebay.co.uk/usr/shopto_outlet

20% off at the moment when using the code PURCHASE4LESS at checkout.

Brings this game down to £27.08.

[Jenuall]

Wow, this was quite a thread to catch up on!

I have a really vivid memory of playing a Cruis'n arcade cabinet in Gatwick airport before our family holiday to Florida back in '96. Our flight was delayed so we ended up hanging around the waiting area for hours with nothing to do but play on the arcades - I think I spent my meagre amount of holiday pocket money that we had been given within the first 10 minutes!

The game seemed like a cheap and cheerful arcade racer back then, a fun distraction when there was no other competition, but I'm not sure I'd drop £30 on a new version when there's so many arcade racer type games out now.

[DarkRula]

I've been enjoying it a lot. The key hunt to unlock all the vehicles is almost complete, and then I can use them all to see how weird they look racing against proper race cars. I don't think anything will be as weird as the triceratops, but seeing a helicopter doing a wheelie definitely comes a close second.

[DarkRula]

Just finished streaming this, showing off all the races as part of it. Then, since that had only taken me just over an hour, I decided to run through a few of the races again. With the motion controls active. What was meant to be a joke ending half hour to the stream ended up with me actually impressed and questioning why more racing games don't have motion controls as an option. It took a bit to get used to - as anything does, but the motion in this game is implemented great. It works great. Is it neccessary for this game? Absolutely not. But I love that Raw Thrills chose to implement it.

[Barnsy!]

I just took a spin around the first course . Initial impressions:

+ Classic Cruis'n theme tune... "Let's go... Cruis'n!"
+ Excellent arcade/90s styled presentation; brash, bold and bright
+ Slick performance in race; there is a ton going on in the background at all times
- Slightly long load times
- If you don't like simple arcade-styled racing and over-the-top action, this won't appeal to you

Looking forward to trying it out properly later .

I really liked the N64 Cruising games but they got a fairly middling reception even back in the day. Glad you're enjoying this and its nice to see it reviewing well.

I'm definitely going to get this at some point but I'm deep into Hot Shots and Horizon Chase Turbo at the moment so don't really need a third one of these sort of games in my life right now.

By the way if you like simple retro aesthetic cartoon racers - I'd strongly recommend Horizon Chase Turbo if you haven't already.

[Drumstick]

So the consensus appears to be that stylistically it's not for everyone but it's fun for those that it is.

I think I'll look to pick it up via eBay or FB Marketplace at a knockdown price.

[jawa3]

...I'm definitely going to get this at some point but I'm deep into Hot Shots and Horizon Chase Turbo at the moment so don't really need a third one of these sort of games in my life right now.

By the way if you like simple retro aesthetic cartoon racers - I'd strongly recommend Horizon Chase Turbo if you haven't already.

Good shout, Barnsy - I do have HCT on the Switch but have yet to play it! I believe that a new expansion is arriving for it, too - "Senna Forever".

As for Cruis'n Blast, Digital Foundry took a look at it and had some pretty positive things to say:

LINK=www.youtubeDOTcom/watch?v=0Qfz2_Eys3I

(^^^ My new logon ID can't post links yet so you'll have to cut and edit it to see it!)

I suspect that it remains a case of the game being a bit "Marmite", of course, but - hey - that's all cool.

[Jenuall]

I really enjoyed Horizon Chase Turbo! But it's a game I got free from Plus I believe and I don't think I would have given it a shot otherwise. For me Cruis'n feels in a similar place - if it was on Game Pass or Plus I'd no doubt try it out and get a good amount of fun out of it, but as a more "full price" offering I just don't think I can be tempted sadly

[Green Gecko]

I hope you are happy about the critical acclaim for this rumbunctious slice of arcade driving action jawa!

[jawa3]

I hope you are happy about the critical acclaim for this rumbunctious slice of arcade driving action jawa!

Hee, yeah, it has had a better reception then I'd anticipated; the Eurogamer "Recommended" assessment and the Digital Foundry praise were pretty neat. As with any game, though, different folk have different views; we don't all enjoy the same music or films so there's no reason that we should enjoy the same games, either. It's a good thing that we're all different :-).

[Green Gecko]

There's a whole lot of parenthesis there.

Can't we all just get along?

Edit: I'm locking this to prevent further anger.