Last weekend I had a friend-of-a-friend of mine come over for some gaming, and he had L.A. Rush. I inquired why he had such a crappy game in his possession, and his logic was "I thought it was a good game." Instead of punching him in the face like I would normally do to complete idiots, I instead took out my copy of Midway Arcade Treasures 3 and fired up Rush 2049.
I think we played for two or three hours, racing, stunting and battle mode-ing. I still think the guy likes L.A. Rush, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't like it as much after seeing how fun the series used to be. So just an hour or two ago, I won another circuit in the game, and it made me think why the original Rush trilogy was so much goddamn fun in the first place.
Well, it was totally wild with all of those crazy jumps and big airs and REALISTIC EXPLOSIONS (lol) when you crash. Deeper then that, you could actually go exploring around these supposedly "closed-off" tracks and find different nooks and crannies and stunt courses hidden deep within. The keys and coins and MOUNTAIN DEW CANS to collect were awesome, and even more awesome because to get them you needed to go to explore the nooks and crannies and do those crazy jumps and big airs.
Deeper than that, though, it was still a racing game first and foremost, and a really, really good one at that. You actually needed to slow down for sharper corners, you needed to ease on and off the analog stick to stay on banked turns without flipping on the inside bank or breaking off the birm and flying outside. You had to keep your speed up as much as possible, which meant trying to turn as little as possible, just like your fancy Gran Turismo 4 or Forza Motorsport. And the AI was set at the perfect pace: If you didn't make any mistakes and/or hit a shortcut perfectly, you could catch up to anybody and win. The racing was solid enough to try to improve on lap times, too.
So please, let's all remember when Midway could make a decent game (and a profit, am i rite?) and talk about the three original Rush games, San Francisco Rush, Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA, and Rush 2049.
For me:
Favorite game - Rush 2049
Favorite track - Rush USA Seattle
Favorite car - The one and only MOUNTAIN DEW DRAGSTER!!!1
(I couldn't find an actual picture of this car, so this real-world Dew dragster will have to do.)
I think we played for two or three hours, racing, stunting and battle mode-ing. I still think the guy likes L.A. Rush, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't like it as much after seeing how fun the series used to be. So just an hour or two ago, I won another circuit in the game, and it made me think why the original Rush trilogy was so much goddamn fun in the first place.
Well, it was totally wild with all of those crazy jumps and big airs and REALISTIC EXPLOSIONS (lol) when you crash. Deeper then that, you could actually go exploring around these supposedly "closed-off" tracks and find different nooks and crannies and stunt courses hidden deep within. The keys and coins and MOUNTAIN DEW CANS to collect were awesome, and even more awesome because to get them you needed to go to explore the nooks and crannies and do those crazy jumps and big airs.
Deeper than that, though, it was still a racing game first and foremost, and a really, really good one at that. You actually needed to slow down for sharper corners, you needed to ease on and off the analog stick to stay on banked turns without flipping on the inside bank or breaking off the birm and flying outside. You had to keep your speed up as much as possible, which meant trying to turn as little as possible, just like your fancy Gran Turismo 4 or Forza Motorsport. And the AI was set at the perfect pace: If you didn't make any mistakes and/or hit a shortcut perfectly, you could catch up to anybody and win. The racing was solid enough to try to improve on lap times, too.
So please, let's all remember when Midway could make a decent game (and a profit, am i rite?) and talk about the three original Rush games, San Francisco Rush, Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA, and Rush 2049.
For me:
Favorite game - Rush 2049
Favorite track - Rush USA Seattle
Favorite car - The one and only MOUNTAIN DEW DRAGSTER!!!1
(I couldn't find an actual picture of this car, so this real-world Dew dragster will have to do.)