Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA

"Candidiate for "N64's most underrated game of the year" award."

Everyone loved San Francisco Rush when it came out. We fell for the realism, the ability to fly through buildings, and the challenge of finding all the secrets to gain even cooler cars. After a while (it's a long while...) it got boring and repetitive, something most game developers fear. They had to crank out a sequel, and fast, while the name ''Rush'' was still fresh in people's minds. Enter Rush 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the greatest racing games of all time. There were plenty of ''Ooooooh''s and ''Aaaaaaah''s when we checked this game out. Cars were now customizeable, cheats were easily activated, there was a STUNT track (I stress this because I, as most people did, loved doing stunts in the first one), Midway even threw in a track of their office. There are a plethora of things to do in Rush 2, and it's still a game I frequently play...As for the original, it got buried somewhere near the bottom of the pile, in the area near Star Wars: SOTE and Mario 64...

Story: N/A
Once upon a time, there was a race.....people drove.....someone won.....he was hailed as king for all time to come.....until the next race.....

Graphics: 8/10
Pretty much identical to Rush, but you can tweak certain aspects of the car, including different paint colors, racing stripes, tire size (with a cheat), etc. The tracks look nice although there are some clipping bugs if you crash into the wrong wall too fast. No biggie. The tracks seem a little bit more detailed, with more buildings, side streets, boats, etc. The fog is thicker too, looks like actual fog.

Sound: 8/10
A good amount of different engine sounds, better music, more people screaming, etc. Pretty good if you ask me...

Challenge: varies
If you start doing really good on a circuit, the cars get harder to beat and more aggressive. You can also change the difficulty when you're not in a circuit.

Control: 8/10
Pretty realistic, when you make the gravity higher, you turn easier, lower equals crappy turning.

Features: 8/10
Stunt track, Crash track, Half Pipe, Midway track. Also have heard of a Pipe track, but never accessed it.

Rent/Buy:
Buy it, it should be pretty cheap now. It's well worth the investment.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/05/00, Updated 03/06/01