Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA

"One Of The Best Arcade Racing Games Ever"

Arcade racing games have always been a game genre I liked. When I played the original San Fransisco Rush in an arcade, I thought, ''Wow this game is awesome. It would be cool to have a home version of it.'' Well, a year or so later, guess what happened? Yeah you guessed it, San Fransisco Rush 2: Extreme Racing was born.

The gameplay is great. You can choose from around 20 cars to race with. The cars range from a 60's Volkswagen van look-a-like to a modern day Dodge Viper look-a-like. You race against 5 other cars. You can also change the number of cars you race against. The circuit mode is pretty fun, yet difficult. There are loads of tracks in the games and most of them have a reversed part where you just race the same track but going the different direction. One of my favorite things about the game is the jumps. The jumps range from staircases, hills, and even ramps in the middle of nowhere. In the actual racing, your victory depends upon if you go through shortcuts, jumps, and what kind of car you are driving. If you are driving a car that isn't as good as the rest, there is still a good chance you can win just because of the factors mentioned above (jumps, shortcuts, etc). The single player is great, but the multiplayer is even better! It really gives you a rush (is that why they named it this?) when you are racing against a friend because the cars are all about the same and it really comes down to who is going to wreck or use the shortcuts to win. The gameplay is magnificent.

The graphics in the game are pretty good for a Nintendo 64 game. The cars and tracks all look pretty detailed. The sound is good. Some of the cars do sound the same but that really doesn't matter that much. The music is average. Not good, not bad, just average.

The replayability is good if you like racing games. The multiplayer will make this game last a long time also. There are secret cars you can unlock by collecting Mountain Dew cans (advertisement anyone?). The Mountain Dew cans are placed all over the levels and are pretty hard to reach although most of them are in plain view. It might take a while to unlock all of the cars in the game.

Overall, I would say this is a definite buy if you like arcade style racing games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/02, Updated 12/29/02