Rush Series Double Header: San Francisco and LA Rush

Game: San Francisco Rush Extreme Racing
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Midway
Release Date: 28th February 1998

Originally an arcade title, San Francisco Rush was brought to N64 and Playstation by Midway. Featuring 4 tracks and a choice of 4 cars, there were a few modes added in addition to those from the arcade. Despite this, the game doesn't escape the feeling of being simply an arcade game ported to home console. The single race modes finish right after the race and return you to the start screen.

The general theme of the game is racing around San Francisco, much like Cruis'n USA but contained in a single city. The cars are a fairly standard box shape and the only difference between them is their speed and handling. This means that two of the most important aspects of a racing game, theme and vehicles are fairly bland and bring nothing new to the genre as a whole.

In addition to single race mode there's a sudden death mode, grand prix mode, explosive mode and extreme mode, all of which just feel like variations of the single race mode in some way rather than being their own experience. The racing view is fairly cluttered with a checkpoint time in the top right, map on the right, with your position in between the two, course time on the top left, speedometer at the top and the positions of other racers on the left. Although these can be turned off, a lot of them are unnecessary anyway.

The AI is rubber banded to your performance if you're lagging behind, although it's possible to get far ahead of opponents. If you manage to crash in a race, you're picked up and transported quite a way ahead of where you crashed which seems a little unfair in places, especially as it can give computer players an advantage over you.

Graphically the game is poor with blocky cars and a lack of detail throughout the tracks; sometimes it's difficult to tell where you're going or what's going on with cars directly behind you due to graphical glitches and oddities. The music of the game is generally rock based with some guitar tracks on most circuits. It's inoffensive and fits well with the racing mood of the game, even if it seems like it's going faster than the actual cars.

Overall San Francisco Rush is both a poor racing game and a poor arcade conversion. The graphics and gameplay are unimpressive, there's not much choice of cars or tracks even with reverse variants of each. The extra game modes aren't all that different from regular play and don't really add too much extra to the game. It's pretty much the definition of medicore as a game; it works but hardly anything more can be said of it.

Rating: 36/100
Grade: E

Game: L.A. Rush
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Midway
Release Date: 21st October 2005

Released 5 years after the last installment in the Rush series, L.A. Rush took a different approach to the racing genre than previous titles. Replacing the arcade racing feel with a street racing theme which incorporated a licensed appearance from the West Coast Customs crew of Pimp My Ride fame, you'd be surprised to hear that the games were even in the same series. The new style is not dissimilar to that of Need for Speed Underground 2 or Most Wanted in places.

Upon starting the game you're greeted with a cutscene which clumsily explains how all of your cars were stolen by a man named Lidell and that instead of reporting a theft like a normal person, you're going to have to street race to get them back. The player character is named Trickz and has one the most ridiculous haircuts I've ever seen, it's difficult to really get into his mindset with such a shoddy storyline.

The city featured in the game has over 350 miles of streets and freeways but never really fails to feel dull and bland. There's supposedly different areas of the city and famous streets but for the most part it feels like a strange wasteland with lots of traffic. There are pedestrians too but your car will pass right through them, and they impact very little on the game. Races appear on the minimap and using the GPS system players can find and enter them.

All races featured in the game involve 3 CPU cars and the player, with no prize money going to 4th place, the entry fee returned to 3rd, and increasing amounts for 2nd and 1st. It's actually possible to complete most of the game without even winning any events. As you're allowed retry them any number of times, continous 2nd and 3rd place finishes will unlock the new races and allow you to progress despite no race wins occurring.

Other types of mission include "Acquire" where you're tasked with taking one of your cars back from Lidell, and delivering it safely to your garage whilst being pursued by an army of SUV's intent on destroying the car you're driving. Annoyingly you're also charged for the damage that is caused so longer journeys are a nightmare. Other than that there's rare instances of destructive missions that pop up, but aren't particularly good either way.

The police mechanics in the game are very poor and serve only to remind me how much better Need For Speed: Most Wanted is. Clipping any other car on the road, or damaging property gives you police stars which in turn give you police attention. Curiously though, speeding past police units without police stars doesn't attract their attention at all. When chasing players the police are pretty hopeless and losing them is far too easy. The only real time they're a pain is if they're bothering the player during a race.

A heavily promoted part of the game was the use of the West Coast Customs shop to "Pimp your Ride", however even this fails to live up to expectations with all customisation in the game done automatically. You drive the car into the bay, the theme tune plays, you're told what modifications have been made, and left to drive it away whether you like what's been done or not. Even games such as Juiced and Need for Speed Underground had a higher level of choice and customisation.

There's 50 cars featured in the game but most of them are either SUV's or Midway concept cars. The handling on nearly all of the cars is poor with little responsiveness and control. Winning races is only easy in the first part of the game due to the rubberbanding of the AI which allows players to go completely off course, take several wrong turns and still finish in 1st place.

Graphically the game isn't particularly impressive especially by the standards of 2005 with games like NFS: Most Wanted in direct competition with it. The cars featured don't look too bad until you damage them, at which point there's a sharp decrease in how real the game looks. The music featured on the game is a selection of forgettable rap and the voice acting in cutscene isn't bad so much as cringeworthy.

Overall L.A. Rush is a poor attempt at a racing game, with unresponsive controls, idiotic AI, repetitive races and challenges that you don't even need to win, a customisation feature that is particularly underwhelming and no real selling points to speak of. At best it could be called a poor man's Need For Speed, but even then it's not nearly worthy of that title.

Rating: 46/100
Grade: D