''Cruis'n'' is a

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic ra ...

developed by Just Games Interactive and published by Midway Games for Wii. It is the fifth game in the eponymous series. The game was released on November 27, 2007, in North America, and was later released in

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...

on February 14, 2008, and in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

on March 27.

Gameplay

It has similar

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pl ...

to past titles in the '' Cruis'n'' series; players race down one-way courses consisting of streets (based on real-life locations) while avoiding various road hazards such as oncoming traffic and constructions. Players can gain a limited temporary boost in speed by using

nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or nos, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula . At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, and has ...

, otherwise known as ''N₂O'' or simply ''Nitrous''. ''Cruis'n'', like its arcade counterparts, allows players to customize and upgrade their cars' features, such as spoilers, decals,

neon light Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode a ...

s, ground effects, and

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

s, which they must purchase with money earned from races. ''Cruis'n'' contains twelve courses which can be raced on four different difficulty levels.

Development

In 2006, Midway announced plans to port the arcade game ''

The Fast and the Furious ''Fast & Furious'' (also known as ''The Fast and the Furious'') is a media franchise centered on a series of action films that are largely concerned with street racing, heists, spies, and family. The franchise also includes short films, ...

'' originally published by

Raw Thrills Raw Thrills, Inc. is an arcade game entertainment company based in Skokie, Illinois. It is best known for developing arcade games based on films. History Raw Thrills was founded in 2001 by Eugene Jarvis, Deepak Deo, and Andrew Eloff. The staff ...

to home consoles. The game's lead developer was

Eugene Jarvis Eugene Peyton Jarvis is an American game designer and video game programmer, known for producing pinball machines for Atari and video games for Williams Electronics. Most notable among his works are the seminal arcade video games '' Defender'' ...

, who had overseen the development of the original ''Cruis'n'' arcade games while at Midway. Developers Just Games Interactive were hired to port the game for Wii. After being refused the ''F&F'' license (as the home console rights were already held by an unrelated game published by

Namco Bandai is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

) Midway decided to brand the game as part of the ''Cruis'n'' series, which they held the rights to.

Reception

''Cruis'n'' fared poorly in reception. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

s, the game had a positive score of 22.50% on GameRankings, and only 25 out of 100 positive reviews on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

References

External links

* {{Cruis'n 2007 video games Cruis'n Racing video games Street racing video games Midway video games Video games developed in the United States Wii games Wii-only games Multiplayer and single-player video games Kung Fu Factory games