This morning we were greeted by a brand new trailer for Raw Thrills and Nintendo’s upcoming Cruis’n Blast arcade game. Let’s get to that then analyze!
Cruis’n Blast Trailer
I recommend watching it in 1080p60 if your computer can handle it 😉
In an overall feeling of the trailer, this formula for gameplay being used is still Cruis’n – it’s more like driving through a theme park or an action movie than attempting to simulate reality. This same formula was used in The Fast And The Furious, Fast And Furious Tokyo Drift and FnF: Super Cars (all designed by Raw Thrills).
To compare, here is the attract mode for the original FnF arcade game:
One change from the FnF titles is the addition of animated people in the cars – something introduced in Cruis’n Exotica.
The Cruis’n song that plays throughout the trailer is also a break for Raw Thrills, who generally have shunned music with vocals in their games (Guitar Hero excepted although the songs weren’t produced by RT of course).
Graphically speaking, this is well above any of the FnF games. It still maintains the bright and bold color scheme but the textures are higher resolution, the 3D geometry in the environments and cars is far higher, there are numerous light sources (including off the cars themselves handled in real time; look at 36s on the trailer), higher detail particle effects it runs at 1080p@60FPS and the lighting engine is completely new. Something about the look reminds me of the Jurassic Park Arcade engine.
With the large number of tracks that the FnF games had (it got up to 27 with Super Cars), having 5 is a change but perhaps that will expand with an expansion or sequel.
As for those tricks, there isn’t anything new that we haven’t seen in the FnF games although the car customization and the boost are new to Cruis’n.
What do you you think after seeing this trailer?
Well, I’m actually kind of bummed after watching this. Five tracks makes it seem like it’s going to be a Dead Heat clone, which had extremely minimal menu options and no rankings whatsoever. Heck, even the original FnF had more tracks, and 2 additional ones that were behind a hidden menu!
The song…not feeling it at all. Sounds like someone found a generic upbeat cut off of a music library and threw the “Cruis’n” in later. FnF didn’t have memorable music by any means, but come on, this is the one series that you don’t cheap out on when it comes to this.
Hopefully we can see some actual gameplay/menu navigation. I really want this to be a return to form for the series, but so far it’s not looking like this is much more than a rainbow LED-plastered cash-in.
I agree with the comments. I’ve found looking at the video to be just another generic racing game which is basically the fast and the furious but just using a different name. I didn’t think the framerate and the graphics were that impressive and I was watching this on my MacBook too and as for the music, very cheesy. Guess it could change later when the final release comes when I play it for myself but other than that it’s nothing that hasn’t already been done basically.
I’d certainly love to see Cruis’n have a software update or two later on. Five tracks are way too less for a game like this, Raw Thrills should’ve redesigned some of the older tracks and added them in. Also, I don’t really like the music for this. I would be surprised if the people who composed the music for the older Cruis’n games worked for the theme song.
Bit disappointed. It feels cheap. Colors are ugly, few tracks, gimmicks… Reminds me more from FNF games than Cruis’n.
It may be fun however, can only talk from a trailer and not the real thing. Cars selection looks fun.
Or I’m too old, still hoping to see a sequel with a 90’s Midway vibes, graphics that makes us travel and mindless fun.
Was really looking forward to the music, now feeling disappointed. Hoping the final theme in-game is different because right now it sounds very generic.