Cruis'n | |
---|---|
Genres | Racing |
Developers | Midway Games, Eurocom, Gratuitous Games, Crawfish Interactive, Graphic State, Just Games Interactive, Raw Thrills |
Publishers | Midway Games, Nintendo |
Creators | Eugene Jarvis (director, arcade versions) |
Platforms | Arcade, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Wii |
Platform of origin | Arcade |
Year of inception | 1994 |
First release |
Cruis'n USA November 1994 |
Latest release |
Cruis'n Blast January 2017 |
Spin-offs | The Fast and the Furious |
Cruis'n is a series of racing video games originally developed by Eugene Jarvis for American-based company Midway Games and published by Nintendo. The series distinguishes itself from other racing games with its over-the-top presentation and fast-paced gameplay, featuring a wide variety of vehicles and tracks based on a variety of real world locations. The series debuted in North American and European arcades in 1994 with the release of Cruis'n USA, which, along with Killer Instinct, was advertised as running on Nintendo's Ultra 64 hardware. Two sequels followed, Cruis'n World and Cruis'n Exotica, which featured new vehicles and tracks. All three games were released for the Nintendo 64 as well, with Exotica also being released for the handheld Game Boy Color. The next game in the series, Cruis'n Velocity deviated from the traditional arcade gameplay of the series and was released exclusively for the Game Boy Advance.
After Midway exited the arcade business, Jarvis and his new company Raw Thrills released the arcade game The Fast and the Furious, which was based on film of the same name and shared gameplay elements with the Cruis'n games. The game was ported to the Wii with all aspects of the film license replaced and released simply as Cruis'n. Raw Thrills officially licensed the Cruis'n name from Nintendo for a new arcade machine, Cruis'n Blast, released in 2017.