San Francisco Rush
Nintendo 64
A Review by Cam3ron36
San Francisco Rush was a great arcade hit ported to the N64 with little recognition.
The story:
Like my Cruisn' USA review, San Francisco rush was ported from the arcade with bonus features to make the game great. It was one of Midway's better series before they became well known.
San Francisco Rush, often referred to as Rush or Rush 1, is the first of 3 Rush games, yes 3, Rush 2 was never ported to the arcades and was only released on the N64. But that's a story for a different review.
Rush 1 was an extreme racer that didn't exactly mean racing as much as it meant 'survival'. That's right, you could explode in this game fairly easy. For some, this was a drag, but for lovers of this extreme racing genre like me, it was awesome. There were changeable options that allowed you to change it to whoever blows up doesn't recover and loses, much like that of the more popular "Destruction Derby." The game also had other options like reverse courses and/or mirror mode, lap amount, bot difficulty, timed, or checkpoints.
The game satisfied those that played it, and most probably remember the most recognized "level 6" which was chaotic on backwards featuring going backwards altered the way the bots traveled. By that I mean you ended up going the same directions in this but different ways if that makes sense. The track was shaped like this...
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So, Either way you looped around the same directions but on those split up parts, you'd end up going a separate direction, well you had the option but depending on backward mode or regular mode the bots would go a separate direction.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rm7miZB6Y4"]YouTube - San Francisco Rush - Track 6[/ame]
As seen above there is also a fare share of shortcuts and secrets, but in a nutshell that is level 6^^^.
The game, as said above, has shortcuts and secrets, and plenty of them. One secret that most don't know about is the keys you see lying around. You're probably wondering what the keys do in this. Well keys unlock you new cars, and if you look in a certain stats screen, you'll see a long row of keys on each level at the top. These indicate what keys you've found by showing highlighted keys for ones you've found and shaded ones for what's left.
Levels usually consist of 6 or 8 keys, you get a taxi for a specific level if you find half the keys for that level, if you find them all, then you get a formula one racer. Keep in mind this only counts for the level you find them on.
How do you find these keys? You search yourself usually through certain shortcuts or sometimes in the air where you have to jump off something to get them, practice mode is the best mode to do this in.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egYJ4nzsw4M"]YouTube - San Francisco Rush Track 1 Key guide[/ame]
As you can see this game had a lot of features to make it great, it also had an unlockable level called track 7 often known as "Alcatraz" or "the rock" from the arcade version, "Rush Rock Alcatraz Edition." This level also made it's appearance in Rush II on the N64.
The game was not wildly popular but you notice a lot of games like this I've reviewed.
I happen to own this, just recently in fact. I use to rent it and play it all the time as a kid with my brother, this and Rush II. When video stores stopped having N64 games for rent in 2002 or so I went out and bought Rush II from the store. I never bought Rush I until this year at the pawn shop.
Now to talk about other qualities.
Graphics:
The graphics as seen in the above pictures and videos are good but they're nothing too special. It was still great for it's time if you hadn't seen games like Wave Race or Cruisn' USA.
Sound:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BdhZDHx84U"]YouTube - San Francisco Rush - STL[/ame]
My favorite song in the game above, as you can see the sound is no actual music made by an artist, but that was how it was back then, it goes well with the game.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h71zh007x5Y&feature=related"]YouTube - San Francisco Rush - Desert Walk[/ame]
Another good song but those are about the only two really good ones and like I said, it works well with the mood.
Overall the music is good and the sound effects are also great.
Replay value:
This game was made by Atari & Midway, that may sound like a bad combo, but it's really not, it is a game you can play over and over again with all the changeable options and unlockables, this game won't fail to disappoint.
Overall, this is definitely one worth trying if you see it for under 40 bucks, PICK IT UP! I got mine for 20. It is definitely a great game for it's time and now.
Good job Atari & Midway!
Thanks for reading, I will be reviewing Rush II next and possibly Rush 2049 next, enjoy and please feel free to comment.
Cam.
---------- Post added at 02:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:59 PM ----------
ugh, my self made picture of the trck messed up, it was like you see in the vid anyways.
Linear Mode
