Cruis'n

Cruis'n - (Wii)
Developer: JGI
Format: Wii
Genre: Racer

Fast and infuriating

A wolf in sheep's clothing means that this is Midway's Fast and Furious film game with just a rehashed title. Everything form that old arcader is here - the quick fix of ridiculously fast (350mph anyone) track racing combined with a dash of stunt driving through 12 different cars and 12 tracks, is all you're gonna get.

For a short burst, for the first fire up, it works. There's the Nissan Skyline you can redline around the tracks flipping the front end to lunch you up and over slower cars to acquire that pole position and fill your purse. But then, after you've upgraded (only once mind) before each race you'll quickly discover the dip in longevity of gameplay. The problem is that there are just too many other titles that have done it better. Admittedly they're on other consoles but that only suffices to underline the frustration with this Wii offering.

Controls work fine - the tilt function on the remote makes for responsive steering but it's the graphics that grate. Simply, they're not good enough with polygon jarring a real problem and no improvement from the GameCube effort. You might be giving it a little bit of the benefit of the doubt by now but then you'll encounter awkward load times and the attention will definitely start to wane.

The last lifeboat is the split screen two-player option and the circuit mode (where you get to let rip round the track for kudos) but that dwindles very quickly. This is a real shame - Midway had their hands on the bones of a great arcade racer, it's just that they seem to have not bothered doing anything with it.

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