Cruis'n Exotica

Cruis'n Exotica on N64 — this was the last in the series that Midway bothered to make known. It was no longer that temperamental fun from nineties arcade cabinets, more like something someone made just to make it. The setting shifted from roads to beaches and exotic locations, which sounded good on paper, but in reality had less charm.

It's an arcade racing game where you drive turbocharged cars across various tracks around the world. The goal is straightforward — finish the race first, collect bonuses, smash through things and do what arcade games do. The N64 version promised solid graphics with flashy effects and sound from a SoundBlaster something like Sound Canvas. Reality was similar, but duller.

Controlling the driver is surprisingly easy — I got into the rhythm quickly, there were plenty of cars and the track design was reasonable. But that's actually all there was. The game runs, cars jump over obstacles, you can drive off-track — but the fun gradually slips away once you realize the controls lack character, the track changes repeat themselves and the atmosphere feels like someone drained it through an hourglass. The car sounds were pretty solid for the time, but the music stayed in my memory as quiet noise.

Cruis'n Exotica came at a time when arcade racing already felt old-fashioned — it would have needed more personality, more challenge, something to pull you back. Instead you get mediocrity that's playable but without the spark of why you'd care about it. The series ended the right way, oddly not even frozen, more shamefully forgotten.

These days I'll play it maybe out of nostalgia and the need to try everything in a given series, or when I'm craving plain, unpretentious fun. It runs flawlessly on an emulator, graphics improved in memory, sound less so. It's not a bad game — it's a game that was born too late and without a message.