Cruis’n Blast
Year: 2021
Rating: E10+
Time Played: ~10 hours
I’ve appreciated the Cruis’n games for providing a ridiculous and fun arcade experience at home. Sure, these games feel a lot different on home console hardware as compared to a seat with a steering wheel and gas pedal in an arcade. Cruis’n Blast is the first game in the series that legitimately feels like I’m playing at the arcade. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily a good thing. But if you’re looking for an over-the-top racing game, this certainly fits the bill.
Each course in Cruis’n Blast isn’t terribly long, which makes repeating the limited set of levels repetitive as you need to collect three keys in each level to fully unlock every playable vehicle. Even once these vehicles are unlocked, you need to win races with them to gain consistent experience points that unlock other aesthetic upgrades like neon lights, souped-up engines, and other accoutrements. My qualm with the key collecting is how some keys felt like they were blocked by invisible barriers that took far too many re-tries to finally grab with a well-timed jump or trick.
The variety of vehicles in Cruis’n Blast is one of the most ridiculous sets of “cars” I’ve seen in this franchise. While it has lots of well-known cars, it also has weird ones like double-decker buses and semi-trucks (similar to past entries) as well as unicorns, UFOs, and dinosaurs. And while it was fun to play as all these different vehicles, the one thing missing was the more grounded nature of previous Cruis’n entries. Whether it was a race across the U.S. or the World, the sequence of races made logical sense. Not so here. Still, it’s a loud and flashy game that almost plays itself in multiplayer mode.
An over-the-top racing game that brings the arcade experience home, I give Cruis’n Blast 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
