Cruis’n USA

Cruis'n USA is an arcade racing game originally released in 1994. It was developed by Midway Games and published and distributed by Nintendo. It is the first game in the Cruis'n series and features locations around the United States. Along with Killer Instinct, it was planned as a launch title for the Nintendo 64. Neither game made it out for Nintendo 64's launch, however.

Like in most racing games, players race down one-way courses consisting of streets vaguely based on real-life locations. While racing, they do their best to avoid various road hazards such as oncoming traffic and construction. Players chose between seven different cars to race with. The car can simulate either an automatic or manual transmission. Automatic increases the speed of gear shifts, while players using the manual transmission must switch during races. The environments of the tracks range from Golden Gate Park to Washington DC. Players must reach first place to move on to the next track. Unlike most racing games, there is the option to change the music by pressing the music button. Whenever a race is completed, the player unlocks either a new vehicle or a new color, depending on the difficulty completed. Each new color represents a performance upgraded, as indicated in the specifications when selecting a vehicle. Players have the option to select the color of the car that they choose to play, with each color being a higher or lower spec.

The four vehicles featured in the game are generic vehicles based on their real life counter parts which consists of a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette labeled as a 1963 Muscle Car, a 1991 Ferrari 512 TR labeled as the Italia P69, a 1940 Ford V-8 De Luxe labeled as 'La Bomba', and a Hyundai HCD-II Epoch labeled as 'Devastator IV'. Bonus cars consist of a 1991 Chevrolet Caprice police car, a school bus, and a Jeep Wrangler labeled as an All Terrain Vehicle.

The arcade version of Cruis'n USA was critically and commercially successful. In the United States, RePlay reported Cruis'n USA to be the second most-popular deluxe arcade game in November 1994, and Play Meter listed the title to be the second most-popular arcade game in December 1994. It was one of America's top five best-selling arcade video games of 1994, receiving a Diamond Award from the American Amusement Machine Association (AMAA). It went on to be America's highest-grossing dedicated arcade cabinet of 1995.

The Nintendo 64 version met with mostly negative reviews, and earned a GameRankings score of 50.63% based on 16 reviews. Reviews widely criticized the jerky frame rate, poor collision detection, and music, which they said to be both stylistically inappropriate and poorly composed. Despite the negative reviews, the Nintendo 64 version of Cruis'n USA saw strong sales, thanks largely to a combination of the console's popularity and the small library of games available for it at the time. It was the sixth best-selling video game of the 1996 Christmas shopping season according to TRST data, with three of the five higher-selling games also being Nintendo 64 games. By the end of 1997 it had sold over a million copies. In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the arcade version 63rd on its 'Top 100 Video Games.'