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Review: San Francisco Rush 2049 (ARC/N64/DC), The Greatest Racing Game Ever
- Thread starter A Black Falcon
- Start date
ThirstiestGamer 2.0
Member
Rush 2049 is an all-time favorite of mine as well. For its time, it was a great game.
thepenguin55
Member
So have you played the GCN version of MAT3? I ask because the GCN versions of those collections were generally better because they were all released later and they would do a little extra work to them squishing many/most bugs they didn't catch with the initial releases. The GCN versions of all three MAT collections were all less buggy than their PS2/Xbox/PC counterparts. They still had their fair share of problems but no where near as many as the other versions. I just wanted to point this out because I think that's a fact that's kind of forgotten now. Having said that, it's been forever since I've played any version of Rush 2049, so the GCN MAT3 version may still have some issues that I'm forgetting now...
alf717
Member
Earlier this summer I ended up with a Dreamcast copy. Got rid of my original many years ago. Glad I got it back and had a blast playing it again. Still have a few gold and silver medals to find in some of the tracks. It is fun seeing one sitting in mid air while you drive by thinking "How in the world do I get that one". The gold coins in Haight where you gotta squeeze through the gap on two wheels were fun to get.
Herp Derpington
Member
So many great moments playing the DC demo disc version with stunt mode. I enjoyed stunt mode more than the race mode. Such a great game. This and Hydro Thunder are two of my favorite DC games. Good times.
Ah OK. I must be having N64 memories of that one. At least I'm not completely crazy!
I discovered this thing completely by accident without the help of a guide and it was one of the coolest feelings.
GuitarAtomik
Member
This is one of my favorite games of all time. Played the crap out of it.
A Black Falcon
Member
I didn't mention it in the review, but Rush 2049 actually also has a secret stunt room, in Track 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUQVAJG6zuU
I didn't have any of 6th-gen TV consoles other than the Gamecube until 2007, and I did get MAT3 new, so yes, the GC version is the one I have, and describe in the review. I think that the problems I mention also apply to the other version, but the GC one's the only one I have played myself. MAT3 is a collection that has deeply disappointed me ever since its release, since the games in the pack are so amazing, but the porting job is so bad, between the terrible load times (worst of all in Off-Road Thunder), non-reconfigurable controls that are not where I would want them on a GC controller, framerate problems in some games such as Rush 2049, that the arcade version of Rush 2049 is not included (yes, I like the console version more, but it'd have been awesome to see the arcade version there too, it is different!), other small downgrades in ports of games like SF Rush, etc... but on the other hand, STUN Runner and Super Off-Road are very good in MAT3, so it is at least worth getting for the best home version of Super Off-Road, a game which is another one of my favorite arcade racing games ever (along with SF Rush the Rock, which of course is in MAT3 as well). But no home version of Super Off-Road controls like the arcade machine with its free-spinning wheels, so it's not quite the same...
Not counting the Dreamcast port of Rush 2049 XGRA is my favorite racing game of the 6th generation, so yeah, I love the Extreme-G games too, the second (XG2) and fourth (XGRA) ones particularly.
I put about 50 hours in the stunt mode with my cousins as a kid. Just dicking around and playing our own version of "cops n robbers."
The only thing better than 2049 stunt was this gem:
Probably spent 100 hours in elementary school just goofing around with this.
fuck!!! i miss this. i used to play split screen with my cousin for HOURS. and see who does the best tricks. man memories
Great, comprehensive overview. I really liked this game too. I favored the N64 version because the Dreamcast version didn't run right on my modded Asian machine, which sucked because almost everything else worked fine. The Stunt mode was sublime.
I agree that it deserves a revisit, preferably with modern hardware and graphics. There are a few modern heirs to this style of game,
Nitronic Rush
Asphalt 8
Riptide (a new game just came out in this series)
...but another SF Rush would be terrific.
I agree that it deserves a revisit, preferably with modern hardware and graphics. There are a few modern heirs to this style of game,
Nitronic Rush
Asphalt 8
Riptide (a new game just came out in this series)
...but another SF Rush would be terrific.
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Too bad I haven't read your review before buying the game (a few months ago, but didn't get around to playing it yet). It was recommended to me as a great arcade- and in particular F-Zero fan, but your segment about the controls puts me so much off it that I will have a hard time motivating myself to ever play it. The fact that you have to use breaks or not accelerate like crazy at any time is supremely troublesome to me and that it cannot even be circumvented by sliding is a deal breaker to me. It is clear that you are very passionate about the game and it is a great write up, so I feel a bit bad writing something negative in here, but I also think it's a mark of a good review when even a positive review (negative review) can lead to the conclusion that a game is not for you (is exactly right for you).
brandonh83
Banned
I couldn't even type that much out about Chrono Trigger
A Black Falcon
Member
First, the Rush series does have a unique control scheme, so when you play Rush 2049 (and make it a 'when'!), don't give up right away; it takes some getting used to.
Also, generally, for me, the best kind of racing game is a game where you never have to touch the brakes, and can accelerate all the time. I have little interest in sim or even part-sim racing games. After Rush 2049, probably my next favorite racing game ever is F-Zero X, for example. So yeah, I strongly prefer to be able to hold the accelerator down all the time in a racing game... and you do that most of the time in this game, excepting landings of course.
But, I don't understand, first you say that you don't ever want to have to let go of the accelerator or brake, then you say that you want to get around turns by sliding... but in most racing games, including F-Zero games, the best way to slide is to let go of the accelerator. That's how you powerslide in racing games, after all. You don't really powerslide in Rush, you skid without slowing down, but slowing down affects your speed and thus the turning radius, of course. It's the same in an F-Zero game. Just like F-Zero you want to be flooring the accelerator most of the time, but at certain sharp turns you need to do something to get around that turn without going off the track -- using your airbrakes or letting go of the accelerator in F-Zero, or using the brakes or reverse or letting go of the accelerator in Rush 2049.
Except, for many turns, you CAN get around those sharp turns in Rush 2049 without braking! You see, this is where those shortcuts come in. Whenever you aren't going at full speed you slow down, after all, a problem shortcuts solve. The game rewards skill by, if you know the shortcuts in a track and can get through them, giving you a more challenging route that you can go full speed through, as opposed to the equivalent section of the main track where you'll probably at least need a let-go-of-the-accelerator turn to get through. Don't like that slightly too twisty track segment? There are often shortcuts that get around it! Now, in track 4 and maybe one other place in the game beyond that there are turns that require slowing down, but most of the time thanks to shortcuts you can avoid those, if you know where the shortcuts are and can get through them without crashing. Learning the shortcuts, and getting through them during races, is incredibly satisfying.
I do mention Nitronic Rush and Distance in the review (and I like those games a lot), but another game I really should have mentioned in the review is Rocket League. It's not a racing game but a sports game with cars, but the controls and aerial component of the game have some strong similarities to Rush 2049. And it's an amazing game too, of course...
alf717
Member
Dang I wish I wouldn't have watched that vid.
User 479360
Banned
I never played it, but always saw it on the shelf at Blockbuster. I likely considered renting it a few times, and wish I had.
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
I will probably still do it, since I have payed for it. I apreciate your detailed explanation, since I haven't played it yet I cannot say much about that yet. However, there is one point I wanted to answer to:
That's actually not true. In F-Zero X, there are two ways of going around a corner without letting go of the accelerator that are much better than doing that.
1. If you are playing with max speed setting, you attack in the direction you want to go and press the analogstick in that direction fully, this way, you can turn without the ship breaking out.
2. If you are playing with acceleration setting, you press the opposite shoulder button, so R while going left or Z while going right to force your ship to break out like crazy, yet accelerating like crazy at the same time. Particularly strong when combined with a boost right before you go out of the slide.
I have recently beaten all ghosts in F-Zero X and there was only one track where I briefly let the accelerator go and this was not to make a turn, in fact it was on a staight path where I would have otherwise flewn off the track for going too fast. The same holds for F-Zero GX by the way, never let go off the accelerator.